[Tutor] Re: A rant about Tutor homework policy

[Andrei]

tutor.python.org wrote:
> With all due respect to the great minds which inhabit this list, I wish 
> to make known my opinion that this list would be more beneficial to all 
> if homework-related questions were not discriminated against.  To my 

Your homework (and your work in general) is not something others should 
do for you. Specific questions (I can't figure out Z and I tried X and 
Y) will probably get answers, but "I got this assignment/program to 
make, why don't YOU make it for me", will most likely not get answers. 
I'm not a software professional but a nearly ex-student (just finished 
my MSc program) in a not computer related field, meaning my time isn't 
valued at 100 $/hour (yet). But I still won't help arrogant individuals 
who want others to do their work for them, even if that particular task 
would be trivial even for me to solve.

> mind, one of the key values of the hacker culture is the free flow of 
> useful information, with each individual deciding for themselves what 
> knowledge to partake of.  When I am attempting to solve a problem, I 

One of the key values of human society is honesty: don't cheat, do your 
own work. People who thrive on other people's work are parasites, at 
least that's my opinion.

> believe I know better than any third party what kind of assistance I
> need.  No matter how many solutions are given away to me through this or 

Not necessarily, you know what assistance you'd WANT, but not always 
what assistance you *need*. What you usually *need* is to learn to solve 
problems, not to find people who solve your problems for you, even 
though that might be what you *want* (because you forgot to pay 
attention in class or whatever).

> any other list, there is a never-ending supply of new problems to chew 
> on.  In high school I had books which only published the answers to 

Yep, so start with the problems that your education puts forward and 
when you're done with those, continue with new ones from that 
never-ending supply.

> odd-numbered questions, which drove me absolutely nuts.  Supposedly, 
> this was to make think and come up with the answers independently, but 
> what it really did was deprive me of valuable feedback which I needed to 
> make sure I was doing things correctly.  Each person is unique, and in 

This might come as a surprise to you, but I know (from experience) that 
lots of people will then just copy the answers, as at that age they 
don't understand they don't learn anything from copying. If you are 
unsure about the outcome of your exercises, ask your teacher, that's 
what teachers are for. Oh, but wait, good teachers won't just hand you 
the answer, they'll want to see what you tried first.

> the course of their education come to unique stumbling blocks.  Why 
> should we be concerned about whether or not we are helping someone cheat 
> their way through school?  Why should we care about sabotaging this or 

Because I might have to work with that clueless, incompetent cheater 
(smart and competent persons don't have to cheat). I've had to work with 
them and it's never a beneficial situation to the person who does knows 
his things and ends up doing all the work. And if I don't have to work 
with that character, I might have to deal with him in some other way, 
which leads to similarly annoying situations.

> that educational system?  Ultimately, it is the individual who decides 
> whether they will pursue real understanding, and no amount of integrity 
> policing by this list will change an individual's inner motives.  I for 

Cheating is wrong, just like stealing is wrong. Does it hurt me if you 
steal a motorbike? Not at all: I don't own one, so it's not very likely 
to be mine, or for that matter of anyone I know. But I still won't lend 
you a hand.

> never will be.  If valuable resources on the Internet decide not to 
> publish fundamental information regarding computer science for fear of 
> stepping on the toes of "educational institutions", then the knowledge 
 > will effectively be limited to participants of those institutions.

Answers to questions from educational books are NOT fundamental 
information. There are plenty of tutorials and e-books on the internet 
about a lot of subjects: THAT is the fundamental information. Answers 
without the questions and theory have no value whatsoever. If you want 
to know more about a subject, can't find anything on the internet and 
don't have the money to buy a book, go to a library and borrow a book.

> I say, make the information available to everyone, and let the cheaters 
> cheat!  After all, they're going to cheat anyway.  The rest of us will 

They will *try* to cheat, but there's no point in making it as easy as 
possible: a thief will break into your house anyway if he wants to, but 
I bet you still lock your doors.

> avail ourselves of what information we need when we need it in order to 
> gain as much understanding as possible in the few short years we have 

Understanding tends to come from learning, not from copying.

If you're not happy, you're a free person and you can start The Big 
Cheat-Your-Way-Through-Life campaign. But I should give you a word of 
warning here: I have seen websites which provide large numbers of 
pre-made highschool assignments, submitted by highschool students. All 
the assignments I saw there (I browsed through about a hundred) were of 
poor to extremely poor quality (some of them were copied and pasted from 
other assignments on that same website, ironically enough). In other 
words, incompetent cheaters trying to help other incompetent cheaters, 
with the net result being of hilariously bad quality.

Andrei


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