Thanks, AoPS representative,
I wish I had a lot more control here. It makes me sad that this site, which I put so much time into, is largely a cheat site.
However, I do know that some people come here to learn. Some have learned a tremendous amount here.
We also provide a free environment where maths lovers of all ages can congregate, participate, and enjoy themselves.
One thing that is important in learning is reinforcement.
If a child comes here to cheat and another child puts a great deal of effort into answering then the second child is learning. I would not want to discourage children from attempting difficult questions. It is a pity that the person on the asking end is cheating but the price is worth it.
When people at a much higher level answer, with full answers, to obvious cheats, it does make me see red.
However, I understand that teaching is a learned art and some of these people have no idea how to teach. They only know how to answer and they want to help. These people are not paid, they do not want to search through to look for old answers, they may not even have the skills to do that well. I usually rely on others if I want to find an old post. It is much easier to ask the members to find it than to look for myself and I figure I am helping them practice a research skill. See, in this example, I am being lazy, the young people help, they practice and reinforce their skill, they are praised, I get the info I want, everyone wins.
I believe I am an excellent one to one, face to face, teacher but I used to get very frustrated in the school classroom because I was expected to teach children material that was far beyond their ability. All this did was make them hate mathematics and since they were being made to feel stupid, they deflected attention by misbehaving. This attracted peer attention and approval so it had a double plus from their point of view.
I do think AoPS must have a great many students in the same category. Many of your students would be there because the parents are pushing them and the parents can afford to pay. I doubt that less intelligent children are able to learn much serious problem-solving mathematics with you, or with anyone else. As for children on scholarships, if they are cheating perhaps it is sometimes because of the amount of pressure that they feel is put on them to succeed. I am not excusing their cheating behaviour, I am just looking at motives.
I am sorry that this site is such a thorn in AoPS's side. As I said, if I had control of the Web2.0 site, I would make some changes.
