Friday, January 29, 2010
Forget Chivalry; Honor is Dead
In the past, when I first started teaching, I noticed that students seemed to lack honor and good moral character. I caught them cheating, plagiarizing, forging, and lying left and right. It made me sick. When I'd complain, people asked me, "Do you have an honor code in place?" I'd answer, "No. But it wouldn't matter. They'd just sign it and cheat anyway."
Then, 2 summers ago, I was taking a summer course at Gratz (well, THROUGH Gratz--it was actually AT the Courtyard Marriott), and it struck me: maybe I'm selling them short. Maybe, if I took the time to share with them how important honor and integrity is (in life in general, and to me as an individual), they would care. Maybe they just don't realize their problems. Maybe we just assume that these are things they know, but perhaps they actually need to be taught. Maybe we are taking too much for granted.
So I designed an entire block's worth of activities all leading up to a pledge ceremony, where students copy and sign our class' honor pledge. I figured that if I spent 90 minutes on this topic up front on the second day of class, that they'd realize how important it is. We talk about honor and what it means. We talk about why we sign our names to documents and how on a contract, the signature is legally binding. We discuss reputations, how easy it is to go from a good to bad reputation (and how difficult to go from bad to good), and how much nobody wants a bad reputation. We talk about trust and the value of a good name. I show them a clip of John Proctor's (Daniel Day Lewis) classic, heart-wrenching scene in The Crucible when he proclaims, "Because it is my name. Because I cannot have another in this life. Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust of those who have hanged. I've given you my soul; leave me my name!" I show them an excerpt from John Gay's "Fables: The Fox on the Point of Death" which ends with, "The change will never be believed / A lost good name is ne'er retrieved!" We discuss the significance of the word honor in all its forms: "Your honor," "To love, honor, and cherish," "Maid of honor," "Honor roll," "Honorable mention," "Honor thy father and mother," and on and on and on. We talk about the various forms of being honorable (and dishonorable). It's a full day on what it is and why it's important and should be valued. Then, at the end, everyone copies the honor pledge in his own writing and signs it, has a person witness him sign it and then signs off as the witness, then brings it up for me to sign as the authorizing signature THEN signs a class page which hangs on the board under the posted Honor Pledge wall.
It's serious business.
This semester, on the first day of class--when I talk about how important I think honor is and how they shouldn't cheat and how disgusting and insulting it is to me personally and how I expect them to tell me if they see someone else cheating--my 3rd block class was awash with guffaws, grunts, and snickers. In those incredulous bursts of breath, they told me a lot (and not good things!) Earlier that day, in 1st block, a student forged his dad's signature on the syllabus signature page I'd just given them and asked them to have signed that evening. (Not 10 minutes after I told them how important it is to have honor, the kid forges a signature!) Then, on "Honor Day" a student in block 3 raised his hand and asked, "What made you feel this way about this stuff? I mean, did something, like, happen to you to make you so serious about this stuff?"
Happen to me?
This STUFF?
This is not the right attitude. It is exactly this attitude which creates the issues that I'm trying to keep from happening. Honor isn't stuff to me. Honor is a driving force. Honesty, integrity, and one's good name aren't things that happen to you, but things that one earns and should value and aspire to and wish to keep. I cannot fathom not thinking this way. (I weep for the future. I really do.)
As it were, just when my inner hope for these kids was about to peter out, a student came up to me before lunch and said, "I just want you to know that I agree with everything you said; it is important. I listen to Glen Beck [we'll excuse this transgression since what he said after it was decent and true, which just goes to show that any idiot can have an occasional moment of clarity] and he said that my whole generation seems to have this attitude that everything happens to them. Like, they were given an F, instead of earning it! I used to be stupid like these people, too, but last year I woke up and realized how I was being, and now I'm planning to take Honors and AP next year, and I actually study and do my work." He rambled a bit, but I appreciated hearing that someone seemed to understand what I mean and even respected it enough to pull me aside and tell me.
And he wasn't alone.
This morning, before 1st block, one of my 1st block students came over to me and whispered, "Um, you wanted us to tell you if we know someone is going to cheat, right?" I was taken aback, but quickly recovered and said, "Yes." "Well, that girl in the back in pink made a cheat sheet and gave a copy to the boy next to her." I thanked her and she sat down.
TWO days after my lofty speeches, and a single day after they all signed the pledge and pledge wall (since we were cut short on the first day and it bled into another day!), someone had consciously made a cheat sheet and brought it in and intended to cheat.
I struggled for most of the block over what to do. Do I pull the girl aside and gently mention that if she was planning something she should not do it? Do I make a blanket statement to the class? Do I just hawk over the kids while they quiz so they can't cheat? Do I sit at my desk and surreptitiously watch them and catch them in the act? I ran through several ideas in my mind. I consulted with trusted friends and loved ones (thank goodness for phone and email and tasks that occupy students that allow one the time to consult without them knowing!) and finally decided to both make a blanket statement and to hawk the class and not give them a chance to do it.
After showing them how to set up their answer sheets, I said to the class, "And I would remind you of our honor day activities and the honor pledge. We didn't just do that for fun. Remember what we talked about. And if you were planning on doing anything untoward--[and I looked RIGHT at the girl in the pink and the kids around her]-- DON'T. [She averted her eyes immediately!] Because I WILL give you a zero, and I WILL call your parents, and I WILL talk to your other teachers about you. And I won't trust you anymore. And it's awfully early in the semester to lose my trust. So, even if you may have been tempted because you perhaps didn't prepare enough or are worried because it's the first quiz, DON'T cheat." While quizzing, I stood behind the pink-shirted gal and her area for a good 4 minutes, then moved around the room. I was breathing down people's necks. I've never had a group take so long to answer questions before, looking nervously over their shoulders and meeting my gaze too many times to count; yes, I was still looking. But I feel safe in saying that nobody cheated.
The scores were low and when 3rd block came in, they were saying, "I heard the quiz was impossible!" I guess it's impossible if you don't prepare and can't end up cheating because your teacher is on top of you the whole time saving you from yourself. (The honors class--who I also hawked, just in case; being in honors doesn't always preclude dishonor--did very well on their quiz, and theirs is MUCH harder than the other one.) 3rd block did similarly poorly, as I was on top of them, too. My colleague overheard stage whispers to the effect of "Not that I would cheat, as cheating is very bad and is not honorable!" in the mock-tones of false sincerity.
Then, just when I thought I couldn't feel less disappointed in them, I noticed the book that someone had left in either 1st and 2nd block--one I'd specifically looked in the binding to check whose it was, and, in so doing, had to move aside the garish, tie-dyed book sock to see the name--was now missing said book sock. SOMEONE STOLE THE BOOK SOCK OFF OF THE BOOK!
What is wrong with these kids?
It's been a semester, so events blend together and this is something like my 50th blog, so excuse me if I related the following story in a past posting (I'm sure I must have because it appalled me then and still does!) Last semester, someone in my infamous 4th block had lost his binder. He was quite upset about it. I said, "Calm down. It's sure to be in one of your other classes. Just look in each one and I'm sure it'll turn up." He said, "No, it won't! The papers are already probably gone." I said, "Why would they be gone?" He replied, "Because people see a binder and throw out the papers and take the binder. It's like, 'ooh! free binder!'" I was appalled. I couldn't believe someone would do that. He said, "What? Everyone does it. It saves you a trip to Staples or whatever. Like, what? Are you just going to leave a free binder sitting there? It's like if you see a wallet on the ground! Nobody leaves it there. You take it!" He was just making it worse and worse. But worse still is how all of his classmates were nodding in agreement and couldn't believe that I was surprised and appalled!
While nobody ended up cheating today (or, at least, I don't think they did; I was watching VERY closely and making people uncomfortable, I think), I shouldn't have to do what I did to keep them from cheating. First off, they shouldn't even want to cheat. It shouldn't even be on their radar as an option. But moreso, part of the idea behind the honor pledge is that by being part of it, I can trust them and they can trust me (to trust them?) Typically, I like to sit at my desk while they take their quizzes. I like the feeling to be, "Hey, you said you weren't cheating and you didn't! Bravo!" I feel like it belies my words if I have to walk up and down aisles and stare at them and scare them so they can't manage to cheat. Shouldn't I be giving them a chance to do the right thing on their own? But on the flip side, if they are lying to me and not earning my trust, why should I sit at my desk like a fool and trust them blindly? It's so frustrating. The events of this week also concern me because I now anticipate issues with plagiarism, too. If they are this blase about cheating on quizzes, they'll do it on papers, too. And those count for more and are (sometimes) harder to prove.
Although I get glimmers of hope every now and again and feel like, yes, what I do on honor day does get through to some students and does mean something (even if it's just to myself so I can say that they definitely know what honor and integrity are and they actively chose not to respect those traits), I also feel like my former suspicion that students would just sign a pledge and lie anyway was right.
Now, the next time someone asks me if something, like, happened to me to make me feel this way, my answer will have changed. I can cite my vast experience with dishonor.
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