My friend thinks I'm cursed. I taught three semesters of freshmen at Northwestern College and had one plagiarized paper each semester. Of course, all three of them vehemently denied it, and I'm such a push-over that I let them off the hook easy, and they all still passed their classes (even if they failed that paper). Well, here I am, still at a Christian college, and I got two word-for-word identical homeworks yesterday. It's just not fair. Don't they know how absolutely sick they make me feel when I have to confront them and punish them? I seriously will lose sleep over these cases (well, not yesterday's homework so much as those plagiarized papers), but I just don't get it. I cheated one time in 5th grade, and the trauma of being caught has stuck with me for the past 17 years!
I did have a helpful conversation with a missionary today who's taught this class before as a sub, and she said it's cultural. They honestly don't view it as cheating but as "sharing." She said, in fact, some students argued with her that it was the Christian thing to do. Flabbergasted, she asked how lying could be the Christian thing, and they'd never considered it like that. They saw it as helping out your fellow man in need. Oh well, I still have so much to learn.
On another note, I really like to eat pumpkins. I'm missing pumpkins right now.
2 comments:
I'm sorry that you have to deal with that! Confrontation like that does not sound pleasant whatsoever. Plus you are dealing with the cultural part of it as well that does not necessarily even make sense to you. :( Good luck! I'll pray for you!
Hi Katrina - I can tell that I'm going to have a great time reading your blog! And yes, on the "cheater, cheater" issue - it comes up every year in my 2nd level class! And yes, I was appalled when it first happened and now I'm kind of used to it. The other missionary you talked to was correct - it's not looked upon as lying or cheating, but rather sharing. Not that it makes it right, but it might explain why it's so prevalent! Sorry - I guess you're having your own "baptism" in a sense as a first year teacher here (but thankfully nothing like what we saw on Friday for the 1st year students - that was unbelievable! yikes!)
Anyways - hope you have a good week!
Ruth :-)
Post a Comment