Thread by @deb_fillman

I just fired a student, a first for me. 55 minutes into our THIRD session on his college personal statement, I started seeing lines get crossed out in the Google doc, and EDITED by a third person. He said "I have someone else looking at my essay now, I'll tell her to wait. 1/

2/I asked "Who is this other person?" He said "She's a friend of the family, a professional grant writer, and she helped her son get into University of Chicago."

I'll BET she did...

So I told him I would not participate in this activity any longer b/c it's cheating.

3/I also told him I was already making an exception helping him b/c he is applying to Columbia, hoping to become a TEACHER, and go to their TEACHER college, and I would rather NO one went there, but this was the icing on the cake.

4/He said "Oh I might not accept her edits," and I said "She's LITERALLY rewriting it as I'm watching; you're going to tell me you're NOT going to take the edits of a professional grant writer? I could have done what she's doing now, and your essay would be 100% better, but

5/then I would be HELPING YOU CHEAT, and I don't do that; it's unethical, and as a future teacher, I'd hope you'd know that. There were four minutes left in our session, so I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with, and he said no, and I said goodbye.

6/PARENTS: if your child needs a professional writer to "edit" their essay, perhaps college isn't for them, especially if they hope to TEACH. If you support them USING a professional writer to write or edit their essay, you are NO BETTER than a THIEF. Some hard-working kid is

7/potentially going to be displaced by your cheating kid, your kid likely won't do well in college, and the lesson you'll have taught them is it's OK TO CHEAT to get ahead, and worst of all, to CHEAT OTHERS who have EARNED their place.

8/I'm shaking, I'm so disgusted right now b/c it's literally in my policies when I start tutoring that I will not participate in, nor tolerate cheating, including the use of ChatGPT, NOR will I "edit" for them. I will make suggestions, and explain where sentences are confusing

9/I will TEACH them pre-writing and writing skills that no one bothered to teach them in all their years of school, that are nowhere to be found in their work, despite their 4.0+ GPAs and Honors student statuses. I will also challegne their use of voccabulary, and

10/do my level best to inspire them to challenge their own word choices by using a thesaurus. I teach them how to edit, and proofread, and punctuate, b/c their grammar invariably SUCKS too. And for all that, I charge a very reasonable rate (according to other tutors I know).

11/If you wonder why we are being led, and lectured at, and managed by, and displaced by arrogant, entitled, little ASSHOLES, this is why. He wasn't apologetic, he wasn't self-conscious, he was just obviously upset he got caught./END

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