Cheating?

* 'Blatant copying' in coursework *
Examiners were surprised at obvious examples of copying in coursework for this year's GCSE English.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/education/4399590.stm

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Cheating is not something new. I recall in one of my schools we had to indicate we had not cheated by writing "Pledge" on each of our pieces of written work, which stood for "I have neither received nor given assistance in doing this paper (exam)."

I wonder, however, what the pressures and possibilities for cheating are now that: a) students are being pushed competitively to 'score' to move on to their next level of studies and b) teachers are being ever more pressured with increased teaching loads -- particularly overburdened teachers K-12 and higher education part-timers, often pressed to the limit with their own studies/research, family obligations such as joint child care, etc.

I ask much of my students in the way of critical research and make it clear that citing sources -- either direct quotations or indirect references or paraphrases is fine. Not doing so is plagiarism, i.e. cheating. Nevertheless I am obliged to reject and return to students papers which have not done so. I have never seen both students and their teachers more pressed by externals -- both life stresses and extrinsic demands for increased 'productivity', improved scores by students at the lower levels, incentives to obtain a specific score on an external exam in order to qualify for admission to X. Little wonder, perhaps, that there is so much cheating going on in the 'real' world where Medicaid reimbursements are fudged, patients die routinely in our hospitals and retirement homes because of careless errors committed by overworked/undertrained medical personnel, dangerous goods, even medications, are pressed on the public to cite only one domain where the ethic used to be one of preserving and enhancing life.

Our modern post-industrial world looks to be in serious trouble, if lying is to become our national standard from the top down -- those non-existent weapons of mass destruction that have us mired in Iraq, the outing of a CIA agent by our Vice President's office, torture for fun and games in our national gulags here and prison operations scattered here, there and elsewhere around the world by our military and CIA?

I thought millions of our good young people's lives were sacrificed in the brutal wars of the 20th century to end off these sorts of things?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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