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bioemerl  ·  2764 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Confessions of an American Pumpkin Eater

    What do you think caused you to dream up the existence of a backpack in this scenario ?

Backpack, binder, same difference "think with other stuff in it that can be used for cheating" are functionally the same thing.

    Could it possibly be your subconscious desire to see the situation differently than...

And you accuse me of leaping to conclusions, damn.

    The binder was sitting on my lab table right in front of me. I could have easily cheated that whole time really.

Okay, but my point is that the teacher is in a situation that they are suspicious of bad behavior, and you went out of your way to act "oddly" to appear as if you didn't intend to do a bad behavior. That sends up red flags, as I mention in my above post.

Also, since when the hell was cheating a thing that was assumed for women to do? Is this a stereotype I've just never heard of? I've always seen cheating as a fairly gender neutral behavior in the way cheaters are portrayed in media, at least.

    The teacher who won't let somebody reach into a binder while looking away to get a calculator for fear of them cheating would not then suggest another student use a phone in a test if they were also worried about that person cheating.

People don't always act logically or rationally, to expect people to act consistently in a rational way is absurd and idealistic. Fucks ups are made, and from your story it was clear that the teacher realized they were being a bit stupid pretty quickly.

I already outlined a possible thought process that could lead to that teacher's behavior, and describes why that teacher treated your behaviors differently. The two of you behaved differently, and that inspired different reactions.

Oh, of course, no, it's sexism! I'm sure that could have been a contributing factor, and I don't doubt that you've experienced some bullshit from people who think "women can't do science", but this instance seems a little bit far fetched/exaggerated in this situation. You have an inch, and appear to be taking a mile.

    People think they are clever and they think they can understand other people easily by subconsciously picking up clues.

No, people literally aren't aware that they are doing those things. This isn't "I have a gut feeling so I acted on it". This is cases like "I just guessed at random" yet they somehow pick right more times than not. This has literally been seen in scientific studies, although I can't cite them at the moment.

    In your own words you would actually refrain from cheating because you get something out of it. You learn.

Okay, let me rephrase that. I always refrain from cheating because I understand that even when I hold the arrogant mindset of "well, I could just learn this another time" or "I already know this" I'm being a silly teenager. The fact people keep telling me not to cheat is probably because they are a decade+ older than me and know a hell of a lot more about how the world works than I do, and their advice is most likely, better than any advice I could give myself.

I agree with you, on the idea that all things are done for self-gain. It's not wrong to do something for self gain, not at all. (for this instance, at least) It's when your self gain comes at long term harm, or when your behaviors when adopted across society would cause long term harm, that something becomes immoral or bad to do. When your behavior only leads to benefit, when it doesn't attempt to destroy systems that were only set up to protect and help us, it is a moral behavior rather than an immoral one, at least by my definition.

Asides, if you knew things so well, then why do you even have to cheat? The only real answer I am aware of is to get grades you don't deserve, to get things you didn't put the work for. And, I think the reason that is wrong speaks for itself.

When I read what you say here I am hearing excuses. "I deserve to cheat because the school system isn't good". "I get to cheat because I was wronged". I'm actually making a post right now that's touching on this topic, the idea that we tend to make excuses for things we do when we know, on some level, that they are immoral (eating meat and taking "good" care of the animals we kill), and I feel like, at least in part, that's what you are doing here.

Also, if we are going to talk sexism:

    Every male science teacher

The implicit bias against women in science is universal in society. Both men and women, I believe, will grade women's papers will lower grades when they are aware of the students biases.

    There were two key findings: First, "Jennifer" received significantly lower ratings than ‘John,’ and second, male and female evaluators were equally likely to give "Jennifer" lower ratings. The ratings pertained to competence, hireability and whether the candidate was deserving of mentoring. The evaluators made lower salary recommendations (by about 12 percent) for "Jennifer" relative to "John."

    Note: Biology professors, for example, whose classes can be >50% female, were just as biased as physicists. Women professors were just as biased as men. Junior professors were just as biased as seniors.

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~srugheimer/Women_in_STEM_Resources.html