Plagiarism

Brayden is overwhelmed with schoolwork.  It's hard to be a senior approaching graduation.  It's hard to be a mom of a senior approaching graduation.  But that will have to be another tangent on another day.

When my kids come to me for help with their homework, my very first thought is "please don't ask me, I finished school a long time ago and I don't want to revisit those days."  my second thought is "I will help you as long as it isn't a MATH problem".  I know the reality is that I am not as "smart as a fifth grader".  I have forgotten most of my State Capitals,  I couldn't find Michigan on a map to save my soul and I am not quite certain who fought in which war or the time frames of those wars or the outcomes of them.  I am street smart, not book smart.  I always have been.  And to be even more honest, I don't give a fig.  It doesn't help me, hurt me or hinder my day to day living at all that I have willingly allowed all of that useless information to find it's way out of my brain.  I have found that I need to make room for much more useful tidbits like what do I do if a baby is choking or how long should I cook chicken so that I can avoid destroying my family.  

Anywho...  Brayden came to me a couple of weeks ago soliciting help with his English class and he was in some pretty tremendous distress.  His assignment was to write 17 poems.  And to his credit he had been working on the project for a couple of weeks, but was finding that poetry is NOT one of his strengths.  Well as luck would have it, it IS one of mine and so I not only agreed to help him, but I even was looking forward to it.

 I would come home from work and fix dinner, spend time with Raleigh, clean the kitchen, give a couple of baths, put a couple of kids to bed and then sit at the kitchen table and write.  I had to write a sonnet, a quatrain, 16 stanzas of iambic pentameter, a haiku, 16 stanzas of 11/12 rhythmic beats, a compare and contrast and a circular first line repeat and there were others that I cannot recall.

I/we wrote them and he turned them in...

One Wednesday, I get a call from Mr. Senior English Teacher.  And he says.... "Mrs. Lund, we may have a very serious problem.  I called Brayden in to my office today to let him know the punishments for plagiarism.  I told him that an F on an assignment would be the very least of his troubles if I find out that he has stolen someone else's work and tried to pass it off as his own.  And I need to verify something that he told me.  He told me that you helped him with his poetry assignment.  Is that true?"  

 I said  "yes, I did, is that alright?  I am assuming that a parent helping her child with a difficult assignment is alright?" 

 He said "it is.......... if that is really what happened." 

 I said " I don't know what you are implying, but he came and sat by me every night for 5 or 6 nights and we wrote those poems together."  

He said "well......  then....... I am very impressed.  I have spent the better part of my day searching the Internet for those poems because I was certain he got them off of there." 

 I said  "nope, they are Lund/Koenig originals."  

And he said  "well........ then let him know that he will be getting an A on the assignment."  

Here are my thoughts on the whole matter...  Who are these teachers?  Why would he threaten expulsion for plagiarism to a kid before he respectfully asked questions and spoke to the parent?  Why would he tell him that he would be getting an F on an assignment that his mother worked really hard on?  I can't help my children with their homework all the time,  most of the time it is beyond me.  But this time, I could help and it was a bonding experience for the two of us and we had a lot of fun and laughed a lot while we were composing. And it gave me something else to think about and was a nice diversion from the difficult life experiences I was trudging through with my employment nightmares.  And I enjoyed being creative.  I am flattered that his teacher thought that he got them off the Internet.  But I am super mad that he treated him like he was a criminal and treated me like I was the mother of a delinquent.

Yesterday he handed Brayden his poetry packet back and he took the time to write some very nice notes on them and he did get an A on the assignment.

I guess all's well that ends well.  As long as it ends well in OUR favor.  

He's traveled down this road before

He knows again he must endure

He knows exactly what will come

And all the things that must be done

But all the steps, he isn't sure.

He'll take each day one at a time

And he'll be conscious of the climb

Looking forward with joyful heart

Of all he'll get to be a part

His life repeats, his life's a rhyme.

In pondering which path is best

The destination is his quest

For when the journey's said and done

He'll know he is the stronger one

And be much better for the test.

                                                                                                     ~K. Lund 2013