Giving credit where credit is due!

AS you know, I have been an Art teacher for the past twenty years. As an Art teacher, allow me to share some misconceptions about my profession. First, while it would seem that I am teaching my students to draw or paint, that is really not the main focus of my lessons. I believe it is unfair for a student to receive a failing mark simply because he/she does not have the talent for drawing. Any student of mine would tell you that I am not very stingy with grades. As a matter of fact, during a reunion party, several alumni who said hello intimated that my subject was their ticket to make their average higher.

There are several ways where one can receive a very good grade from me. When I say high, I really mean high. Grades ranging from 92 - 100. Yes, I even give a grade of 100. There are only two criteria for a student to get within this range. First, that the work is truly outstanding or, a relatively mediocre work but which I know was done diligently and with a lot of effort by a student to meet the requirements of the project. At the other end of the scale, a student can also fail in my class. This may be seldom but a student will if: 1) he/she failed to submit the project and no attempt has been done to make up for it, or 2) he/she submitted something which is not his/hers.

I had been telling my students that I would prefer for them to hand in the ugliest (if there is such a thing) piece of art work as long as they made it for they would still pass, even get a good grade for it rather than submit an excellent project but was made by somebody else. More than anything, I have to teach them the value of hard work and gaining confidence and self-respect and pride over their capabilities.

Claiming somebody else's project as yours is wrong. That is intellectual dishonesty or to be blunt about it, thievery. And it has a name. It's called plagiarism. The reason I'm writing this is because it seems that there are people who think they can do away with murder and go unnoticed in the internet. I'm talking about Sassy's food blog being stolen and passed off as somebody else's. You can read the article here Sure, it's as easy as copying and pasting a work to another window but is the facility by which it can be done a license to plagiarize? Surely not! How hard is it to acknowledge the real owner of the piece? And that is all that is required;. That we give credit to where credit is due! As a result of this phenomenon in pinoy blogging, a fellow blogger condemns the practice lest other unscrupulous people would have any idea of doing the same. You can read the Cat's take on the subject here.

It really amazes me how someone can steal another's work and put the same on his website. Where's the dignity in that? Does one feel pride in the accolades of people who do not know that what they aer applauding for was stolen? How would a plagiarist feel if suddenly he/she is found out? As far as I'm concerned, there are two people who can answer these questions now. And you know who you are! Shame on you. Had you been my students, you would have gotten a zero in my class...Blogging Ethics 101!