Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for August 29, 2014

Don’t forget to cite your source, Danae.

Book? What is this book that you speak of? Some sort of sorcery?…

I’ve always loved the over used line in cheesy movies..“It is so written!” as if it that alone was a justification for action….So I am going to bed now…It is so written…..

At least she read her rights.

I’ve said this before, but – I don’t understand why teachers don’t require reports to be written by hand, at least in elementary school. Children need the practice writing, it’s good for their development, and it would ensure that the child has at least done something more than cut and paste.

Running reports through one of the plagiarism detectors is now considered ‘demeaning to the teacher-student trust relationship’.Gimme a BREAK!

Thought they had to wear those uniforms in school!

Where is Danae going to take her seat…to her corner of the room?

Education starts long before school. Even teach knows that.So does the need to keep learning long after sitting in front of a computer and manipulating and conniving and funking and cheating and, and, and…….

“Copying from one source is plagiarism. Copying from many, is research.”

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

Correction… copy and paste.

I wonder how young adults exercise their brains. As a teenager, I worked in a grocery store. You added up the items on a paper bag (let’s see, carry the 1 …) and then made change using tens-compliment arithmetic.*

*Instread of subtracting you added up until you got to the bill tendered. Say the sale was $5.32 and the person gave you a $20 bill.

Three pennies makes 35, a nickel 40, a dime 50, two quarters brings it up to 6 dollars, 4 dollars makes 10 and then another 10 – and that’s the change.

Good mental exercise.

Seriously…book reports aside, having the internet does boost a student’s ability to do research (and all reports must be “typed”), which is why it’s so important to get computers into the hands of kids who can’t afford them and creating easily accessible hotspots throughout a city.

Actually, the flick that one should watch to help visualize tomorrow as defined by late 20th century and present 21st century public school teaching is titled "Idiocracy … Its comin’ folks and we either get on board, we get out of the way, or we … !!

Danae is going to be difficult…..again this year….I just hope the teacher turns it around on her and does not allow her to get away with it.

I had a student who 100% plagiarized a report. Mom called me a liar. I faxed her the report and the website. She came in to apologize wearing way too much perfume. How did I know the kid cheated? The name on the report was the same as the guy who wrote it. NOt the kid.

The internet was down so I couldn’t do my homework.here’s the book – read to me. Or would that be too mean?