An extraordinarily disheartening article for teachers (mostly college, but I bet high school too)

[tzikeh]

The Shadow Scholar: The man who writes your students' papers tells his story

You've never heard of me, but there's a good chance that you've read some of my work. I'm a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists. (emphasis mine)

And now we have even more of an understanding of why so many people in the workforce have absolutely no fucking clue what they're doing.

(I'm particularly frightened by the fact that he's responsible for terrible nursing students graduating and becoming nurses.)

In happier news: once I (finally!) get my teacher certification for Secondary Education in English/Language Arts (grades 8-12), I will be automatically certified to teach theater, speech, and social studies as well, thanks to all of the transferable credits from Northwestern University. \o/

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Wow. And I'll say one thing: the man CAN WRITE. Very good piece.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

the man CAN WRITE.

Yup. Why he's so valuable, I imagine.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

But what a horrible life! 75 pages in a week-end? Surely he could do something more interesting? (I also rather like the idea of his customers being left in the lurch....)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Sure, 75 pages in a weekend. But it sounds like he also has a lot of days with very little, if not nothing at all, to do.

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's...gross.

(But YAY, you!)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Indeed, YAYYY YOU!

[cereta.livejournal.com]

That's depressing, yeah. I've had situations where I know damn well the student didn't write the paper (had one today), but there's not much I can do about it. I try to tell myself that at some point, it'll come back to bite them, but it's hard sometimes.

And yay, you!

[mirandir.livejournal.com]

I'm more pissed off at the comments than I am about the article, natch.

It's a systemic, cultural problem. It's not just the teachers who don't care, or the helicopter parents who go too far, or the administrators that try to keep their schools from being sued, or the students themselves. Yet somehow people find it so much easier to point fingers than actually try to address the big picture.

Our whole national idea of education has to change. And that's going to take decades.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Yikes. That is truly frightening. My writing may suck at times, but at least it's my own!

[vass]

That article is all kinds of depressing.

But yay you!

[klia.livejournal.com]

For me, the core issue is:

Last summer The New York Times reported that 61 percent of undergraduates have admitted to some form of cheating on assignments and exams.

The thing this article didn't say that others I've read did was, they see nothing wrong with it. And, IIRC, the percentages are even higher for high and middle school students.

A sizable number of people in our society seem to have lost their sense of right and wrong. Or, if they possess that awareness, they're so entitled that they do whatever necessary to get what they want, seemingly without conscience or guilt. It's really disturbing.

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

Don't they still have to sit exams though? Papers are only worth a percentage of the overall mark for a subject and final exams are still worth a fair bit more aren't they?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Most college classes that require papers don't require exams. They usually have final papers or paper projects. Exams generally occur in the sciences. If you'll note, most of the work he's done is not in those kinds of classes.

Plus, many people can retain information and sit exams, but that doesn't mean they can put together a paper that requires research and independent, critical thought. That's a very different skillset Than memorization and regurgitation.

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

Interesting - back when I was at uni my Lit and Law degrees both required 50% exam and 50% research paper for every subject. It was only once you got past undergraduate level that exams started being phased out. I'm pretty sure that's still the case here even now. It's definitely the case at secondary school, which still requires end-of-year statewide exams worth 50% of the overall mark for Years 11 and 12. (I'm in Australia and our system is much closer to the UK one than the US one.)

It sucks for kids who get freaked out by exams, of course.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Huh - interesting. We have standardized exams nationwide for students in 4th, 8th, and... 12th grade, I think, but they have nothing to do with grades that students get in school - they're part of the NEAP (pretty much the "national report card") to see how the students of America are reading, writing, etc.

As for college, how the class is structured (papers, exams, orals, etc.) differs from professor to professor, let alone university to university. There are no nationwide standards for that.

High-school students probably still have some exams, but I'm certain that the vast majority of this guy's work is for college and grad school. For what he charges, I don't know that a lot of teenagers could afford it.

[shrewreader.livejournal.com]

You know, seeing this really, SERIOUSLY pisses me off that I am having such a bitchy time with my thesis committee of doom.

I'm quite tempted to print it out with today's draft, stick it in the committee's inbox and caption it, 'enough already. let. me. defend.'

[chalcedony.livejournal.com]

Speaking from down here in the trenches, it's not really a surprise. Fortunately, I'm in a hard science, so it's mostly exams. I do require papers in some of the upper level courses, but those folks have been writing shorter pieces all semester so I'm familiar with their styles.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Hey, congrats on the good news regarding the teaching certification!

The less I say about the other the better,