Comments on: A History Of Cheating

By: Will John McCain and Sarah Palin Defraud the American People? « Café Philos: an internet café

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:16:09 +0000

[...] - Found on the blog of an American teacher [...]

By: Ana

Ana — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:09:21 +0000

Its amazing how many times I hear “Its not my job” in some way or other in the educational setting. We are EDUCATORS and whether we are teaching content or ethics, its all part of teaching our children to have integrity in and out of the classroom. Because so many of our students do not get the basics at home, what is to stop us from passing on some wisdom besides content that will only make them better persons which they in turn may pass on to others.

By: Damian Bariexca

Damian Bariexca — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:24:17 +0000

You’re right; there’s no excuse for lifting chunks of text and passing it off as their own, especially in high school (that’s just insulting; it’s like they’re not even putting any effort into cheating!). I guess I was thinking about inadvertent plagiarism via poor/incomplete citations with my comment about teaching.

The overall point I was trying to make was that if kids know they can get away with it with some teachers, they’ll be more likely to try it with other teachers, hence the need for everyone to be on the same page via a system-wide policy.

I can forward you some policy documents from my school to use as references/models if you’d like; drop me an email if you’re interested. They’re not perfect, but might work as a good starting point.

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:50:44 +0000

The more I think of this, I honestly do agree with you and others, Joel. But I’m not entirely certain that academic achievement is separate from discipline.

And Damian, I can say with a fair degree of comfort that students know when they have plagiarized by the time they reach high school. We’re dealing with entire paragraphs lifted verbatim from other sources. Kids know that is wrong, even if their teachers don’t directly say it.

An informal poll around my department says that we all give a zero to the offending paper with no chance at a make up. A school policy would be a good idea. I’ll talk to my principal.

By: Joel

Joel — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:54:52 +0000

Enrollment in AP classes should have NOTHING to do with disciplinary/behavioral violations. Ban the kid from prom, not Advanced Placement Comparative Government. Academic achievement should not be hindered because of a misstep outside the classroom–they are two separate spheres and should be treated as such.