It's your fault my kid's a cheater!

[Giggle Goose]

My mom called me today and told me that she was laughing hysterically at this letter that some irate mother wrote to THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER.

Apparently her daughter had gone to Borders and an employee assisted her in finding Cliff Notes, and she said the employee was unethical for doing that, because he "helped her find tools for cheating" or some shit like that.

Now, I could go on about how many levels of idiocy that is, but y'all usually do a better job of articulating such stoopid so I'll just let you have at it.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And here I thought this was going to be about some kid cheating in school and the parent blaming the school.

And how is using cliffs notes cheating if you're not using them during the test? I myself bought cliffs notes or looked things up on the Internet for information on readings I didn't quite understand the first time in my AP English class. Helped me to interpret what was going on better.

[Sliceanddice]

hey i buy cliff notes all the time. when i need to under stand a book writen 100 years ago(im goog at desipher weird languages [i think im almost able to speak welsh and galeic by now] but turn of the century english... good god thats confusing) and if im in a science class (i have hard time memorizing spelling) and most teachers ENCOURAGE these things, as they making studing easier.

[Jack7957]

One of my englih teachers in high school would specifically ask questions on the quiz/test that he knew were in the book, but not the cliff notes.

[Sparky]

I think the way most kids "cheat" with Cliff Notes is that they read the notes instead of reading the book.

But they are designed to be a legitimate study aid. Personally, I never liked them. I felt like they ruined the good stories. Many people find them helpful, though.

[Banrion]

Cliff Notes are not all inclusive, and they do take alot of the fun out of a book. I do however find them extremely helpful after I have read a book. Most of the time, the theme discussions and such don't really make sense without having read the book anyways, and anything you regurgitate from Cliff Notes without actually reading the book and thinking about it yourself sounds completely ridiculous and disjointed.

[Bright_Star]

So why isn't she helping her little darling with her school work instead of blaming everybody but herself? You know-sitting down with her in the evening & going over what she learned during the day. PLUS helping her with her homework. I don't mean doing her homework for her BUT assisting her when she gets stuck with a particular homework problem.
What's so difficult about doing that?

[Becks]

Ahhh...Cliff Notes.

I like them.

Always good to see how they...I guess do a book report...on a book.

I recommend CN for Pride and Prejudice.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I never used them, personally; then again, I was lucky in that in GCSE English I had just one boring book that could be discounted, and in A-Level all the books were interesting.

[powerboy]

I never used cliff notes. When I was in school, I just read that book.

[XCashier]

I never used Cliff Notes either, though I wish I had when my English teacher assigned us "The Sound And The Fury" by William Faulkner. Most books I have no trouble with, but I just couldn't wrap my brain around that one.

[Lace Neil Singer]

My nemesis was "The Mayor Of Casterbridge." X_x I just couldn't get past the first chapter, it was so yawn inducing.

[Gurndigarn]

I recommend CN for Pride and Prejudice.

No, P&P was actually readable. If you're going to do the Cliffys thing, do it for Grapes of Wrath, or Great Gatsby, or Moby Dick, or The Old Man and the Sea, or the longest book written in English: Billy Budd. 88 pages, large type, and it scarred me for life.

Come to think of it, just about any book written in America after Samuel Clemens until about 1950 is a good candidate for Cliff Notes.

All this from an English major, too. Well, the schooling did help me. I can now complain about so many more books than I could before I started.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I never used Cliff Notes either, though I wish I had when my English teacher assigned us "The Sound And The Fury" by William Faulkner. Most books I have no trouble with, but I just couldn't wrap my brain around that one.

Don't be ashamed. I majored in English Lit. That was the one book in all of college that I bought Cliff's Notes for. And I had to hunt them down, too. The first section is just so unintelligible.... And a couple weeks ago I was talking to a guy at work, and he was telling me how his girlfriend was reading it for a class and having a hard time with it, so I brought my Notes in for her to borrow (I still have all my English books from school).

It always did bug me though when high school kids would come in for Notes for things like Of Mice and Men...it's SIX CHAPTERS!! And you can usually tell when they are just trying to get out of actually reading the book.

I used them once in a while in high school too, but I actually liked to read the books.

[myswtghst]

My nemesis was "The Mayor Of Casterbridge." X_x I just couldn't get past the first chapter, it was so yawn inducing.

I completely agree. I totally bs'ed my way through everything to do with that book. I shouldn't be so proud, but I'm just glad I never actually had to read the whole thing. I didn't even use the Cliff's Notes, just my own skills.