It Makes No Sense to Me

Saturday our school hosted a Scholars Bowl tournament, which my wife, daughter, and I helped at.  My daughters were both involved with Scholars Bowl when they were in high school, in fact at the high school I was principal our oldest daughter was a member of the Scholars Bowl team that won the state championship.  I was as proud as if she had been a member of a state championship basketball team, and it is the only state title the school has won.

I think it is called Quiz Bowl in some other states, at any rate it is an academic competition.  The students are allowed 10 seconds, except most math questions are longer, to answer questions.  To me this type of competition is the very essence of our profession and its fun.  If you like Jeopardy you'll like Scholars Bowl.

Here is the part that confuses me.  It is a competition, there is a winner and loser.  The students are allowed to talk to each other or look at each others papers when working math problems, until a contestant buzzes in.  Which is legal, once a contestant buzzes in the talking must cease.

My one and only question is:  If we allow this type of collaboration during a competition why is it considered cheating in day to day operation of school?  It makes no sense to me.