Survey Time: Editing your child's school work

epiphany
Fri, 12 Jun 2015 18:35:39 +0000

Is the problem (1) the child isn’t learning because the parent is doing the school work, (2) the child is getting an unearned grade, (3) the child has inappropriate outside help for a school assignment?

What is the ethical conundrum?

Fair question, @alh
Primarily, child is getting unearned grade is the first ethical problem, in my view, and particularly because the child seems to have the tools, both natively and through school training. (However, it will simply take longer if the child is made to work and to self-edit. It’s a matter of convenience and advantage.)

Secondarily the child isn’t learning or at least is believing that she “needs” outside help. That is handicapping the child artificially, in my view, and thus hampering the independence and confidence she will soon need in college. (translates to failure in parenting, i.m.h.o.) I can speak to this as a tutor and teacher because so often I see that the student simply doesn’t believe he is capable of writing, and that lack of confidence stems from two realities: (1) insufficient writing assignments in school; (2) a habit of assuming the tutor (or any other outsider) needs to “start” and continually affirm, validate, and edit, even when the student has progressed in skill and understanding. It’s a dependency built from habit.