In my ENGL 7800 weekly discussion board, a fellow student asked the question, “ Yet, are our youth taught enough about ethics and morals [regarding plagiarism and research] to separate themselves and establish standards?”
In response to my peer’s question, I told the story of a recent conversation I had with my seven year-old daughter. Here’s my response:
“I walked into my home office two nights ago, and I found my seven year-old daughter using my computer. She was searching the web for information about Brachiosauruses (a dinosaur) because she has to give a presentation in front of her second-grade class next Monday. I was pleased to see that she was taking notes on a piece of paper about what she was reading. I’ve never had a conversation with her about research or plagiarism at all, so I saw an opportunity to teach her something. I told her that if she uses information from an outside source that she needs to make sure that she always cites it. I was thinking that she would ask why, but she didn’t. Instead, she quickly responded, “Ya, ya, Dad, I know. I have to cite my sources. They teach us that at school.” It was time for her to go to bed after that, so before she finished using the computer, she looked up at the screen to identify her source, and then wrote the word, “Wikipedia,” on her paper below her notes. I was blown away! I couldn’t believe that her class was already being taught ethical research techniques and rules. My respect for her teacher and her school went way up. I don’t remember learning about citing sources at such a young age. I vaguely remember learning about research ethics in high school or perhaps junior high, but (as I remember, at least) the idea of ethics wasn’t emphasized very much.”
