Thursday, April 10, 2008
Plagarism
I know this case can be discussed for years without any one person coming to a complete conclusion as to what they believe is the appropriate action, but I think everyone realizes we as teachers need to prepare for these kinds of situations. I find myself in a struggle looking at this Plagarism issue because I played 4 years of college basketball and have experienced similar situations. One of my best friends in college graduated high school second to last out of 500 some people, which is crazy. He was one of the star athletes on the team and contributed to the team in many ways. I remember him struggling to pass papers and exams often throughout his college career, but never gave up. He ended up graduating college, marrying a beautiful woman and now holds a sucessful job. He honestly says, he would not change his current life for anything. In this situation, I saw what he experienced and, it gives me and many others hope and inspiration for the struggles he survived. That is one aspect. I also have coached many sports up to this point and plan on contiuning to coach throughout my life. What would I do as a coach in this instance if my best player who means so much to the team and athletic program fails to follow the rules and plagarizes in the final paper. The answer to that is, I don't know. I would struggle with it until I found a way to best suit him, because that is the job of a teacher and coach. I would more than likely contact the teacher and talk with her about alternatives because I believe it is something I must do for his sake. Which brings me to a question. What is the fundamental difference between coaches and teachers, and why does it seem there is a conflicting issue here. Do teachers follow the rules more, and coaches break them more? Do coaches or teachers care more about the individual? Who struggles more over an issue like this? In this case, I believe the coach and team will struggle more because they are the ones left playing and living without him if he is accused, but the teacher only has 48 hours to make a decision, and it's done.
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Mark, that's a good point you bring up. Since we have both been coaches I think you'll see eye-to-eye with me here. There is a prevalent stereotype that exists in our society--the teachers care more about the students from an academic standpoint whereas the coaches are willing to break rules and find a way for their athletes to get out of trouble when they clearly cheat or break school rules. Some coaches seem to forget that their athletes are students just like everyone else. Of course, there have been many coaches have done this, but there are also many coaches who would never do such a thing. I have been fortunate to know some. I have to say, star player or not if you break the rules, you get in trouble and must deal with the consequences. No one player is above the team and no one student is above all the others. Since our class discussion on Tuesday I have become more open about how I would deal with my star player in a situation like this. I would have to know all of the details surrounding the situation before I decide how I am going to discipline any of my players.
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