It’s the end of the semester on college campuses, and once again I’m stunned at what students will try to turn in as their work. My husband has had to fail several of his students for plagiarizing. He hates doing this. But people must think professors have never heard of the internet.
It’s not just the teenagers (who of course should know better) but it’s the adults, who take classes in between busy family and work schedules. So here’s where it really stinks to have to give them a zero. But come on! If you cut and paste off Wikipedia and pass it off as your own work, you don’t deserve a college diploma. Period.
Anyway, my 6-year-old daughter has been overhearing our discussions about plagiarism, and she’s taken it all to heart. Last night, she was carrying her Bible and a little notebook around.
“What ‘cha writing?” I asked her.
“I’m writing a book about God,” she said.
“Can I read it?”
“OK, you can look at it. But I promise I didn’t copy it. I wrote it in my own words.”
Sure enough, when I began to read it, she was writing out the creation story from the book of Genesis in her own words.
After I read a couple of pages, I looked up at her and said, “This is wonderful. But you know, it’s OK if you copy the Bible. God likes it when we copy His Words. You don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for copying the Bible.”
I explained to her how people used to copy the Bible by hand a long time ago before we had copy machines.
Then I took my own message to heart. It’s OK if you copy the Bible.
Is my life copying the Bible? Do my thoughts and attitudes represent those of Christ? Are my actions worthy of a Christ-follower?
For all of us, “It’s OK to copy the Bible.”
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
-C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity
The whole chapter (The Nice Men) this is taken from ties in nicely, an interesting study on originality and personality.
Comment by Michael — December 14, 2006 @ 11:29 am
Thanks for this quote, Michael. I do think we learn to create by first copying the masters.
Japanese children learn to draw by copying artwork from comic books and paintings. Then they go on to create their own. All of my students there were so talented in drawing — all of them!
Yet here, we value creativity right off the bat — even before we’ve studied beneath the masters.
It will be interesting to see how a 6-year-old copying the Bible one day comes up with her own scriptural insights.
Comment by Heather — December 14, 2006 @ 11:42 am
Heather (and Andrew):
Susi told me about this posting on plagiarizing as we have had similar conversations around our dinner table. These have been some great times of explaining why it is wrong. It’s a shame that students think they have to resort to stealing in order to try and pass a course. It does more than damage their grade, it damages their integrity.
Doug
Comment by Doug — December 14, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
awwww. kids are so precious.
Comment by Ruth — December 14, 2006 @ 8:15 pm
I really liked this post!!
Thanks for sharing it with us!!
Comment by amanda — December 15, 2006 @ 9:40 am
What a great way to hide His word in her little heart! It is, after all, the greatest story ever (re)told.
Comment by Carol — December 15, 2006 @ 10:03 am
I really loved this piece on plagiarizing! I found you from CWO and I am so glad I did!! God bless your blogging home!
Comment by Kate — December 15, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
That is so sweet about your daughter!
I love that quote of CS Lewis that Michael write in the comments. It is so true. My graphic artist friend says that that is how they work and studied. They study other work and then create their own.
As a writer, I do the same as CS Lewis says. I often am tempted to worry that what I am writing has been said a million times, but then I just let it go and write from my own heart.
Comment by Janice (5 Minutes for Mom) — December 17, 2006 @ 3:12 am