In the 1980s and 1990s, if a high school student was down on their luck, short on time, and looking for an easy way out, cheating took real effort. You had a few different routes. You could beg your smart older sibling to do the work for you, or à la Back to School (1989), you could even hire a professional writer. You could enlist a daring friend to find the answer key to your homework on the teacher’s desk. Or you had the classic excuse: “The dog ate my homework,” and the like.
The advent of the internet made things easier, but not effortless. Sites like CliffsNotes and LitCharts let students skim summaries when they skipped the reading. Homework-help platforms such as GradeSaver or Course Hero offered solutions to common math textbook problems.
