Are students both lazy AND stupid to trust us for answers?

Well, the tagline for the site is "Ask Questions, Get Answers".

- Huck Finn went on a rafting trip with Louisa May Alcott
- When you speed up sound, it can move as fast as light
- Your tongue has special chocolate receptors
- Trapezoids have six sides
- The French word for law is maintenant
- Germany was conquered by the Spanish in 1847
- Senators are elected every 8 years; Congressmen, every 3.
- Sushi is not combustible

There are always going to be some lazy students...I used to be one myself.

I figure if the student at least got to the internet then they have some brainpower and ambition. Will I hand them the answer(s)? Only on rare occasions. If it is a straight out question and the answer can be found elsewhere on the internet, I usually give them a redirect and a shove off towards Google.

Look around, a large portion of this site could be termed as "lazy bones answers" . People ask for help on various matters, kidney disease, copper cleaning, furniture treatments, etc. etc. and most info can be found elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with asking a question here. After receiving the answer or answers it is up to the individual to then take it a step beyond and double check the facts...the same as would be done anywhere else in the world. A chemist double checks results to an experiment. An accountant double checks the final tally. A teacher double checks the question and answers before passing out an exam. A patient gets a second opinion (or at least should) before submitting to treatment or surgery.


As to the assessment that the next generation will believe anything without proof or research; this is not so different from previous (all) generations. From the day we are born, we are in general looking towards adults and others for answers and guidance for life. It is through mis-guided efforts and wrong answers that we learn to search and think for ourselves. It's all a part of life.

I think you should do the research on this question and come back to us with the results, Green Witch.

Your right jespath, and A2K claims to have experts, so that brings people in, adults too (non students).

It saddens me when some regulars are rude to the people that come here to ask for help. If you don't want to help or can't, then don't make any remarks that I'm sure make the poster feel bad. I have seen several regulars do that.

I'm going to the library in about an hour DrewDad, I'll let you know if I find anything of interest.

Sturgis - I don't consider most of the questions here "lazy bones" questions, it's more like -"so what's been your experience with...?" or a giant version of an Ann Lander's advice column. I see a forum like this as a place to take a poll of the world (or at least those of us that can afford computers and electricity).

stupid's harsh; naive might be a better description.

the forum as a opinion poll is an interesting concept, but needs to qualified by noting that only those with some english comprehension will be participating.

Perhaps there should be a legal disclaimer somewhere on the site that says, "Use these answers at your own risk. Cannot be liable for crappy grades".

OK Yitwal, if I could change the word "stupid" to naive" I would.

We get many requests for translations to Latin. Most are for mottoes,
tattoos (whole 'nother topic there), or poems. But then we get something
like the following:



Now why would he want that translated? Hmmm...

You know, Green Witch, we've discussed this before, and it's an issue which won't go away. I have several responses. When i'm feeling up to it, i'll answer a history question in great deal, and with as "dense" a prose as possible. Sometimes i'll just give a list of names for someone to go look up. Other times i won't answer at all, because the original poster, or some self-deluded individual in the thread has so butchered history that i'm offended. Other times i show up to state point blank that i won't do their homework for them.

In the best of responses, i exercise the first opition, and i'll give you an example. Someone recently asked whom the san coulottes would have executed in the Terror of the French Revolution. The question is rather stupid. It suggests that the history teacher who assigned it either knows jack about the French revolution, or thinks that oversimplification and appeals to sensationalism are the only way to get students interested.

The san coulottes refers to the working class. The aristrocracy and successful members of the bourgeoisie wore "knee breeches" and long stockings--the knee breeches (meaning they fastened just below the knee) were known as coulottes. This doesn't mean the working class walked around without pants on, but rather, that they wore trousers instead of knee breeches. The question is stupid because it ignores that the Paris mob was a tool of provocateurs and demagogues, and was never in charge. There was an ugly incident in September, 1792 when priests and aristocrats were murdered and mutilated in the streets--but it was an exception which proved the rule. The evidence is that only a few hundred of the san coulottes participated. It also occurred before the period properly referred to as The Terror took place. The decision to execute people was never in the hands of the working class, and was more a political tool than an example of social leveling.

So i wrote an answer which would require a high degree of comprehension to have extracted an answer to that silly question. If that worked for the student, they deserve to have gotten their answer. Otherwise, the most they could have made of it would have been to find the names and dates they would need to look up online. Additionally, any student reading and understanding what i had written should be able to see why it was a silly and stupid question--if that were the actual assignment, it says volumes about how clueless the teacher who assigned it is. Finally, any student who can wade through my prose when i write in that manner is sufficiently intelligent not to need my help to get the answer. I finished by recommending two books--a 19th century classic and a contemporary narrative well worth reading. I then commented that there are thousands of books out there on the subject, most of which are as good (or as bad) as all the rest. I sincerely doubt that these students ever actually go to the trouble of reading books recommended to them on a topic.

Most of the homework questions I answer are some variation of English homework/ creative writing -- I usually give them broad concepts or approaches to the problem rather than outright answering it for them.

Set, I too have given answers or links to what I knew to be homework assignments, and justified it in much the way you have. I don't think we are the problem. I think the problem is that students have found what they perceive as "a free lunch" and it bothers me that they make no effort to think for themselves.
(By the way, I read the san coulottes thread and
personally learned from it)

In that case why are you so miffed about students coming here to ask questions? If the basic format is full of questions then a student can come here and ask. Where the student makes the mistake is when they are clearly asking for assignment answers and not just help. Now, if they cloak it in some other cloth then nobody would be the wiser. For example if you came here and asked what people thought about The Peloponnesian War then answers might sail in. If you said it was for an assignment due Thursday, next; then there might be a problem...at that point I would see no reason to answer and would offer a redirect to a search engine.

To give you an idea how I function a member of A2K recently asked for answers in Chemistry, I refused. The same person asked about a particular learning process and I supplied a detailed response. It is all a matter of what is placed in front of me.

Yes, that is the part I'm miffed about, they just seem so lazy when they type in their homework questions word for word. If you were sitting in a public library and a student comes over to you and hands you their homework assignment and says: "Hi, could you just do this for me why I go play a Nintendo game?" Would you do it? Not me.

I too have helped out a few youngin's on this board, mostly the ones that seem to be struggling with english as a second language. However, when we get some kid that can't even bother to Google a few simple facts my hair pins just go flying in all directions. What are they going to do when they get a real job? "Excuse me nurse, could you operate on this patient, no one on A2K is willing to give me the instructions." or more likely "I'm sorry I can't give your fries with that, the fryer is broke and no one at A2K seems to know how I can fix it."

OK, I've finished my rant, rant among yourselves now.

I think young people (aka students) network a lot more these days so they're not at all abashed about coming to this site (it does have a nice, welcoming name and it's so very interesting) and asking for help. It isn't often I can help but when I can I try not to spoon-feed them. I suppose it helps that I'm bone idle

I just wish that they would ask more questions about kitchenware.

While an infinite number of chimps with keyboards may not reproduce Shakespeare, a fair number of 'em will find their way to the internet.


I don't mind questions that seem like legitimate quests for information, whether its a highschool course-related question, or a tech question, but I don't have much patience for the "Pleasepleaseplease do my homework fo me - and do it real quick, 'cause its due in the morning" types; those I usually ignore, orI'll toss 'em a link to a GoogleSearch - sometimes with a comment along the lines of "I didn't check it out in depth, but I came up with 426,851 hits; odds are something of use to you is in there somewhere"

Actual questions are no big deal. Getting help is okay.
It's the obvious attempts to shuffle the work on others that pees me off. Some effort should be required: Or else they should be handing over their degrees.

Timber, why won't the chimps end up with Shakespeare with an infinite number of tries, since there is a finite number (admitedly almost infinite) of letter combinations?