... a justifiable act??

I skimmed through a little and noticed a poster claimed that the schools in the US 'are not good enough'. I disagree with this statement. I believe there is a HUGE waste of resources in many school districts, and it is not being spent on materials for actual learning or programs such as music, art, and physical education, and it is also not being spent on TEACHER SALARIES but instead on administrative crap for no good reason. They need to hire MORE teachers so they can have SMALLER classes and they also need to look at what needs to be learned each grade level and then TEACH those things. I think there needs to be less testing to 'see what is learned' and more just practice of what is being taught in real life situations so that kids see what the use is. I also think they expect too much too early and then fear losing their jobs because kids are not testing out well, which is where what this teacher did comes into play. Not only is she concerned for the self esteem of kids who are all FAILING - but she is concerned for her job too.

i was never a "formal" teacher, so i may not know how it feels like. however, i was once a student. and i know that a negative means produces a negative end. she may be right about worrying about her students' self-esteem, but she wrong about the way of helping them. in the long run, it's akin to a false hope. i'd rather fail than be made to believe i did it. there's something wrong with values there.

It's sad that schools are more focused on their ratings than educating their students. They mention that schools have to meet AYP in order to stay open. This could be why many teachers do this, in order to save their jobs. I understand the importance of self-esteem, but I think that in the long run this will hurt the students more than help them. They will end up graduating not having the skills they need and not learning the actual material they were supposed to learn. I think that there are ways to deal with the failing grades, by actually teaching the students rather than giving them the answers. They need to get to the source of why these students are failing. There is shame attached to failing and getting left back a grade, even though this happens to make sure that the student learns what they are supposed to. Sometimes other kids make fun of other students and call them stupid because they got left back or failed a test. It's sad that this is the way things are. I don't think that helping the children cheat is the best way to boost those children's self-esteem because they are not learning anything from it. It'll just give them a false sense of accomplishment. I think when the student actually learns the material their self-esteem and confidence will be truly boosted because when they encounter the same problems or questions again they will be able to deal with it on their own.

She did not do it for their self esteem. Most kids do not even see their standardized test scores. She did it for the same reason that the Atlanta public school teachers did it, so that their school would look better than it was and so it would continue to receive its funding. It is not helping the students to cheat. It gives them the idea it is okay to cheat on other things that matter more than this one little test. It does not give an accurate portrayal of what they know and what they do not know. It invalidates a very expensive test.

Personally, at least here in the U.S. the school system is not good enough. Also, there are classrooms that are overloaded. I think they should have smaller classes so that it would be easier for the students could have more one on one attention. Remember, not everyone learns at the same pace. I think they should look into restructuring the entire school system. What the teacher has done was wrong. She could have complained to the board of education about the situation.

I think cheating is a bad act and it should not be encourage because it encourage corruption in our educational system. It kills academic work and the spirit to study. I think teachers that aid and abet cheating in exams should be tried in the law court and jailed for such an offence.

Is it the only way to raise the student's self-esteem? Is it an act of desperation? In rural areas, public school would usually do this more for the benefit of the name of the school and not to boost the students self -esteem. What if they go out in the real world and won't be able to handle things in their own because they were taught to cheat their way to graduate?