During the time of COVID, like many others, I taught on line. Microbiology to be precise.
The students were instructed to break into groups to discuss a particular questions. As caring teachers do, I joined one of the Zoom break-out groups to check whether my college students had any questions about what they were discussing. Nope. Instead, I interrupted one of them complaining about “that bitch” and the “old hag.” Yeah, I guessed that was me. Apparently, this student was very angry that I require my students to exercise academic integrity. Very. Angry.
A bit of background. It was an extremely challenging semester. Many students turned in exams and lab reports containing entire paragraphs just copied and pasted from the Internet. Others copied assignments from other students. Oh, I warned, explained, threatened. But it was to no avail. Those who needed to hear didn’t; those who did not need to hear were scared silly. One or two students, when faced with irrefutable evidence, admitted what they did and didn’t reoffend. But many, while looking at the evidence, denied that they copied, shared, and/or plagiarized. My mind boggled.
In a phone call with someone in the college administration, I learned that the college aims to form character as well as educate. The very kind man I spoke with explained that people who are incompetent often retain their jobs. People who lie, cheat, steal, etc. are fired. I was assured that, in reporting students, I was doing them a favor.
So, in the words of Dr Seuss at the end of the Cat in the Hat, when faced with the probability of becoming VERY unpopular with one’s students, “what would YOU do?” Me, I reported them to the Office for Academic Integrity and went out for a pedicure. Aaahhh!
And now–well, I decided that I went into teaching to teach, not to be a policewoman. So I retired. I miss the students. I do not miss the cheating.
P.S. I’m not good with names; I do not even know who the very embarrassed student was.