Intellectual Integrity: How Pervasive Is Cheating? Response

This article honestly shocked me. I had no idea students in college plagiarized that badly. But, a student mentioned in the article said that sources they used

"...did not need to be credited since they counted, essentially, as common knowledge."

This is a tough call to make because we all have common knowledge, we just reread a quick page somewhere online to assure that our statements are correct. I have done this before and did not cite those sources. It is like using a calculator to do simple addition; we know the answer, but we second guess ourselves causing us to seek unneeded help. This is a major issue in today's society---second guessing ourselves.

But, it is pretty obvious that people do not second guess themselves when plagiarizing, or perhaps they do, especially when they cheat. I feel like we have all cheated before, whether realizing it or not. Personally, I try not to cheat anymore because I realize that I would not understand the lesson. Which is why I turn in homework assignments in late. I would rather take in the knowledge instead of getting the full credit points. But, I do sometimes let students copy my work. I do not know what they go through at home/outside of school to cause them to not do their work, so if I can help them out, I will. I understand the feeling of going home and having a lot of awful things happen causing me to disregard my assignments, and then coming to school in a stressed/anxious mood the next day only causes me to feel the need to get the assignment done in a quick manner. Which caused me to "borrow" the student's work. It is not right, but we all have to find ways to make it through the day.

I think teachers should focus more on teaching younger children about actually attaining the knowledge instead of worrying about credit. Being raised in a 'points are all that matters' education has caused more stress than anything. It would be nice to understand what is being taught and to apply it rather than to worry about getting a 'good grade' for it.

The article I am refrencing this response to is this one.

Reading Response 6: If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince?

Lucy stays after school to work on an art project with Sam and she tries to make small talk with him. She tries to talk about art with him because they are both knowledgeable about this subject.

Sam created a painting of a lone table "they have at Starbucks, and on the table there's a coffee cup, a crumpled napkin, some change, and a half-eaten doughnut....you can feel the grains of sugar spilled on the table's surface and the sticky icing on the doughnut." If I were that good at detailed painting, I would have no problems in life because I could just paint out my stress.

Lucy basically had a monologue talking about how great and realistic the painting was. After going on for two hours, he put on his thick, black-rimmed glasses and said "Thanks." But Lucy did not like the way he said thanks. She described the way he said it as,

"Could you possibly crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of and stop bothering me?"

I can relate to the way Lucy is treated because that happens to me sometimes when I try to complement strangers. I am sure Lucy is feeling unwanted by a lot of people, from school and home. But knowing Lucy's character, she would not let that bother her.

The Theme Song of this Reading Response is:
Smallpools - No Story Time

G&C Project: Academic Argument Proposal

My topic will be about dealing with someone who has Autism. My brother has severe Autism and I can understand the struggle of how hard it is to deal with someone with this case.

Help is not equal for everyone with Autism, but there are many options out there for them.

I will discuss personal experiences and stories of dealing with Autism as well as how hard it is to maintain a good relationship with your family being a sibling of the autistic. There are jealousy issues, less attention, but more pressure to be the best because I am the only other child my parents have and I am their only hope of being "normal."
As well as talking about what options are there for people with Autism like getting case-workers, therapy, and job options.

Reading Response 5: Article 2

"Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model -- long hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization -- Finland's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play."

This quote shows that the "Asians are automatically smart" stereotype is not that all true. It is believed that Asians' parents enforce them to always study and work hard and that is the only way their test scores get so high. Finnish schools prove that that is not the only way to teach students.

For one thing, Finnish schools give out less homework and focus on hands-on activities for the children. From personal experience, I remember lessons done in class 'labs', while I do appreciate getting the extra practice and review at home from homework, some homework assignments drone on with repeating problems. Second thing, there are no private schools in Finland. Their education is public and free, "whether for pre-K or a Ph.D.". While in America, there are even high schools that cost thousands of dollars each year and most of these organizations are running for profit. Which a nicer way of saying that they only care about money, and not the student's overall well-being in the education system.

Thirdly, in Finland they give out no standardized tests. Also known as my dream come true. Standardized tests do not usually show a student's work ethic or comprehension of what they have learned. This is basically a test showing whether or not a student is a good test taker. They do not prove much of what a student is capable of and I cannot stand how colleges in America base some of their acceptance to their school just on a student's ACT/SAT score. It should be focused on what that student can do in individual class settings; how hard they work, how much they balance doing extracurricular activities, and so on.

"Finland's dream was that we want to have a good public education for every child regardless of where they go to school or what kind of families they come from, and many even in Finland said it couldn't be done."

This is an excellent dream to have and I agree with this statement 100%, no questions asked. Every student should be given the opportunity for an excellent education regardless of their backgrounds. Many teachers today give up on the student because of their harsh/rough background. Every thing that happens at home should stay at home and let the student escape that through their education. Especially coming from a low-income family where no one has gone to college before, I work hard to ensure that my background would not define my future.

Basically, I would love to live in a country such as Finland where education is about equal opportunities for everyone, (not to mention the beautiful sites there).