How Honest??

I have been grading discussion postings for my online classes and just came across a blatant case of plagiarism. This is not a matter of a student not understanding how to do a citation. This was direct cut and paste stealing words from another source that the student tried to pass off as his own.

Do I look that stupid?? It always amazes me when someone who can barely write a coherent sentence suddenly inserts prose with a vocabulary far beyond his/her own scope and expects me to buy it. So the student failed that assignment and was warned if it happened again he would fail the class, as stated in my academic honesty policy in the syllabus.

But it did raise the issue for me once more about why people cheat. No matter what some may say that "cheating only hurts yourself" that is not entirely true. Think of the potential consequences of having an airline pilot or surgeon who cheated his/her way through school.
There are far too many settings where someone passing off credentials s/he did not rightfully earn could have serious implications.

In many academic settings cheating is a huge problem. Unfortunately, too many teachers do not hold their students accountable. In an environment where points and grades are given more emphasis than subject mastery, even generally honest people are often tempted to cut corners if they can.

While I may get pious and indignant on this particular issue, I know there are areas in my own life where I could be more honest. That is an issue I've been examining of late...considering my own integrity and trying to "walk my talk" more consistently.

In the "big" areas I am quite clear on following a moral code of ethical behavior. But in too many "little" ways I fear I have slipped when it seems there are no consequences. However, the more I examine this issue the more I am coming to believe that a person's integrity is ALWAYS a big issue, even when the particular example at hand may seem entirely inconsequential.

Here is an example...I've offered to help a friend clean out her garage. We will load the junk in our truck and haul it off to the dump for her. Last Saturday the next town over, Milton-Freewater, was having "Free Dump Day" for anyone who had a M-F powerbill to prove their residency. Now, since we are talking about hauling off several loads, I must admit I was SORELY TEMPTED to simply have one of my M-F buddies ride along with us to make it possible to use her free dump pass rather than paying the $6.00 per load to use my own dump. I didn't do that. But I can't take credit for skipping that choice, since it was largely due to my husband saying there was no way his truck was going to take pirated garbage to an out of town dump. (Stuff like that is very clear for him).

Who would I have harmed had I done this? I'd have cheated my local dump out of the fees they were rightfully entitled to and I would have unnecessarily filled up the M-F dump faster. But more importantly, I would have compromised my integrity for a lousy $18 bucks.

I would never think of stealing $18,000. But isn't it just as wrong to cheat out $18?

So I'm working at taking stock of my day to day little choices to be able to look myself and my maker in the eye with a solid affirmative the next time I am asked "Are you honest?" Is it lying if I say NOTHING but know someone has a false impression about what I have said or done that I do not clarify? Is it dishonest to sell something without claiming attributes, but also not pointing out the deficiencies? Perhaps most important of all to me is the myriad ways that I do not lie to others, but am less that completely truthful with MYSELF in terms of owning my own intentions and behavior.

With student papers there is an easy way to check by running their work through GOOGLE or special plagiarism identifying software. When it comes to how I live my life, both in my head and in my conduct in the word, it takes a lot more soul searching.

This being human stuff ain't for sissies, ya know?