Should Students be Expelled From School for Cheating or Plagiarizing - Essay Example

Argument for should be expelled from school if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing” should be expelled from school if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing. Such resolute position of mine against academic cheating or plagiarism may seem being cruel to some helpless students who cannot write a paper on their own; therefore resort to unfair means like plagiarizing and cheating. I have added the attribute “helpless” to the plagiarizing students guessing that those disagreeing with my stance would endeavor to depict a plagiarizer as a helpless boy or girl who is left with no other way but plagiarizing. I also think that those who oppose the view that cheating students should be expelled cannot organize any convincing logic to support their stance except evoking the audiences’ pity and mercy. Yes, I also feel that the plagiarizing students should have our pity, not in the school or college campus, but somewhere else. Plagiarism is the violation of the sole purpose of education. If the purpose of education is to teach one how to be a man, a plagiarizer in the very first place destroys this basic premise of education itself. Moreover, a plagiarizer or an academic fraud pollutes not only himself but also the environment of the whole institution. Often students are inspired by the positive result of their friends’ uncaught plagiarism. Therefore, in order to check the corrupting impact of plagiarism and academic fraudulence, students should be expelled from school if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing. The plague of plagiarism revealed in various research reports is rather terrifying. According to according an “Academic Cheating Fact Sheet” more than seventy five percent of the college students confess that they have cheated at least one time in their school life. Only a few of these plagiarizing students get caught, where the majority had been able to evade the authority or their teachers. (“Academic Cheating Fact Sheet”) If the school authorities were strict enough to establish exemplary punishment by expelling the cheating students, the plague of plagiarism would not spread at such a high rate. The deterrent effects of expelling a cheating often get reduced by the lack of the academic authorities’ goodwill to prevent this academic crime. Obviously expelling a student is to be taken as the ultimate punishment for a plagiarizing student. In my opinion, expelling a student from an academic institution plays only a partial role in reducing this academic crime in the campuses. One will commit a severe a mistake if he or she relies on it as one and only means for resolving this problem. Reports show that students often plagiarize because a. they do not any clear idea of what plagiarism is, 2. they do not feel the stigma as well as negative consequences of plagiarism, 3. they feel that they have no other choice but to plagiarize and 4. they feel it is easy to plagiarize (Reid) Indeed the first two reasons are the students’ lack of knowledge about what plagiarism is and lack of awareness of the negative impacts of plagiarism on the students’ academic skills and its negative consequences in broader contexts such as the society, the nations, etc. It is the academic authorities’ duty to raise awareness among the students. The students are assisted promptly, warmly and friendly in any case they need assistance. Only after taking all types of preventive and complementary measures to remove this crime from an academic campus, expelling a plagiarizing student should be made the unalterable law. Argument against “students should be expelled from school if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing” If plagiarism or academic fraudulence is considered as a plague or a disease, expelling a plagiarizing student means banishing him or her to suffer alone, avoiding a teacher’s pedagogic duty to nurse the rotting mind of his or her students. So I staunchly oppose this view that “students should be expelled from school if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing”. If a student is caught cheating and plagiarizing, and if he or she is expelled from school, there is every possibility that he or she will end his or her studentship. If not, the expelled student will take admission in another institution. In the first case, a dropout school student is never desirable by anyone. Again if the student takes admission into other institutions, it means offloading the burden on others’ shoulder. When it is a teacher’s duty and responsibility to teach his or her students for their wellbeing, expelling a student simply exterminates the law of teaching. Indeed the origin of the idea of expelling lies in a naked commercial view, of education, that one or two should be sacrificed for others’ sake. Here I will ask whether expelling a plagiarizing student will restrain others fully from plagiarizing and whether expelling does any good to the expelled student. The inferiority complex that an expelled student grows is far more destructive for himself as well as others around him. He or she can go astray easily. Instead if plagiarizing students is treated in an affirmatively corrective way, it is possible that they will amend themselves and may take an enlightened course of life. As for the deterrent effect of plagiarism, I am convinced to state that expelling a student from school for plagiarism is the traditional law in any educational institution. Yet the statistics of the rate of plagiarizing school students is rather fear-provoking. An “Academic Cheating Fact Sheet” shows that more than seventy five percent of the college students confess that they have cheated at least one time in their school life. Only a few of these plagiarizing students get caught, where the majority had been able to evade the authority or their teachers. (“Academic Cheating Fact Sheet”) This statistics is strong enough to propound that expelling has a little deterrent effect on the rate of plagiarism among school students. I think that the problem of plagiarism should be resolved in another ways, not by expelling the plagiarizing students. A close review of the aforesaid academic cheating fact sheet will reveal that plagiarism occurs mostly because the teachers fail to prepare a moral resistant among the students against plagiarism and academic cheating. Minimizing the opportunity to plagiarize, raising awareness of the negative consequences among the students, etc can fairly be effective to make the law of expelling totally meaningless. Works Cited “Academic Cheating Fact Sheet”, ETS AD Council. 27 April, 2012. Available at Reid, Geneva. “Top 4 reasons college students cheat”, Higher Ed Morning. 2 April, 2010. 27 April, 2012. Available at Read More