This is a sad blog entry for me to write and one I really don't want to write, but feel in my heart I should. I am very upset and disappointed about something I found out yesterday and feel it would be wrong for me to cover it up and pretend it never happened, and not at all beneficial to Mason for me to do so. So... here goes. First of all, about 2 months ago I caught Mason cheating on a Chemistry test. He had found the quiz and test keys I kept in a drawer in my office. I caught him pulling out the answers he had written on an index card from his sweatshirt pocket during the test. I was shocked that he would do such a thing. I don't know, I just have thought of Mason as someone who I never had to worry about doing such things. Anyway, he was punished and I moved and hid the quiz & test key books, not saying anything about it to anyone. He seemed very remorseful and tearfully promised me this was the first and only time he had cheated. I (the sucker that I am) believed him. Since then he has done OK on test and quizzes, usually not A's, as before, but OK (B's & C's). Well, yesterday when I was moving furniture, I lifted a chair cushion and found an index card with some writing on it. It didn't take long to figure out, these were cheat notes. My heart just sank. I got out the test key book and found the test key they were copied from and it was the 2nd test of this year! I didn't catch him cheating until a couple of months ago which was over halfway into the school year. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he had lied to me about only cheating on one test, so Bo & I confronted him and he tried to say this cheat note was the same one I caught him with before and yes, that was the only test he ever cheated on. After proving to him that it wasn't the same cheat note, he finally came clean and admitted he had been cheating in several subjects, but not all. But who can believe that after all this?? I believe he has probably cheated on most of his tests and quizzes for a long time and probably in the other two grades too. After all, the keys were in a drawer in my office the whole time, although you can be sure they are not there now.

I felt I needed to tell this because of all the glowing reports I have given you all on how well Mason has done in school since we started homeschooling. One reason it is a hard thing to tell is that I, as his teacher and mom feel it is a bad reflection on me. It sure is nice to tell how well he is doing and feel so proud of him. Makes me look like a great mom and teacher! But it's not so easy to tell this story. Also, I think it would be detrimental to Mason to cover this up for him, and he needs consequences for his actions, one of which is loosing the respect (be it ill-gotten) he had gained of others concerning his schoolwork, (--which I do believe can be earned back thru honest hard work).

Well, that's the end of this sad tale. Please know it is heartbreaking and humbling for me to tell it.