The Great Bologna Experiment

 

Being a homeschooler has had some unexpected advantages during this last upside down year, the biggest positive was that my student's schedule and way of learning didn't change at all. As the rest of the world was coping with zooming and distance learning, we just kept right on with our goals for 10th grade. We sure covered quite a lot of territory this year. 

I asked him at the beginning of the year what his goals were. He replied that he wanted to deep dive into practical life skills. I smacked my lips and we were off learning the ins and outs of economics. 

I have to say I learned quite a bit this year myself.

Other than math, social science, history and economics I had my own goal of working on his composition skills. He is not a writer. Nor wishes to be. One of his first assignments was to write an essay which I posted HERE. 

His last assignment for this year was an essay. Funny how things often have deeper meanings than what we were expecting. While I do not like to be blindsided, I do love serendipitous happy results that cause me to say -"Did not see that coming!"

So, without further ado - Keaton's final essay for school year 2020/21

For Him,

Meema

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The Great Bologna Experiment  

by Keaton Pascoe

"Aw, baloney!"  is an old analogy that means, in modern language, "What a lie!" 

In this digital world run by computers, one's and zeroes, CGI and Photoshop, not only is it easier to lie, it is sort of expected. We accept that commercials and ads are not exactly telling the truth. Does that mean we don't really know the difference between what is true and what is a lie anymore? Does it mean we actually prefer what is not true over what is?

It is no secret that there are many websites that anyone can go to and pay for someone to write an essay. It's not like this is on the dark web either so teachers have to know that many of the assignments their students, both high school and college, turn in were not written by them. Is this a lie or just an accepted means to an end? What is the end goal now? Is it learning or looking as though it's learning? The system says that students need to get good grades and move on because the grade stays with them long after what they were supposed to learn goes away.

Just because a student isn't good at writing, doesn't mean he doesn't have to do the assignment, though, even if he knows he will not get a good grade because writing isn't his best thing. So, here in the lying age, the easy solution is to pay for someone who is supposed to be experienced and has the right creds to write it for you.

My last assignment for this school year was to write an essay. I admit I don't like to write. I am a thinker and a hands on learner, I ask a lot of questions looking for knowledge about things I am good at but writing is not my thing. 

My teacher decided we should do an experiment. We went online and found a site that offers essay writing for money. We typed in the information about the kind of essay we were looking for and several profiles popped up asking to be my writer. We picked one, clicked on the pay button and gave him this info:

600 word essay on how easy it is to manipulate people with misinformation using bologna as the analogy. Needs to be satire or funny. Unbiased, not woke. Working title "Aw Baloney!" Due in one week.

He replied that he was on it.

The next day, we got a message that he had uploaded the essay. To say it was about as good as I could have written in 5th grade would be pretty kind.

Just think, this person, hired by an online company that has a five star rating, who probably has a college degree, who might have spent no more than an hour researching the history of bologna and then copy/pasting the info into a Word doc, missed the object of "satire" or "funny" completely. He got his money and he probably needed it so that's okay. What he will never know is that he was not the writer but the example for my real essay.

This final essay is not about the history of bologna. It's also not about how good I can write an essay. It's about how big lying is now. If I have learned anything this year, I realize that being good with words is not as important as being honest and being able to see what is real. 

To what is not real I say, "Aw Baloney!"