This chapter is about how us Puerto Ricans use the term “cheating”
more as a concept of helping others, rather than as a bad behavior. Jim Cooper tells us in this chapter that the
professors had to deal with students that cheat. This students thought that
they did not do anything wrong, because here in Puerto Rico we are taught since
we are little to help others and this can be like an excuse to look at the
neighbor’s paper during a test. The teachers that came from the USA saw this
situation as something so wrong that it needed to be fixed, because in the USA
what is taught to the students since they are little is to be competitive, not
to help others; they have to be the number one.
For this reason, the professors tried different things to make the
students understand their point of view but all their work was in vain because
the students never understood. Jim Cooper was one of the professors who got
used to the idea of "helping" and started seeing it as something
unique about Puerto Ricans. He wrote
about how this kind of thought illustrates the good side of the Puerto Ricans
and that teaching to a person to be helpful could bring to them a sense of
cooperation and humanity.
I have studied in a private school where the majority of the
books were in English. My experience as
a high school student was very competitive, even more because my classroom was
composed of only 25 students. Since my school was so competitive, the thought
of "helping" was not even allowed.
If you were caught cheating, the consequences were serious, including
even expulsion. If my friends needed
help I did try to help them in any way I could but if it was very difficult I
did not do it. I always put my position
in the cooperative and competitive models and of course, I would rather be
cooperative than competitive. We live in a very competitive world where if you
do not fight against the things around you that make your life harder, you
cannot get yourself to the top and you would not have what you want. Of course, I think there are many ways to
help someone without getting in trouble, because you can help a friend by
studying with him or her and working out the biggest difficulties. There are
ways to be successful in life without having to cheat all the time and having
everything given by the easiest way.
I think that Cooper was right about that we are taught since we are little to help others while in the USA the students are more competitive. I also agree with him that although the cheating was a problem, Puerto Ricans are helpful and have a great sense of cooperation and humanity. But the part that I most like was the one that you said that there are many ways to help someone without getting in trouble, like studying with him or her, because we can help without cheating.
ReplyDeleteIts sad when the people referred Puerto Ricans as cheaters, even if here they were thought with another way of education. In the case of Jim Cooper i think that was really difficult to educate a lot of students and make them to change the way they think about helping each other. And make them retract of the way they were thinking about "cheating", that was a wrong idea of helping.
ReplyDeleteMe too, I rather be cooperative than competitive. I feel that life is worth when you are helpful for others.
ReplyDelete