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From: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicarious Oyster)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Cheating on Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <1419@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Apr-87 10:12:41 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1419
Posted: Fri Apr 24 10:12:41 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Apr-87 23:43:04 EST
References: <250@rruxa.UUCP> <11370002@hpldorp.HP.COM>
Reply-To: oyster@unix.macc.wisc.edu.UUCP (Vicarious Oyster)
Organization: UW-Madison Academic Computer Center
Lines: 34

In article <11370002@hpldorp.HP.COM> kens@hpldorp.HP.COM (Ken Shrum) writes:
>I see no gray area.  If the student isn't
>supposed to get outside help, use literature references, use
>non-textbook references, etc.  and then proceeds to anyway then
>cheating has occurred.

   And how many courses do you take where the instructor *explicitly
prohibits* the use of anything but a single text?  In my humble opinion,
both as one who learns and one who teaches, that'd be tantamount to telling
the students that they aren't *really* supposed to be learning much.  "Oh,
and, by the way, don't do any reading outside class, because you might learn
more than me, and we can't have that!"  Right.

>As a closing note, it rather bothers me that people are looking for an
>exact definition of what is cheating and what is not.  Is this so that
>they can abide by the letter of the law yet cheat anyway by finding
>loopholes?  We're talking personal integrity here, folks.

   Thou shalt not kill.

   That's a perfectly clear statement which falls (at least) under the
umbrella of personal integrity.  However, if somebody tormented me for
weeks unending with the most diabolical devices of torture (sarcasm,
early Heinlein, etc), and did other things most nasty, like raping and
killing my wife, children, and pet hamsters in front of me; but I got a
single chance to plunge my Bic through the person's eye socket into
his/her brain (so I watch too many mad slasher movies), rendering that
person quite dead, should I be damned forever?  Or fried in the electric
chair?  Or even committed as criminally insane?  A lot of people would
think not.
   The point is, if you like things in black and white, you're welcome to
try to find a place where you can have it that way.  My world, however,
comes in all shades of gray, and in a multitude of colors.  I suspect
this is true for most people.  Think about it.