One Friday, I handed back the students' weekly journals.  One
student came up to me asking, "What does this 'AAO' in the margin mean?"

        "'All At Once.' It means you made all your entries at the same
time."

        "No, I didn't"

        "Didn't you?"

        "No"

        "You didn't?"

        "Well, there's an entry for each day," she defended herself

        "What was the one rule for writing journals?"

        "Make an entry each day."

        "Did you?"

        "Well, I didn't have time and I remembered what I had done."

        "But, you found the time at the last minute to date each entry for
the whole week as if you had.  You remember the 'Words For The Day' I once
put on the Board?  'Those that live by the last minute, die by the last
minute.' You lied.  Twice.  You died."

        "I didn't lie."

        "What do you call it when you say you did something and
didn't--twice?"

        Ignoring my question, she asked "Do I get an 'F' for this
assignment?"

        "Not if you learn from you mistake and don't do it again.  But,
there are always consequences," I softly say with a caring smile.
"It will cost you.  Donuts for everyone.  Monday."

        "I don't have the money."

        "Donuts...Monday....Fresh yummy ones from Dixie Cream."

        "Where's Dixie Cream?"

        "Find it."

        "I don't have the time."

        "Find it....Monday....Donuts."

        "I thought you were nice."

        "I am.  I'm what you call 'tough nice.' Donuts....Monday....Dixie
Creams."

        She brought them in to the delight of everyone in the class.  And
the lesson was learned.

        Goodness knows that there have been tomes written on the subject
of corner-cutting, cheating, and plagarism.  The internet is abuzz with
this subject lately as if it was a new-found issue.  It is an issue that
grinds teeth, snarls lip, grimaces cheeks, clenches hands, stomps feet,
throws up arms, and shakes heads.  Today academics moan about the
high-tech internet as a source of plagarism.  When I was a student in the
late 1950s professors moaned about low-tech "fraternity files."  Today,
academics moan about e-mailing, surfing, and googling to buy a research
paper.  When I was a student professors moaned how easily it was to ask
around and find a ghost writer on campus.  The more things change, the
less they change.  It's obvious that threats of failure, probation,
expulsion for those caught cheating or plagarizing have never been
deterents much less preventatives.

        Let's face it, the way we put so much weight on grades and honors
and awards and recognition and competition, each day in class--and I am
not exaggerating--is a fearful, crisis-ridden time "that tries student's
souls."

        When I catch someone cutting a corner-cutting, lying, cheating, or
plagarizing, I don't metamorpose into a snarling Queen of Hearts and
scream, "Off with your head."  From the incidence of cheating that
persists, the threat of such decapitation, or even a public beheading or
two doesn't do much good.  And, if such a sentence offers any lesson, it
is usually a mere "don't get caught next time."  It doesn't get to the
root moral and ethical core of things.  So, I'm not sure that such
punishment is the more fitting solution than is seizing the opportunity of
a golden "teaching moment" to thoughtfully, systematically, and
comprehensively engage a student in order to get that student to break his
or her habits that undermine his or her avowed values.  So, when I am
confronted with what I'll charitably call "corner cutting," I ask myself,
"What great lesson lies in this situation?  What is the hidden value in
this situation?  Should I care less or stop caring about this person
because he or she is less than perfect and did something wrong?"

        This is my toughest test:  not to take such things personally, to
be a man of unending second chances, to be tough and loving, to help that
student see his or her strengths rather than play to his or her
weaknesses, to help that student transform his or her energy, to help him
or her come back into balance.  Students needed my understanding!  I have
to see their point of view from their vantage point.  They have to see
mine.  I also have to see the hope that is there so that in these
difficult times I can seize the opportunity.  Contrary to a colleague who
disagrees with me, I have "to be bothered."  I have to reach out.  After
all, I have to diligently teach, enforce, advocate, demonstrate, and model
personal integrity.  It is I, not the students, who has the greatest
responsibility to create an ethical culture that nurtures the virtues of
integrity, honesty, and fairness.

        Now, I agree that there must be consequences, but I'm not sure
flunking or expelling will turn straw of anger and blame into gold of
apology and responsibility.  I firmly believe such a student can be
rescued and is worth the try.  I've never met a student who isn't a good
person and who has convinced him/herself that he or she is doing a bad
thing.  Self-interest has too often a powerful tendency to incapacitate
our ability to live up to our moral principles.  The greater the sense of
survival the harder we shut the door as if the louder the slam the more
valid our positions.  We're all ethical in our own eyes whether it is the
pursuit of a promotion, a grade, tenure, a grant, a GPA, a whatever.  If
we understand that, if we understand that we've done that, we can be
caringly understanding.  With time and effort, with caring, he or she just
may see the error of his or her way and be rehabilitated.  Casting a
student aside or out is the easy way out.  It doesn't confront in the
flesh the common belief that it's right and proper to do whatever you have
to do to get whatever you want, that ethics is irrelevant and integrity is
a weakness. It's harder, and more meaningful, to help a student face
him/herself, to look in the mirror and see that he or she isn't' as
upright he or she pronounces him or herself to be, to confront the fact
that he or she is morally and ethically infirmed.

        When I confront a student, he or she invariable will say "What
about the others?" or "Everyone is doing it" or "It's no big deal"  or "I
didn't know" or "It didn't hurt anyone."

        To the first question, I answer firmly, "We're talking about you,
no one else;"  to the second rationalization, I say more firmly, "Who
cares;" to the third excuse, I say even more firmly, "It sure is;"  to the
fourth statement, I say still more firmly, "Sure you did.  Stop lying.
See how it has become a habit;"  and to the last explanation, I hit with
both barrels, "Sure you are.  You're hurting yourself.  You're
disrespecting yourself which means you'll be disrespectful to anyone.  If
you're willing to lie to yourself, you're willing to lie to anyone.  I
know you're better than that.  Do you?"

        I tell him or her, with a caring concern on my face and a firmness
in my voice, that he or she is not responsible for what anyone else does.
He or she is only responsible for what he or she does.  I tell him or her
that there are two kinds of students:  ones who lie, cheat, and plagarize;
and ones who don't.  Whether each student cheats or doesn't cheat depends
on the kind of person he or she is.  The cheaters find excuses not to be
honest; they trivialize character; they are changed by others; they
succumb to temptation; they're indifferent or ignorant of the moral
implications of what they're doing; at best they know what they're doing
is wrong, but do it anyway; they suffer from "moral flabbiness; they're on
the path to ethical suicide; they sacrifice their self-respect;" they put
convenience above principle.  The non-cheaters put principle above
convenience; they clinch tightly to their dignity and self-respect;
they're enrolled in a "moral fitness" program that tones up their ethics
and values;" they find the courage to do what is right because it is the
right thing to do; they refuse to be changed by others; they have the
strength to resist temptation; they won't let their conscience be suborned
by pressure.

        "Tell me, do you get any sense of accomplishment or fulfillment by
cheating?" I ask.

        "I get a better grade," I sometimes hear.

        "Yeah, but at a hell of a price.  Where's your self-respect?  You
won't get better and you won't live better a life.  I guarantee that it
will catch up with you in some way at some time and bite you in your ass."

        Then, I hit them square between his or her eyes and ask him or
her, "So, tell me, I want you to hear it, I want to hear it, right now, no
bs, to my face: which kind of person are you?  Are you a good person or a
bad person?"  I stand in his or her face until the student faces
him/herself and I get an answer.

        Invariably, I hear, "I'm a good person."

        Invariably, I lovingly snap back, "Then, act like a good person!

Make it a good day.

                                                        --Louis--




Make it a good day.

                                                        --Louis--


Louis Schmier                            www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History                    www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698                    /~\    /\ /\
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