I’ve wondered a little about the labeling effect as well. One answer that some teachers around the world have had is to work to make assignments difficult to cheat.

The thing is that we (as in the world) is such a remix — cooperative culture that what is cheating will eventually need to be redefined.

For me, I’m more upset that the student is ultimately cheating him or herself by plagiarizing and wasting my time.

Last year in the first month at KIS, I caught 27 plagiarized papers. This month only 2. People are getting smarter, but I actually think they are more educated as to what the teachers consider to be plagiarism and work to do their own thing.

Asians aren’t seen as “number-crunching machines” here though. They’re positively stereotyped as hard workers. There are so many media stories about how Asia is going to take over and how American students are lazy and stupid because Asians do so much better on tests, especially in math and science. It’s pretty much the basis of our entire educational system: No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately, in the rush to improve our test scores and push ahead of Asia a lot of kids are getting left behind.

Jennifer// Exactly. True story: I’ve never dared to cheat during my few years in Korean School; however I admit cheating once or twice in my American school before, ‘cuase my Motha F-ing partner was cheating off me. One day I decide to cheat off him.