a little on education in Chile, spurred by Lydia's post

To understand this, first you might want to read Lydia's post on education in Chile. I started commenting on her post, but it got really long once again so I'm just posting here.

I agree with you that Chileans cheat a lot. I think almost all Chileans have cheated in school. At first that was super shocking to me, but then I got used to it. I'm sorry it bothers you. Things here can be so different from the States sometimes. It's not worth it to judge it morally. In Chile, cheating just is.

But cheating is a part of the culture and I think it's hard to get around it.

A friend of mine teaches engineering here and when he gives tests he leaves the room on purpose to give students a chance to cheat. (His students have a lot at stake, so they can't afford being caught cheating. They wait til he leaves the room.) But I think students actually learn a few things this way. It gives them a chance to collaborate. Maybe you should test them everyday. hahaha. It's probably a great group exercise.

Before a really difficult test at the U, a good friend of mine showed me her "torpedo". (cheat sheet) It was a blank sheet of paper. I looked at it baffled. There wasn't one thing on it. How could it be a cheat sheet? She told me to look closer. So I held it in the light and looked really close. The whole page was covered with print, margin to margin, 9 font. She'd printed it in really light gray ink, so you couldn't even tell it was full of answers. It was a work of art.

Another friend of mine has monumental accounts of unabashed cheating. My fave of his stories is when he and his classmates were at a bar in front of the university after the test was taken and the T.A. ARRIVES, TESTS IN HAND! One of the students grabbed the tests from him and tried to start them on fire. The TA about shat his pants and grabbed them back. My friend then starting chatting with the T.A. to get his test back to re-do it. Eventually the TA said he could have his test if he took them all and brought them to the U the next morning to give them back, because I guess the TA didn't want to tote them around or something. So my friend gathered together a couple of his smarter friends and they all went back to his house to re-do the test. hahahahahha. He has hundreds of similar accounts.

I think for Chileans cheating and not getting caught is a TRIUMPH. And if you do get caught and actually have to suffer the consequences, it's bad luck, but makes a good story. Of course, if you're not caught, it makes an even better story.

And I agree with you about the education here as well. It does seem to be about rote learning, especially in the less creative subjects. Even in literary theory, I remember one day we had to interpret a poem. Every student had the same historical interpretation except me. I did like an interpretation having to do with the sounds the words made when you read the poem and how it coincides with the action and what implications that had, etc. But I felt sort of silly at the time being the only one who didn't do the historical interpretation. Because here in Chile, homogenity seems to be emphasized and preferred. They must've thought I had a weird interpretation. But fortunately the prof liked it. wheew! hehehe. But I was shocked how everyone came up with THE SAME INTERPRETATION TO A POEM. Geesh!

At the same time, I like how their subjects have so much theory and tradition and they emphasize using good sources more here than in the US. I think both systems have their pros and cons.

But what I think is wrong, as you mentioned, is the professor/student relationship. The profs here are sort of like Gods sometimes and can fail people when they feel like it. And its totally faux pas to question what the teacher is saying.

Beyond that, profesors can make student's lives horrible. I've heard horror stories of people being royally screwed over in the education system due to internal fights between two schools of thought among the faculty or other faculty problems that have repercussions on the students.

I know of one student who had her final project ready to hand in (in her area of studies these take 6 months to a year), and the director of her field told her she had to do the project all over again, because she'd chosen to base her project on the other school of thought among the faculty. Apparently this faculty didn't have the power in the U, so the student had to start from scratch and use the school of thought the director wanted her to use. Unfortunately I've heard other cruel stories like this. They are more common than you'd think.

Also it seems, crappy University professors are never fired! They just hang around and teach poorly year after year. Personally, I had good profs at the U here. But judging from the stories I've heard from so many others, I was lucky.

Education is quite different here. Cheating seems to be more of an accepted behavior, and this might have to do with the quality of the education, which sometimes I think is great, and others not. I feel like it really depends on the professors. And the fact that the professor is put on a pedestal seems to cause more cheating. In general, this relationship doesn't help forward the student's education.

In Chile's favor, the universities here seem to be really rigorous. The students I've met seem to have a good theoretical base in their areas. It's actually hard to compare two different school systems as they are sooo different, and obviously cultural and socio-economic factors influence things.