Just like the new Paraguayan government is trying to bring corruption to an end, ASA is also trying to bring cheating to an end. The new government has taken many steps to bring corruption to a halt by ending the jobs of many corrupt government employees. The ending of corruption in Paraguay shouldn’t start in the government. It should start with the children in school. Believe it or not, cheating at school and cheating in general is a form of corruption.

ASA has taken several steps to reduce cheating. One of its steps includes the use of www.turnitin.com. It is a very clever way to catch plagiarism, which is a form of cheating and therefore corruption. Turn-It-In is an online plagiarism search tool that a particular school subscribes to. It searches an enormous number of documents that have been published (not only internet based documents) and searches the turned in document, line for line and word for word for plagiarized statements. Obviously, the final decision on considering a line as plagiarized lies in the hands of the teacher. (I, personally, have yet to see a teacher at ASA use www.turnitin.com although I do understand that Mr. Anhut and Mrs. Kiernan have introduced it to their classes.)

     Also, the school has reworked the honor-code, which before meant between nothing to very little to students. It was just a statement written by students automatically on every quiz and test. It was sort of a contract that a teacher could have used against a student if they caught someone cheating. Many students that have had an honor code violation and have been caught denied their actions by simply trying to “bend the truth” in order to escape a certain consequence. The new honor code believes in student honesty and trust, and is not a written contract. “The purpose of the school’s Honor Code is to promote personal and academic honesty.” (ASA Handbook, 2004)

Hopefully the new honor code rules are more enforced but more importantly, hopefully the students become more honest.

 

The new honor code states:

I will be honest in all things I do.

I will expect all others to be honest with me

My work is my own work.

My word is completely truthful and I will willingly share it.

 

The number of ASA students that cheat is unfortunately very high. Sometimes, the students that cheat aren’t even aware of their actions. Often, one student shares their work for somebody else to copy. Even though one student is doing the copying, both should get into trouble if they are caught.

While attending ASA, I have seen many students cheat. It is a sad sight to see a teacher handing out two or more versions of the same test to try to prevent cheating, yet some students cheat anyway. It is also sad to know that the teachers have to be like the police when looking out for cheaters. It is even sadder to see students who cheated on a certain test  happy for a good grade.

The cheaters use very easily spotted techniques, yet many cheaters have yet to be caught. Why is this? Most of this is due to teacher naivete but part of it is due to the school’s decisions in general. The teachers should trust the students and vice versa, but because many cheat, the trust between students and teachers is not there. The teacher has to be more aware that students can hide anything, anywhere. They have to be aware that cell phones are such a great way to ask for answers, especially when they are put in silent mode. Pencil cases are large enough to hold entire sheets of notes and cell phones. Teachers have to think like a student who wants to cheat, to find a person cheating. (Not all teachers were little angels when they were students at school so I am sure that they know some techniques used to cheat from when they were in school.) The school furniture is probably the last place a teacher would look to find evidence that a student is cheating. The slots in the chairs and the open spaces under the desks can hold very valuable information and materials for a student. A great part of cracking down on cheating is having more informed and aware teachers and also stronger enforcement of the new anti-cheating rules.

It is amazing to see how the future of Paraguay gets a head start on being corrupt at such an early age while attending school. I am positive that cheating also takes place at other Paraguayan schools and not just at ASA. The students at ASA are the future of Paraguay; probably more so than any other school in Paraguay considering ASA students’ social status and the level of education that they receive. So why be lazy and cheat when you can do your own work without the risk of getting caught for cheating?

YACARE/editorial

20