A Mistake?

As the hot summer season gets hotter, our schedules get more and more complicated. I normally go to work without any idea what's waiting for me there. The only classes I am sure about are my Speech Class and my College Entrance Test Review class. Difficult as they may, I enjoy teaching these classes and I sincerely find them rewarding.

There was, however, something that bothers me. Though, it does not supposed to, it still does. You see, every time I give a test, I asked my students to check their own papers telling them that we practice honesty, and that if they cheat, they are cheating only themselves. I know I really couldn't expect them to be spotlessly honest and that I'm not supposed to feel disappointed if they are not as I gave them a chance to cheat and they might take that chance. Normally, some of them do..

Efren* is a quiet boy. Wearing thick eye glasses and quite corpulent, he seems to be nice. I assessed him to be an average student, not brilliant but learns fast. At the early stage of the program, he seems to be getting grades I expected from an average student. But then, he began getting high scores, higher than his smarter classmates, and they were cheering for him every time I call out his name. I was, at first, happy. But when he couldn't recite in class, I became suspicious. Are the scores he's giving me REAL? At first I felt bad, then eventually I felt sad, sad for Efren. I know I couldn't prove that he's cheating, but I'm absolutely sure that he is especially when he started to give me PERFECT SCORES. I think it was too much. He went too far.

The first thing that came to my mind was to embarrass him in class. I will let him recite so that the class will know that he's a FAKE, but I simply couldn't. I just couldn't break him like that. Maybe he's just one of those unpopular fat boys who were bullied in school because of their physical appearance. Maybe he just did it so that for once he will be popular and looked up to. I wanted to confront him. But what am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to ask? After all I was the one who gave him a chance to be dishonest. I knew I was at a loss, so I just kept on reminding the class how important honesty is and that regardless of the scores they get in the review, what will matter in the end is what they get in the actual test.

So, at the end of the program, as we were about to check their final test, I did what I don't normally do, I asked them to exchange papers. Efren only got half of the total number of items. I was not surprised. His classmates, however, were crestfallen.

I have nothing against Efren and other students like him. But I have to know the truth.. Had I been too wrong to trust them much?

*Not real name