Re: Education Philosophy-T o Cheat or Not to Cheat

["John E. Purchase, Ed. D." <jopur@muskoka.com>]

Frank Voehl mentioned the Pinewood Derby, a rally event particular to Boy Scouts of America and
similar youth groups in which small wooden cars with plastics wheels on drywall nail axles roll down
inclined planes to a finish line, often electronically timed.  He suggested that some parents meddle
in building and decorating these little cars to shield their child from the experience of losing,
especially since other parents will have helped their own offspring.

Another reason parents meddle is that they greatly wish that they, too, could get in on the fun as
opposed to just being  spectators.  Consequently,  some Pinewood Derby events feature a made-by
-parents only category.  It seems to serve the purpose of distracting a parent from essentially
making his or her child's car while including the parent in the fun.

That's not to say that cheating will be eliminated but with more emphasis on participation as prize
it's less of a concern.

Another aspect of "cheating" in Pinewood Derby is that the rules themselves are rigid.   Many
children learn that the materials supplied in the car kit can be inproved upon with simple
technologies,  like smoothing the rough ridges off the nails used for axles, but the rules, at least
in the olden days required wheels and axles to be used as supplied.  Such rules I suppose were
intended to prevent parents from machining the nails to a high polish and inserting matching brass
sleeve bushings in the plastic wheels to reduce friction and wobble.

When is cheating inappropriate and when is it an experiment to improve a process?

Just wondering.

John E. Purchase
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