Blog #1 Sages!
What high school has taught me about intellectual property, academic integrity and cheating...
Although it has been a couple years since I have attended high school, I recall that most of my teachers and administrators emphasized the importance of academic integrity. In high school, violating academic integrity resulted in a failing grade for the assignment (i.e. test, quiz, etc.) and suspension, dependent on the severity of the offense. Cheating, plagiarism, stealing copies of a test or quiz, and furnishing false assignments was all considered a violation of academic integrity. In high school, the students were made aware of these various transgressions, but, often, students still engaged in these “activities”. Teachers were often unaware of these instances or they simply did not take the time to examine the work that the students had completed. Thus, resulting in the engagement of these practices regularly by students.
The high school that I attended did not consider academic integrity to be a joke nor were students allowed to merely copy information in regards to any assignment. Teachers strongly enforced academic integrity, especially my teachers, though, this may give me an unfair bias. I took almost all AP and advanced courses; therefore, my classes were much more intense than other students’ classes. Throughout the years, though, many students would advise me of how they cheated on a test, and some would even steal the tests from the teachers’ desks. No administrator, teacher, or student ever caught these students, and I am not aware that any person in charge ever punished these students. Thus, one can assume that, although, the academic integrity codes were strict and the punishments clear, often these students would continuously violate the rules without penalization.
Furthermore, this proves that although the rules were clear, there was a lack of enforcement and awareness. Perhaps, teachers trusted the students too much or they simply were oblivious to them cheating, plagiarizing, and stealing tests, this I can not confirm either scenario. Either way, high school taught students that although it is wrong to violate academic integrity, it is easy to get away with doing it. The problem with this type of thinking is that it does not “cut it” in the real world. In the reality, failure to cherish intellectual property is a fatal career move. Very rarely will one find a student who does not think that cheating and plagiarizing is morally incorrect, but, unfortunately, this does not usually stop him or her from engaging in such activity. This is a problem that is not easily solved; some teachers may simply overlook a little plagiarizing “here or there”, and most simply do not recognize the infractions.
In conclusion, many students do not actually experience “integrity” in their schoolwork. Thus, there is most likely a “bigger player”, morality, at hand. High school and school in general can only guide students on the right path, they cannot teach students to have integrity. Therefore, students are aware of academic integrity in high school, but both teachers and students are at times unable to recognize the importance of intellectual property.
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