Why do children ask homework questions, verbatim, on Yahoo! Answers? Why does anyone offer them answers?

The child is lazy. The answerer is either after the 10-point-best-answer or genuinely thinks he's helping the child, not realising that by giving the answer straight out, the child no longer practises at thinking and learning.

When I see a question that reads verbatim as homework, I just don't feel like answering at all. Occasionally, I write down (rather tediously) HOW to solve it, but no final answers.

I guess only the parents are in some sort of position to limit this abuse, by regulating the child's use of the internet.

You might also try giving homework, but not to be submitted nor marked. Use it as a basis of graded board work -- randomly call students to show their homework solutions on the board, and mark them on that.

I think that is true. People are asking for help when obviously they hadn't studied, tried, gone to the library or done anything other than maybe look it up on Google quickly. I think it is unfair. I mean yeah fair enough they still learn the answer, but it isn't the answer that matters, it's the way they get that answer. If they don't know how to work things out for themselves, when they get in class work, tests or exams they won't have a clue and they will suffer. Even if the answerer writes in their formula, it may not make sense to the student and they won't be able to apply it to their work.

I think that all people should do is give a website or recommend a book. Things that can help the student find the answer, and point them in the right direction. I completely agree with you.

This bothers me greatly as well. I feel like the youth of today are going right down the toilet academically.

It shows complete laziness on the child's part. If they feel the need to use the computer to help them with their homework then the least they could do is look-up the answer and read a little about how it is solved.

I don't blame the Yahoo users though. It is NOT their responsibility. We are here to answer questions and earn points.

The blame in my opinion rests solely on the parents. I have two daughters myself and as soon as they come home from school I am opening their homework folder and seeing what work they have to do. Then after they have their after-school snack they have to sit down and do their homework. I monitor them while they are doing this. If they have problems, I am there to help. If I don't understand the work myself then I use the computer to look it up. I don't straight out give them the answer though. I try to explain to them how to work it out on their own.

More parents need to take an active role in their child's education. I don't think most parents even know what their child is learning in school currently, nevermind what they have for homework.

It scares me to think that there is 1. either no parent home to monitor the child on the internet while they are asking for the answers to their homework or 2. that their parent(s) are home and just don't give a darn that their kid is using the internet to basically cheat on their homework.

These kids will not get far in life. It is horrible.

I see this also. I replied to one, saying that they should just look the answer up in the text, and got reported for my efforts. Yet the asker had asked the exact same question 4 times in 4 different categories within about 5 minutes time, violating YA guidelines. He/she also had asked similar questions that looked like homework questions over the last several weeks.

I'd like to see this sort of thing listed as an offense in the YA guidelines. It probably won't stop them from trying it, unfortunately.

Usually a kid will only ask one or two questions that they are having problems with. I give the the answer and they way I found the answer. I answer them the way I would my daughter. I guess I just thought of it as a type of web search, but with actual people answering instead of finding different web sites.

i think that it's nice that there is a place like this where kids are able to get help for their homework but asking for a whole answer i would say is abusing homework help topic and such. Still like my teacher says you don't learn anything from cheating and it'll show on a test. but those who use this for help will learn something and it'll help on tests.

I can't blame them if they truly are stumped. I go to the Internet if I don't know the answer to something. I just hope they don't rely on some of these answers. (Some answers in here are really off base!)

It's always good to be aware of this problem. Parents, pay attention to your children!!

It's not just children, it seems to be older students as well. If they're asking a poll type question I don't mind responding, but it's just as easy for them to do the research as anyone of us. They don't learn when someone hands them the answer. Just laziness on their part.

As a parent, my high school son will come to me with a question he is stumped on. I usually do not know the answer so I look on the internet. If I find the answer I usually give it to him. I don't think that is a problem at all.

I agree with above, it is only one question! If it was the whole assignment I wouldn't do it.

I agree that people shouldn't answer, but people want 10 points for the best answer. As for stopping it, try making parents a little more aware.