In this age of online classes, many parents and guardians are doing their best to help their children cope online. This is good because teaching your child is an excellent opportunity to bond and spend time with them. Unfortunately, a few guardians or parents take it too far and end up doing two things that may harm their children's learning and character.
First, teachers have observed that some parents or guardians spoon-feed their children answers behind the scene during online class discussions. Teachers have reported that they can hear an adult's whispers telling the student answers during their class recitations. Sometimes they see adult hands visibly typing the answers for them.
Another concern among teachers is that there is a discrepancy between the homework and online class performance among some students. There are students always get perfect marks on their homework. However, during online classes, the teacher finds out that they haven't mastered the lesson yet. This begs the question, did the student really answer the homework themselves?
When this happens it has several harmful effects on the child’s academic and moral character such as:
It teaches dishonesty.
Dishonesty and cheating is usually not a one time thing. It can become a habit that may spread to other areas of the child's life and cause them to disregard others and face trouble in the future.
When the child makes dishonesty a habit, it may bring trouble in their adult lives. For example, you can fail the course and eventually expelled if you are caught cheating in many schools and universities. Dishonesty in the workplace can easily get you fired.
Dishonesty hampers progress and leads to failure. How can the child learn when someone else is answering the assignment for them? It is a waste of everyone’s time.
It makes it more difficult for the teacher to properly assess the child's abilities, making progress difficult and slower.
It robs children of the satisfaction of doing a job well done.
It damages you children's self-confidence. When someone else answers the assignment, it is subconsciously telling the child that "You are not good enough to do it. That is why I will do it instead!"
It causes embarrassment and kills trust. Any teacher can quickly tell if someone else has answered their students' homework because they know their own students' abilities.
If classmates see parents help their child cheat, your child will lose the respect and trust of their classmates.
We strongly discourage all forms of dishonesty. News everywhere shows us that we do not progress as a nation because of the dishonest people in power. We cannot change our country's direction if we raise a generation of dishonest men and women. As educators, parents, and guardians, our sacred duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and our children is to emphasize the importance of honesty and integrity to our children in every part of our lives.