<p>My son is taking Arabic 102 at the local community college. The class itself is easy; he got a high A in 101. The problem is that there is a ton of disrespect and cheating going on with other students. He says when the teacher leaves the room, one native speaker in class gets up and goes around and tells all the students the answers and other students always are looking at people’s papers and getting the answers. He also says there are some very disrespectful students in class who will disrupt the class purposely and just walk out while the teacher is talking. It’s been a terrible class but he had to take it to finish his 4 years of foreign language (He’ll take Arabic 250 at a different college next semester).</p>
<p>Last week, they had a test. The cheating was so blatant that my son ended up leaving the test early and not finishing because he was so upset. He just texted me and said he got an 82. This is a straight A kid. I’ve told him he must talk with the teacher and tell her about the cheating. I’ve also asked him to ask her about extra credit.</p>
<p>Is this the right thing to do, parents? I don’t want his college chances jeopardized because of this class.</p>
<p>Yes, he needs to talk to the teacher. Why is the teacher leaving the class? And the teacher should be getting some back up from the administration, as in “if you don’t behave like a responsible adult, you will be dropped from our enrollment” (College is not high school). </p>
<p>This is a real adult defining moment. Talk to S about whether or not he wants to speak to the class himself – he can stand up and say “I’ve seen lots of cheating here and its really giving me a negative image of Arabic speakers. Please don’t think what you are doing is honorable. It’s not. It doesn’t matter whether or not you get caught. It is a dishonorable thing to be doing.” – Note, he is not threatening to report anyone. He is stating his feelings. He may get some ugly backlash ---- or he might see some improvement. Takes real courage but important things usually do.</p>
<p>I agree it’s a defining moment and will take courage. I will continue to encourage him to do the right thing in the face of students who are doing the wrong thing. And you’re right-it has left a bad impression on him but he isn’t a quitter. I just think it’s a shame. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you whether the teacher knows it or not. It’s possible she does indeed know it but is looking the other way for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>I don’t know why she leaves the room during class. I’ll ask my son that question.</p>
<p>It is a shame that he couldn’t have stayed in the class and put aside the distraction for another time. Some people can do that and some people can’t. I’ve seen people get up and leave a meeting when their opinion was not valued for whatever reason. Regardless if he is upset enough to leave an exam early he needs to find the inner fortitude to talk to the teacher about it. The teacher may or may not be receptive to “extra credit” but it is a CC so take heart. CCs tend to walk a fine line between the practices of high school and the practices of colleges and universities. When I taught at a CC I had discretion about such practices that impact grading but others, like taking attendance etc. were cast in stone. Attendance was something I had never experienced in my college and graduate years so it “felt” quintessentially high school. I did always stay in the classroom during exams but some teachers do practice an honor system which makes it even more important for your son to talk to this teacher. Good luck to your son, he will learn alot from this no doubt.</p>
<p>My son definitely has a problem blocking out things that bother him. Call him “adhd-ish” if you will. It is something we’ve worked on for years but it’s not really changed. </p>
<p>The teacher loved my son the first semester he took her so I’m hopeful something can be worked out.</p>
<p>Somewhat related is that the instructor or school did not aggressively force the native speakers out of the class and into a higher level class. Some schools’ language departments do that because they have limited space available (which is likely the case in California community colleges) and want actual beginners to have the opportunity to take the beginning levels of the language courses.</p>
<p>I have to believe the teacher knows this is going on, but doesn’t know how to deal with it, os it is ignored. I agree he should have finished the test. I would encourage him to report the wrongdoings to the teacher and dept head. If they choose to do nothing it is out of his hands, but at least his grade doesn’t suffer.</p>
<p>I was taking an upper level class final in college, class had maybe 25 students. The professor left several minutes after handing out the final. There were students in the class who were talking among themselves and blatantly cheating. I finished my exam, went home and immediately call the Professor. I was on a first name basis with him, having taken several classes and worked with him on research, etc.</p>
<p>He was shocked beyond belief and extremely disappointed that college students would be cheating and that he would have to babysit his student from then on. He asked me who they were and I could only describe them - but he could figure it out from what I said and where I told them they were sitting. Others also called him after they got out of the exam. If I recall correctly i believe they were kicked out of the college.</p>
<p>Is the teacher relatively new to teaching at this college? The teachers at my undergraduate and graduate institutions always left the room when we were doing a test and no one cheated (small programs, strong sense of community). I was inclined to do the same when I became a professor. But when I started teaching, my first classes had over 100 students. The dept. secretary came and helped me administer them. She noticed that although I stayed in the room, I wasn’t watching the students. So she started pointing out to me all the students who were looking at each other’s tests. I was shocked. By the end of the first year, I had become an expert at detecting and stopping all kinds of teaching, thanks to training by our secretary. Your son’s teacher also may be shocked to know what is going on. If not, your son can bump the problem up and speak to the teacher’s department head about his concerns. Teachers who are in an environment where students cheat have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the testing environment.</p>
<p>One option is to tell the teacher that it appears that cheating is going on when she leaves the room, but without identifying any specific people. If she keeps on leaving the room, then forget it.</p>
<p>He should discuss it with the teacher. The teacher may be clueless and incompetent in which case the situation may not improve but that’s no reason not to raise it to the teacher and give the teach a chance to do it right. When he explains it he should see if there’s a possibility, due to the class disruption (he needs to present it right), to either retake the test or do some other extra credit thing to boost his grade.</p>
<p>I agree that he should have finished the test. It doesn’t make sense to not finish it despite what was going on in the class. He should make sure he has himself covered and worry about himself more than what’s happening with the others.</p>
<p>It’s too bad he has to deal with this - he shouldn’t have to but unfortunately there are some clueless and incompetent teachers out there. Hopefully he’ll be able to put this behind him soon.</p>
<p>I don’t know if my daughter has seen cheating in college, but in high school, there was a lot of it.
In her AP US History, the day before a big test, someone photographed on her phone, all of the power point review pages and sent them to almost everyone in the class. My daughter left a note for the teacher, anonymously, letting him know that there was going to be widespread cheating on the upcoming test, in both of his classes. The teacher did nothing, the kids pulled out their phones and cheated. The teacher didn’t notice or didn’t care.</p>
<p>He texted me at the break and said he told the teacher. She also told him he could make corrections to his test; I guess he did finish it but just did a sloppy fast job because he came home early from class that night. I’ll get more details over the weekend as he’s leaving right after class to go do another college visit out of town.</p>
<p>The teacher isn’t good-very disorganized and obviously missing a lot and is not able to control the class-but she is nice and I’m glad she’s willing to work with my son.</p>
<p>Actually, he just called me as class got out and said the teacher thanked him as she had suspicions but didn’t know for sure. Whew! Always a challenge for me to watch my kid grow up but I’m proud of him.</p>
<p>My daughter faced a similar situation at college and she decided to tell the teacher. The teacher thanked her but we do not know what action that teacher took as a result. More important is that my daughter decided to take a stand for what is right (and cheating is definitely not right).</p>
<p>When my daughter went out to her car later the next day after class, it was completely graffitied with some very nasty words. We strongly think that it was done by the girl my daughter saw cheating, but we’ll never know for certain, but the evidence did point that way. So, my daughter did experience a negative consequence to telling but in retrospect, she would do it again. It was still the right thing to do.</p>
<p>I’m glad your d did the right thing. I confess I worry a little about any consequences. I will hope and pray for the best and for the safety of my son.</p>