Last night, Jonah struggled with a biology lab. His biology teacher is on maternity leave, and the substitute is less-than-awesome. Jonah and his friends texted each other for hours trying to figure out the answers to the questions. Jonah asked the teacher for help with formulating the hypothesis for the lab the day before, but she didn’t answer his question.

So, I sat down with him at the computer. He showed me the results of the lab, and I walked him through the lab with the help of some strategic googling for answers. “Definition organic molecules.” “Lipids.” I don’t know anything about biology, but between the wikipedia and some power point slides from his class, I could fake it. We printed out the lab two hours later. I didn’t write the lab for him, but I certainly walked him through it.

Was that ethical?

In Tablet, Marjorie Ingall goes to town on New York Magazine’s article on ethical parenting, and all parents who rationalize plain bad behavior to give their children an edge. She has highest contempt for gifted and talented schools.

Thoughts?