I think this article highlights a wider issue within American society. American children are lazy and manipulative. In England we do not suffer from this problem because we teach our children that the best way to get ahead is not to create a lawsuit but to think and rationalise. Americans seem to lack this notion. As part of the British nobility and as a succesful businessman I constantly have to quell peasants uprisings. I find that after a while they realise they cannot win and do what I say. If you obey your social superiors you can thrive and prosper in Britain!

The rule is the rule, you did your job.
Paining over the implications of your discovery do nothing but bring unnessesary guilt upon you.
I would assume that if you did not report the offense and it was discovered by a peer, YOU would be the one
facing dismissal.
Legally, ethically, and morally, you did what you had to do.

Now if more people would do the same.............................

I agree you did the right thing..... I myself am a college student and its hard to not do it.... there is a website called turnitin.com that you can submit your papers to and it will show you where it has been plagerised and where they got it from. I even run my papers through there so i know b4 hand.... then i can fix it :o)

Sir Peter, I have appreciated the British educational system. Whilst I will not pass judgements on British children, particularly the "peasants" who egged me last Halloween, I would say that yes, this is a larger problem with kids thinking they can weasel their way out of tight spaces and parents who seem to support them (I'm thinking hockey dads who kill other hockey dads aren't setting great examples for their kids, but hey, maybe that's the American Dream). So, Sir Peter, there is a note of truth to your hyperboleic post. (Are you actually British? I haven't read your blog enough yet, but your spelling would seem to confirm it.)

Yes i am British. Where are you from?

I'm American, but I went to Oxford, and have traveled the isles and generally enjoyed the place. My fiance and I are looking into moving there once we marry. It's refreshingly un-American. What part of the UK are you from?

-T.

Can you please start failing people on JoeUser? :)

End of quote

lol amen...

And yes, I agree, it's only right that you failed her.

~Dan

Angloesque--
It's tough not not sympathize with somebody when they are in a bad situation, it's hard to keep a level head and to know what is right in general and what is right for them. It's tough to have empathy but no sympathy. It's the difference between keeping somebody from making mistakes and facing the consequences and by doing so, keeping them from succeeding; verses allowing them the chance to fail, therein allowing them the chance to eventually succeed. You did what was right for her, and if she is wise, it will help her down the line. : )

*sniffles and gets expelled 'cuz dean Wardell kicked him out*

Can someone clarify if it actually is so difficult to write their own 'original' material? I've never had that problem and it baffles me that people would plagarize short of being lazy..

Peter,
please save me the crap. I have seen numerous British students plagiarise. There is a very serious problem in one if the UK's top universities with this at the moment. Almost half an entire class is under threat of expulsion. But don't worry, I'm sure their rich aristocratic parents can offer the university enough cash to brush the problem under the carpet. Standard British solution to the problem. Plagiarism, what plagiarism? Luckily many of the local companies have signed a petition stating that they will refuse to accept graduates from that university unless the university deals with this issue seriously.

Paul.

I'm for any punishment that offers no opportunity for redemption. Hell, why not just break all her fingers too? God damn cheaters. Everyone in the class should get to beat her with their bookbags for an hour or you could make her into the class spitoon for a week.

Seriously, though, I remember teachers like this and the only lesson I learned was to cheat smarter. It took other teachers later in life a lot of effort to convince me that I was only cheating myself. In other words, they weren't lazy (like you) and taught me integrity and self-worth as well as the coursework.

Oh, and don't get me wrong - they punished me as well, but that was unavoidable and not vindictive (like you).

Matt's right. College students are only children (even though they aren't). They know not what they do.

It's also funny how you blame others for your dishonest actions Matt. It's a shame nobody ever taught you accountability for your own actions.

SuperBaby, I didn't blame anyone else for my actions. Also, if you read what I wrote it's plain that I learned accountability, responsability, integrity, duty and so on.

As a teacher - a teacher - I expect one thing. Teaching. And I've met far too many teachers who power trip first and teach a distant second.

Ask yourself if you've done anything to help that cheating student, or if you've just scored an easy vengeance on a helpless target. There are plenty of ways you can punish for wrongdoing that are object lessons (trust me, I know) and will result in a punished (accountable) student as well as an educated one.

For cheating you want to expell from school? Is that really the best you can come up with?

1) Maybe rather than blame teachers for not teaching children (in college) integrity and honesty, maybe you should blame your own parents. They're the ones who are supposed to teach their children integrity and honesty. Too many people want others to raise their children and then they wonder why their children end up so screwed up?
2) I never knew students who plagiarized were helpless and had no other alternative, like doing the work (even on the night before its due) or not doing it and just suffering one bad grade. I guess I should have plagiarized so that people would pity me. Instead, I just didn't do the work for that one assignment (or did it but really half-ass) and still got an A.
3) Let's see. You expect a teacher to teach. This English teacher teaches English as it is an English class, and you see something wrong with that? Is every college course supposed to spend half the time teaching students about honest and integrity lest the students didn't learn about it from their parents when they were children?
4) If college students really are expected to be as naive and ignorant of the world as you make them out to be, maybe we need to raise the age of adulthood to 30.
5) If I were to steal from my company, would they be wrong in firing me on the spot even if they didn't teach me about honesty and integrity in the workplace because they expected me to learn it from elsewhere (which I might have, except I didn't listen in the first place because I wasn't taught how to listen by all my professors at Yale).

1. I'd rather not blame at all. Unlike you, I've proposed an alternative to the original problem, catching someone for plagiarism. I think setting a task or punishment for the student that will both educate as well as reprimand.
2. When you're done yapping from your high horse, come on down here where everyone makes mistakes, and it's possible to throw the bathwater out without tossing the baby.
3. Try to remember that teachers are human beings, not machines. I said I -expect- teaching from them, but that doesn't mean that nothing else can come from them. In fact, it's impossible to avoid many lessons that occur naturally in the teacher-student interaction. Lessons like "I'm the boss and you're my little bitch" -OR- "I respect you because you respect me."
4. You are comparing school with work. There is no point in addressing this straw man argument.

Baby, I figure you're just feeling extra hot-n-bothered by being on the internet, but you'd be better off spending your vitriol on more positive endeavors. Really.

Oops, I messed up the numbers there. Well, you'll figure it out.

Unless by making this mistake you now think I should be banned from writing on the forums. *giggle*

Matt,

sounds to me like you'd rather blame Angloesque for setting a specific disciplinary action. I presume that it was made clear to the students before papers were assigned that "Plagiarism = F". That is a simple, easy-to-understand, well-stated punishment for plagiarism.
I don't know if "Plagiarism on Paper X = F on X" or "Plagiarism on any paper = F for course". The first should be more to your liking, since it offers the possibility that one's grades on other papers may carry them successfully through the course. The fact that for this student, "F = violates academic conditions for continued enrollment" is unfortunate, to be sure. However, laying out consequences for plagiarism, and then carrying through on the consequences, does teach an important lesson: actions have consequences. And that sounds like a lesson this student was (and may still be) in need of learning.

It's clear from the tone of her post that Angloesque did not want to cause the student's expulsion, and that it was an undesirable side effect of assigning the failing grade. You need to get off your own high horse; there's a clear difference between making a mistake and getting caught cheating.

Matt, you accuse Super Baby of being on a high-horse when you call Angloesque "lazy" because they didn't try to 'rehabilitate' the student. This poor unfortunate student is in for alot more trouble than just plagarism, as Angloesque mentioned..But the professors should accept this kind of behavior? Jeebus, what a landslide in society in general!
Angloesque, powertrip away. Some people deserve it beyond compare.

You know the rules..you break them, you get punished. How isn't it that simple?

I simply can't believe it is okay to willingly break a rule and whine when you get caught and punished for it.. That's outrageous.

1. I'd rather not blame at all. Unlike you, I've proposed an alternative to the original problem, catching someone for plagiarism. I think setting a task or punishment for the student that will both educate as well as reprimand.

Being expelled educates as well as reprimands. It teaches the student that cheating will not be tolerated. One reaps what they sow.

2. When you're done yapping from your high horse, come on down here where everyone makes mistakes, and it's possible to throw the bathwater out without tossing the baby.

You're right. People don't intentionally plagiarize. It's as common as tripping or shoplifting. Something one can't help.

3. Try to remember that teachers are human beings, not machines. I said I -expect- teaching from them, but that doesn't mean that nothing else can come from them. In fact, it's impossible to avoid many lessons that occur naturally in the teacher-student interaction. Lessons like "I'm the boss and you're my little bitch" -OR- "I respect you because you respect me."

Yes. I'm sure this teacher treated her students like bitches for punishing them when they do a really bad thing.

4. You are comparing school with work. There is no point in addressing this straw man argument.

School doesn't have work, expectations, or rules like work does?

What's bothering me is the idea that somehow the teacher is a bad person for disciplining somebody for a serious offense (and no, it's not the teacher's responsibility to raise one's children), and that the plagiarist is some victim who didn't intend to plagiarize and didn't understand why plagiarism is wrong. If a college student actually still doesn't understand what's wrong with plagiarism, then perhaps that student should be sent back to the third grade because he clearly is too stupid for his own good.

Ask yourself if you've done anything to help that cheating student, or if you've just scored an easy vengeance on a helpless target. There are plenty of ways you can punish for wrongdoing that are object lessons (trust me, I know) and will result in a punished (accountable) student as well as an educated one.

End of quote

First, I wouldn't call her "helpless" as you do. Second, I go over plagiarism the second day in class, every class, every term. I talk about its effects, about authors (i.e. Ambrose) whose credibility can get ruined even if it's accidental; I talk about the students' own credibility and integrity, and how this isn't something they want haunting them the rest of their lives. I talk about ways to avoid it (don't copy and paste from Internet, even if it's a quote) and I talk about ways to use sites like Sparknotes that give you background information on characters, especially in older literature, rather than using them to regurgitate what they say (i.e. plagiarize). Matt, maybe you should've taken my class and you would've learned sooner.

Angloesque - My main base is in Gloucestershire. Where abouts are you thinking of settling after your marriage?

Sir Peter--I think I've been to a cathedral around there...Gloucester Cathedral? or was it an abbey?...it's been awhile. I'm pretty sure it was a cathedral. First one I'd been to, actually, and that was back when I thought you pronounced it "Glow-chester-SHIRE."

Unfortunately, we'd probably settle in London, though I'm hoping for one of the better boroughs. I am really not a city person, but he is and I figure we can live urbanly (urbanely?) while we're young and settle more to my liking when we're old. Anyway, we won't know for a couple months. In the meantime, cheers. (I really picked that up while I was over there. I hope that doesn't make me a lame American....)