Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Cheating

All is quiet on the home front, as least when it comes to rockets and warfare.  I guess that means its time to turn my attention to other aspects of living in Israel.

On an Israeli mom board I read, one mother posted about another student pressuring her son into letting him copy his work.  The mother wanted to contact the teacher to complain, especially when the mom of the cheater also started pressuring the innocent boy to help her son cheat.  I was shocked...  but the other Israeli moms, not so much.

I am a teacher, so I know cheating happens.  I have seen it in Israel and I have seen it in the states.  But I cannot imagine telling a parent to not confront a teacher about cheating, because "You will seem American and the teacher will only laugh at you".  The general consensus from the Israeli moms was "Everyone cheats, if you arent a genius you must cheat to get into good high schools and colleges".

I am still a little shocked by this attitude.  Is this a student to student thing, an Israeli/American divide,  or do most people cheat and I just have too strict of a moral leash?