The Lesson of "Bad Genius" is More Than Just "Cheating Never Pays Off"

Sometimes, much truth can be told in fiction, right? Talk about how the great Jose Rizal revealed much truth in his fictional novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The digital age today would create more entertaining media. I may encourage book reading over movie watching. However, some movies may do more than entertain. They can also address a real issue. It was said that a cheating scandal in China inspired the producers Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak to create the film Bad Genius. Right now, there's even a TV series presumably because a movie can't always deliver the message one wants. How does the whole thing go? I was inspired to watch this film because of comments from a Facebook friend's post. The post also talked about how students cheat because the system cares more about grades than learning. 

As the world becomes more global, exposure to Thai cinema is definitely not surprising. Sure, one can talk about the South Korean wave or the increasing number of Mandarin speakers. That's why you'll see me make posts on what was wrong with the way Chinese was taught in Chinese schools. Endless memorization without understanding is not the way to go. Cheating happening left and right. One Chinese teacher I knew caught my classmate cheating and the following year, she also caught another student cheating. The student caught cheating left the school because of some conflict. I heard it from a cousin of that second student. Out of respect for privacy, I won't mention their names. I still feel the need to talk with several people and discuss more ideas. Right now, this might be all I can do to discuss the problems.

The movie highlights a lot of bad choices made by several characters. What led to those bad choices? More often, cheating is solely blamed on the students. Sometimes, we talk about the lack of honesty in a school. Some schools even go as far as to accept money and change results. For example, a valedictorian and a salutatorian swap places. The reason was that the salutatorian's family gave plenty of donations to the school's foundation. I feel that some people end up transferring to other schools, not because the school was too difficult for them. Instead, it had to do with the fact that 

Lynn's father transfers her to a prestigious school. People often tend to believe that the more expensive something is, the better it is. Some people will buy branded stuff believing they're better. Some people will eat in expensive restaurants even when some affordable restaurants taste better. The same can go for schools. It reminds me of a childish quarrel I had with someone who said, "The best school is the most expensive school." It reminds me of why I wanted a limousine when I was 11 years old also for that reason. Sure, something super cheap breaks really fast. However, what's super expensive isn't guaranteed to be good. It might even be a scam to scam the socialite-minded. Recently, I could care less about the brand of my car, as long as it does a good job. Somehow, Lynn's father thought that transferring his daughter to that school was "for the best". Lynn could've stayed in her old school and the mess wouldn't have happened. Instead, Lynn's father foolishly decided to move her there.

The scene where Lynn makes mental computations makes me jealous. I remember getting mad in mathematics class, because someone I used to hate, could compute faster than I could. The same guy then said, "Well, but you can compose words faster than I can. We're different." The teacher tried to help me but I was just too angry to even for that. Lynn befriends a rich but not good student named Grace and later, Grace's boyfriend Pat. Later, Lynn also gets involved with Bank (whose mother had to handwash clothes as the washing machine broke). These form a quartet that created a very criminal scheme. I've heard of fake thesis in the ally. Fortunately, I didn't resort to that during my MBA days. A fake thesis is easily caught because you can't defend what you didn't make. However, many holes in the education system need to be tackled. 

While looking for the moral lessons for Bad Genius, I found the four lessons one can learn from the movie. There was corruption in the school where she was in. One of Lynn's amazing discoveries was, "It was only when Lynn saw the test paper during the exam and it so happened that the professor himself conducted a tutorial class during weekends and the test questions were that of the exam." Then there's this one that would prove why the crime happened in the first place:

Sure, Lynn was so smart that she came up with the idea of using piano keys to give answers during examinations. Lynn earned lots of cash but despite that, I think she knew deep inside that money isn't everything. I mean, she's a straight A student and she did it all by her hard work. I think Lynn only took the deal to get even with the school's hidden agenda. When Lynn, found out the school is taking money from rich students who cannot get to pass examinations but still want to stay in the academy, she decided to take things in her own hands.

It was pretty much like a dangerous drug. Sure, I never got into shabu or cocaine. I don't intend to even try them because not everything is worth trying. It's like how people intentionally irritate others because it feels good. I feel that Lynn felt good in helping Grace out. Okay, then what happens next? I remember I used to tease a girl a lot after I enjoyed her reaction. I remember a person used to tease me a lot because of my reaction. It felt good, didn't it? Then I thought that it felt good to yell at others because it made me feel powerful. I guess that's what happened to Lynn. Lynn felt powerful when she helped Grace. Lynn felt so important and so did Bank. The scheme went from Thailand all the way to Sydney. That's where the whole cheating scam soon fell apart. 

Lynn used a very sophisticated cheating method, one that I never tried. Lynn used the piano keys to represent a certain letter. The teachers of that corrupt school never noticed the codes. It became a very addicting practice. Why stop there with just the students of that corrupt school? Speaking of which, it was also a double standard to call Lynn out for cheating when the teachers themselves were guilty of it too. The payment scheme would put the school into question. In the end, Bank was expelled but was it because he was too poor to bribe them? Did the school only expel Bank to save their face because of the STIC scandal?

I'm glad I didn't take part in those schemes. One of the things I did to people asking for leakage was just to say, "The professor sure tortured us well!" Sure, I did attempt to cheat more than once. I remember writing the answers on my legs. There have been various methods like asking the checker to change the answer, that small piece of paper, hand signals, paper planes, etc. I even had a classmate who tried getting suspended for cheating twice. This one is one elaborate cheating scheme that I may fail in trying to pull off. Lynn and Bank were in Syndey, Australia. There are different time zones between Thailand and Australia. It was a very convoluted scheme that almost felt like it was best reserved for superhero fiction. I guess it's part of the fun of the movie. 

A lot of scenes may feel exaggerated. Taking too long to stay in the toilet to text answers to the other side. Was there mobile data or what? I guess the use of some smartphone applications allowed it. I can definitely use WeChat to talk to someone in another country. Eventually, the proctors started to notice something wasn't right. Still, I can't deny the scenes using mobile phones reminded me of why they weren't allowed for teenagers. In college, we had to use a calculator and cellphones weren't allowed to be used as such. My cost accounting teacher would say, "It's hard to tell if students are texting each other or punching in the numbers." The film further made me thankful for why teachers refused to let mobile phones be used back in my day. Today, it's already smartphones and I remember having my Nokia phone. Good old days all before Nokia refused to evolve. 

When I look at what's texted, it was mostly because of multiple choice exams. Sure, one can always have Set A and Set B to prevent cheating. I remember getting a Set A and a Set B. I was thankful for those Set A and Set B exams. I guess that's why both Bank and Lynn were texting answers for Set A and Set B. There was even this scene where Pat used a barcode pencil to leak out the answers. Eventually, the whole scheme started to fall apart. The students who wanted easy results started to fall down. I did laugh at those scenes. Easy come is easy go, right? It's pretty much like people who try to get rich quick fast, are bound to lose their fortunes fast. Grace got a high grade only because Lynn helped her. Lynn soon leaked more answers. The only focus was on the grades. The multiple choice exams tend to only test memorization over learning. With that in mind, grades become more focused on those standardized tests. People wanted a better future and were told their grades mattered more than their learning. Some parents even care more about their child's grades than the learning. 

I guess the scene can help explain trends back in the 1990s. I remember computer game cheat devices like the Game Genie and Gameshark. Why did gamers buy those? It's because they wanted to get the highest score in the game. I remember how people shared cheat codes in video games in the 1990s. I confess that I was also into that! However, the dawn of Internet gaming came in and cheat devices became a thing of the past. Online cheating can get one eliminated from the game. It's because games these days would rank achievements by trophies. I was wondering if the games having that unusually high difficulty was one of the reasons why cheat devices were highly demanded. People would only talk more about their scores than the learning curve. I wonder how true it is people even hacked the arcades to establish themselves with that high score? 

Now, the biggest constraint in the cheating scam kicks in. Lynn finally admitted to Grace and Pat that she could no longer help them. The reason was that the exam type would be essay. If there was one type of exam I loved, it was an essay exam. Sure, we need to memorize facts and figures to have good essays. I can't write good essays on the importance of mathematics and science without knowing the facts and figures. Sure, I didn't get the hang of it (at first) but a teacher kept telling me to think outside the box. The same teacher is no longer teaching. In the essay, it can be very difficult to cheat. I remember a couple of teachers who could easily catch copying assignments. 

As the movie was about to end, Lynn, the mastermind of the STIC scandal, finally had enough. Unfortunately, Bank became corrupted by power after he opened his own laundry business. It turns out that Bank decided to stoop down to the level of the corrupt school. It was very heartbreaking to see Bank having become corrupted, even after he had pure motives to help his mother out. Bank offered Lynn to join a new scam. Lynn decided to turn him down. Bank threatened to expose Lynn. Lynn was already determined to expose herself anyway. The movie ends with Lynn finally ready to admit what she did wrong. Lynn decided to come clean and turn herself in.

To summarize the movie's events, I feel it goes this way. If Lynn's father didn't fall for the prestige scam, the incident may have never happened. Lynn was probably better off in her old school. Instead, the temptation for power was there. Lynn, was after all, in a single-parent household and her parents divorced. The father wasn't thinking clearly Then there's the school system where rich students could bribe for the answers. I even feel like saying that if Lynn's father never moved Lynn to that corrupt school--the events of the movie would never have taken place. The whole scandal can be summarized as, "Because the education system cares more about grades than learning, students and teachers are stuck in the same mess (read here). As a result, punishing cheating and bribery becomes near-useless." 

What's even more is that Thailand has a very poor education system. I guess the makers of the movie were aware of Thailand's bad education. If grades mattered more than learning then why learn? It's pretty much-replacing monuments of learning with monuments of stone. If being an honor student matters more than learning--why not bribe the school to be on top even if your child learned nothing. Right now, I feel the film needs to be shown in schools and in the education departments. They need to dig through the film and realize that the education system is what produces bad teachers. It's not just a matter of who runs the system, it matters more on the system that people follow!