Plagiarism

Is there anything I hate more? Is there anything that gets me so angry at a student and makes me feel that I’ve wasted months trying to teach someone who hasn’t even been listening?

Many students don’t seem to realize that our minds are machines, and that if I have seen how the machine works, I also can detect when it is claiming to do something that it is not yet capable of doing. Even if the student has been quiet, I have been watching, listening, and reading. If the student writes something that was not thought on his or her own, I will smell it out. And the paper will fail.

Dear students: I don’t need you to be right. I don’t need you to be geniuses. I need you to make the attempt. I need you to test the capabilities of your mind and not fear being wrong. If you do that, I can help you. If you do that, I will do my best to be a mechanic and show you better ways to organize your thoughts and cultivate your mind. But if you plagiarize, and if you are afraid, there is absolutely nothing I can do for you. You are literally cheating yourself, because you are choosing to remain the same. You are choosing not to be my student, and I can only be your teacher in name only.

Plagiarizing is like going to a medical doctor when you are sick and lying to her about what foods, drinks, and drugs you have been taking. How can the doctor diagnose if they have been given a lie about the causes? Plagiarizing is like going to a financial advisor and lying about how much money you have, where it is invested, and what sort of debt you are in. Plagiarizing is like a media corporation that lies to the voters. Plagiarism is a robber of truth, a blockade to truth seekers, a misdirector to all people who want to use their intellect to improve a situation.

Needed to get that off my chest before I proceed.