No one offers to write essays for students, although they may help them brainstorm some good ideas, or proofread/critique what they already have.

And as for math homework questions, since when is it cheating to have someone explain an answer to them? If their parents knew how to do senior level math, I’m sure the parents would be walking their kids through the calculus problems, step by step, just as many of us answers do.

Yes, some kids are going to be lazy, copy steps, and make it look like they did their homework. But they’re just going to fail their tests anyway, so what’s the harm done? It’s not like these kids are succeeding because of Yahoo! Answers.

It’s unfortunate but true — most teachers today don’t have the time to help their students really understand their homework. And, even if they did, the students who SEEM all punk and bad-ass (but who really are just teens) don’t often have the sense or skills to “win over” their teachers. But, if I can overlook some “plz help meeeee!!!” and assume that a student genuinely wants to understand something, then I can fill the void that his own classroom teacher can’t.

It’s no different than going to a tutor — but we’re tutoring for free, on our own time, out of the goodness of our hearts. (or out of the thrill of chasing a few points.) Boy, we should be punished!! Some older teens even try to help out younger students, saying that they try the questions to see whether they can remember how to do them, or hoping they can help out a younger student.

I was a face-to-face tutor for 18 years, and I have a special ability to connect with teens and help them succeed. Now that I’ve moved to a remote part of the country, I shouldn’t continue doing what I do best to help a few kids out? In just the week that I’ve been answering questions, I’ve already had 3 students write me to thank me and say that I explain things better than their teachers do. One wrote to tell me that he got an 87% on a test that he wrote after I explained 3 problems for him.

If you want to look for cheaters, look for the companies that sell “example” papers for students to use “as models.” Very few, if any, people on Yahoo! Answers are really interested in sitting around doing kids homework for them.

Besides, what you neglected to mention is that right below Katie’s post in the message thread is the original poster again, saying:

by stevenp9891 | 5 months ago

yea, im not mad anymore, i actually kind of like helping out the young-ones

Even the original poster, after discussing it, realized that no harm was being done.