I’m not a big fan of using volunteerism as punishment. I think volunteers should be enthusiastic participants who want to be there and engaged not a bunch of teens paying penance for misdeeds. 
But I could surely find some manual labor to keep them busy for awhile which could serve as a good reminder that an education (and not getting kicked out) is a good thing to have - and a privilege.
“Can’t tell you how many papers I wrote with Cliff notes etc since it helped me get to the information that I needed to write a concise paper, which was not my strength.”
This is where I am with this as well, I used Cliff and Monarch notes for a few books but it was more out in the open, no one made a big deal about it. I read a good article on discipline and it basically said you can make it punitive with the main effect being that the child will learn not to get caught, or you can make it more compassionate which could change behavior, which I think is what we’re all looking for.
It’s got to be tough monitoring this stuff given instant internet access these days vs our own generation. And the plagiarism apps can’t be that challenging to beat if you are somewhat astute.
Another reason why, IMO, there are benefits to small classes with very active participation and more socratic/harkness methods of teaching. Makes it kind of hard to hide that you haven’t read the book. There’s only so much BSing you can do (although I found tactics to get around that back in my day as well ).
^^ Except if the students read the Cliff notes, they get the summary and ideas without reading the book.
Perhaps teachers need to pick books that are not included in the Spark or Cliff notes although often it is still possible to find something about a book online. However, most LA curricula likely require reading of classics.
Politics by Aristotle may be the assigned book.
What kind of relationship do you hope to have with your child when he is 30?
How are your ideas for punishments going to get you to that place?
Who, in all honesty, is actually reading true “source material” for any book like “Plato’s Republic” in high school?
I mean, that particular tome was written in 380 BC, in ancient Greek. Pretty sure your child was assigned an abridged version, in modern English, annotated, with footnotes and explanations. So lets not get all holier-than-thou about the importance of a high schooler reading the original material.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: We do not what book was assigned to the OP’s child. Let’s not speculate, please - it’s off-topic.
@eastcoastcrazy: I agree.
As an aside, classics majors are in short supply.
Sure, it’s unlikely a 10th grader will come up with an idea that no one has ever had about a chestnut of a book like the Republic. But there’s an enormous difference between coming up with an idea on your own and cribbing it from a secondary source. And even more of a difference if you don’t explicitly credit the secondary source.
The core dilemma here is that no one is likely to want to risk an academic “death penalty” for their child, for doing something like this, but presumably everyone (including the school) wants to teach a lesson about what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and also to show off publicly their commitment to high standards in academia.
Once you report such transgressions, the consequences are out of your control. You should understand fully what that can mean to you and your family it’s up to you what you should do about this.
So the one question to be answered by her son is “Why”? Short on time, had too much other work to do? I was a slow reader with a bad comprehension issue and used Cliff notes occasionally. It help me focus on what was important. I think I used it more as a tool since I had no clue how to study… Seriously.
But whether this kid used Cliff notes, stuck out to smoke a cigarette or something else, I wouldn’t hang him out to dry. Much better ways to make it a “teaching moment”.
Well said @JHS . That is the heart of the dilemma - teaching a lesson without torching the kid’s HS career for something that (unfortunately) not that unusual.
It has been interesting reading everyone’s thoughts.
None of the above. I would do nothing. (I’d be curious to see what grade the kid gets.)
I’ll say again, if this were a kid writing that he didn’t read the book, used Cliff Notes and not his own ideas, and what do we on CC think, would we be so sympathetic? Or is this thread shaped by the fact that it’s a parent writing? And annoyed, so we see she doesn’t endorse this, shares our own values…and somehow, we focus on not wrecking the kid’s school relationship?
I still don’t have an idea of what I’d do, if I were this parent. But it does strike me many are saying to keep mum.
I think if a kid went in with a new essay and said, “I didn’t read the book and wrote my first essay based on Sparknotes and the like. I feel terribly guilty about it,” that there would be forgiveness. Maybe an F for the original essay, or a grade for the new essay that reflects being handed in late. That’s what I would suggest to a kid writing.
I don’t think I ever wrote an essay based solely on CliffNotes, but I got my best grade in a college class for an essay on Nietzsche and the rise of the Nazis based on read exactly 3 pages of Nietzsche and skimming for a couple more quotes. (This was after the “A” essays were made available at the library, and I realized that I would never get an A because I was not interested in writing the jargon filled essays that apparently got As.)
I think the OP, and those supporting harsh punishments need to take a chill pill.
Unless, of course, they expect (and fully support) their children waving down the nearest police officer to issue them a ticket should they happen to glance at their phone while driving. Or, if they’d also want their children contacting the IRS if they happen to overhear the parents discussing tax minimization strategies that might be suspect.
Given the circumstances, I think a simple “don’t do it again, you’ll learn more if you actually read the book,” would be quite adequate.
@Sybylla this isn’t about what makes the mom happy. It’s about character formation. And no, I don’t know what would be the most effective way to address this.
On the one hand, it seems that having the child go to the school and telling them what he did would be the obvious way to right this wrong. But would that lead him to truly understand what he did wrong and to resolve not to do anything like that in the future? I think only the mom can answer this question because she knows her son’s character.
The main thing is not to use excuses like ‘the book was difficult and dull.’ Cheating is cheating, even if there was an exceptional motivation to cheat.
"I’ll say again, if this were a kid writing that he didn’t read the book, used Cliff Notes and not his own ideas, and what do we on CC think, would we be so sympathetic? Or is this thread shaped by the fact that it’s a parent writing? And annoyed, so we see she doesn’t endorse this, shares our own values…and somehow, we focus on not wrecking the kid’s school relationship?
I still don’t have an idea of what I’d do, if I were this parent. But it does strike me many are saying to keep mum."
You make an excellent point. I think many of us are working from the standpoint that it is the parent’s duty to raise their kid properly, not the school’s. Admittedly there is a grey area here (schools can discipline in accordance with the student handbook too), but, fortunately for the kid, this one landed in the mom’s lap. She has to deal with it.
Recently a friend of mine found out her daughter (a two-season athlete) was vaping. Her mom’s first instinct was not to report her to the school. The story is still unfolding, but I have no doubt that if she doesn’t learn the lesson from mom this time, she’ll be facing much harsher penalties when the school catches the girl the next time.
Edited to add: I made it through Plato’s Republic with just minor struggles. It was “Moby Dick” that I would have used Cliff Notes and whatever else I could have gotten my hands on had I had the access and werewithal. I took Russian Lit in college specifically so I would be guaranteed not run into that book again. It worked, never mind the fact that I had to read even more depressing books.
No to turning him in. Yes, to having him read three books of your choosing and writing a report. Boy, would I make them hard books, Nietzsche anyone? How about Walden by Thoreau and I would make the last one either The Gulag Archipelago or War and Peace. And I am not even kidding. Cheating signals laziness and dishonesty. Both are really not cool.
It’s been shown that forcing kids to do something like reading books like War and Peace is to turn them off from reading, and again would only make the kid realize his or her biggest mistake was getting caught. It would make the parent feel good because the kid is feeling bad.