Cheater Pants

Originally published at American Family. Please leave any comments there.

This morning, Mr. A called his dad to remind him to come over at noon to help M practice her Chinese like he does every Sunday.  Today was a little different because as soon as he answered the phone at 10 a.m., FIL said “Today is TEST for M at Chinese school.  You start studying NOW! I will come over early!  She has TEST!”

FIL showed up a half an hour early at 11:30.   He immediately started lecturing M about the importance of studying for her test.  At one point, Mr. A wandered in to the lesson and found M messing around.  He also gave her a lecture about the importance of studying and doing well on her test.  M seemed unimpressed.

(Can I just interject here and point out that we are talking about a PRESCHOOL class!  She was supposed to memorize about 20 characters and write them when the teacher called out the words.  While learning 20 characters seems reasonable enough to me, putting the “test” label on it seems like a bit much.)

So M marched off to Chinese school for her test.  After her language class, I met up with her to take her to dance class.  M was carrying a big stuffed polar bear which was some kind of prize for doing well on her test.  She proudly showed me her paper and she received a 110.  (110 was weird because she missed two characters, so maybe some of them were bonuses or something.)

After Mr. A and his dad left, M couldn’t stop talking about her test and the stupid bear prize.  I was only half listening when she said “Mama, when I forgot how to write the words, GongGong (FIL) let me see the my practice paper.”

What?!?  Surely, I had misunderstood. 

But when she was asked a few follow up questions, M confirmed that when she didn’t know the answer, FIL let her look at a paper with all the characters on it.

I mentioned to M that looking at the answers during a test is called cheating.  Her only point of reference for cheating is the Junie B. Jones book “Cheater Pants.”   Once I said “cheating” she clammed up and wouldn’t talk about it any more.  She knew that cheating is bad, but she clearly still didn’t understand why she wasn’t supposed to look at the answer sheet when she needed to know the answer.  I will talk to her about it a little more in the next couple days.  I did a miserable job today because I kept laughing (because the whole situation is completely ludicrous) while I was trying to explain why cheating is bad.

Mr. A thinks if we asked FIL why he helped M cheat, FIL’s answer would be “It was a TEST.  She needed to get a good GRADE!”   I am also reminded of a story about FIL when he was growing up.  I think there was a story that he had tutors or servants who did his homework for him. 

I also think the fact that both Mr. A and is father seemed incapable of keeping a preschool test in perspective and were at all concerned about her “grade” says a lot.  Mr. A thinks it is very funny.  I am more than a little appalled that M has been taught to cheat on her very first test ever.