Today was just another ordinary day, in the Second month, of my Second semester, of my Sophomore year, of College. Notice, I've capitalized all the words that emphasize the fact that, not only have I been going to school for the last 13 years of my life, but I'm also more than half way done with my 14th year. That just makes the fact that today in my discussion, we had the Plagiarism talk, again, all that much more ridiculous.
As anyone who's been to school since middle school, arguably elementary school, knows, Plagiarism is bad. For some god awful reason, in every single class, in every single grade since I can remember, the teacher has had the Plagiarism talk, or the Plagiarism hand out. I know, Plagiarism is bad, and if I do it, I'm going to get in trouble. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. But what nobody seems to realize, is that much like drugs, if people are going to do it, they're going to do it regardless of whether you warn them against it or not. It's not like I didn't understand the need for the refresher lecture when I got to college, but when I've gotten the exact same spiel in almost every single class for the last year and a half, I think I've deserved the right to comment on the idiocy of it.
If everyone is concerned that plagiarism is going to be that big of a deal, make everybody take a mandatory class that has plagiarism covered in it. That way, everyone takes the class, and doesn't have to hear about it again. As it stands now, it becomes one of those things, where if they keep shouting, "Don't Plagiarize! Don't Plagiarize!" at us, eventually we're just going to stop listening. And unless you want more students to stop listening to their teachers, that would be an outcome to avoid. There's really not much more to say. I don't need another teacher to tell me how bad I'm going to get it if I get caught plagiarizing my sophomore year in college. If I've gotten this far, and I plagiarize and I've never been caught? Chances are that it's become an integral part of my writing, and I'll never be a good writer without it. So then do you punish me, the student who's been plagiarizing for years without getting caught? Or all the teachers and the system that have let me get away with it?
It's a circular problem. Either the problem isn't there, or it is there and your little speech about how I'm going to flunk out of college if I get caught isn't going to do jack either way. So please, teachers, save it. Don't lecture me about something that you can't possibly affect. Maybe just go back to what you're getting paid to do, and teach me something. Or at least mark the day you're going to lecture about Plagiarism so I can sleep a little longer.
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