In the news
Mathew Teakle on 07 June, 2015
In response to Sydney Morning Herald article: Cheating ‘endemic’ in NSW high schools, June 7, 2015.
North Shore tutor Matthew Teakle said he had been inundated with requests by students for him to write their essays for him.
When he refused, they often took their business elsewhere.
“It’s big business and it makes me furious”, he said. “There is enormous pressure on these kids to do well and it has these unintended consequences.”
Okay, so just to clarify. I don’t get ‘inundated’ with requests like this – the journo is a nice chap – but they’re his words not mine. I told him I’d had requests, but always refuse. I also told him that I teach to prepare students for life beyond the HSC. The main reason I refuse to write essays is that it is simply, clearly, categorically unethical. The second is that to me, the HSC is like a trusty old Holden Statesman ute that’s held together by wire and duct tape and has one of those map of Australia radio antennas – it might be a little outdated and messy, but it works wonderfully. Somehow, year after year, the good ol’ HSC gets the job done.
Also, did you notice that the part of this article that features my ‘contribution’ has a rather deliciously ironic grammatical problem!?
Seriously though, I’m waaaaaaaay against this approach to the HSC English courses. You just need to do your best, get some help if you need it – but just do your best.
What else is there?
Please don’t buy essays or use other people’s work. It will only come back to haunt you later in life. Cast your mind into the future for a moment and imagine you’ve been asked to give a presentation to the boss. Now imagine you cheated in the HSC by purchasing pre-prepared essays and then regurgitated them verbatim.
This is your boss’ response to your presentation: