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Recently many of my FB acquaintances passed around a link to a NYT article about the rise of plagiarism among college students.

“Perhaps more significant, the number who believed that copying from the Web constitutes ‘serious cheating’ is declining — to 29 percent on average in recent surveys from 34 percent earlier in the decade.”

After responding to a few posts I quickly realized my response was a minority opinion. Behind all the tsk tsking, tut tutting and nervous hand-wringing about the declining moral standards of our youth, is simply another article in the well-tilled genre of youth-bashing.

Yes, students cheat. And yes, sometimes they are indifferent to the ethics of cheating.

I see this more as a problem of opportunity than declining ethical standards. Popular culture of the past is filled with references to students buying papers from students. Perhaps this element of cheating has been reduced since it is so easy to simply copy and paste. Or, maybe not. However, the NYT article shows little interest in finding out what’s going on, and instead editorializes on the immoral behavior of the youth today.

Perhaps they should have interviewed valedictorian Erica Goldson. In her valedictory speech Ms. Goldson does an excellent job of explaining why students might not care about plagiarism. You can read her whole speech here, or watch the YouTube embedded below. She asks that you forgive the nervousness of her voice, and I think it’s accurate to say she’s a much better speech-writer than speech-giver.

“School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.”

“I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.”

“And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.”

Recently many of my FB acquaintances passed around a link to a NYT article about the rise of plagiarism among college students.

“Perhaps more significant, the number who believed that copying from the Web constitutes ‘serious cheating’ is declining — to 29 percent on average in recent surveys from 34 percent earlier in the decade.”

After responding to a few posts I quickly realized my response was a minority opinion. Behind all the tsk tsking, tut tutting and nervous hand-wringing about the declining moral standards of our youth, is simply another article in the well-tilled genre of youth-bashing.

Yes, students cheat. And yes, sometimes they are indifferent to the ethics of cheating.

I see this more as a problem of opportunity than declining ethical standards. Popular culture of the past is filled with references to students buying papers from students. Perhaps this element of cheating has been reduced since it is so easy to simply copy and paste. Or, maybe not. However, the NYT article shows little interest in finding out what’s going on, and instead editorializes on the immoral behavior of the youth today.

Perhaps they should have interviewed valedictorian Erica Goldson. In her valedictory speech Ms. Goldson does an excellent job of explaining why students might not care about plagiarism. You can read her whole speech here, or watch the YouTube embedded below. She asks that you forgive the nervousness of her voice, and I think it’s accurate to say she’s a much better speech-writer than speech-giver.

“School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.”

“I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.”

“And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.”

I have three topics for this week’s Politics Monday.

First, civic education in Florida.

Even Florida Republicans sometimes advocate liberal values. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, sponsored the “Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act,” which requires middle school students to be tested on civic knowledge. The bill passed both houses unanimously. Civic education has been a cornerstone of liberal education policies from John Dewey to Ralph Nader.

If I were feeling disingenuous I’d congratulate the Republican legislators who supported this liberal bill for their great courage during this time of conservative backlash, etc. etc., but I don’t really believe that’s the case. I think that many conservatives, Republicans, tea partiers, libertarians, etc. hate liberals more than liberalism.

I can sympathize. There are some astoundingly idiotic liberals out there, and sometimes I’m embarrassed to belong to the same group. And, I’m sure I embarrass my tribe-members equally on occasion.

We all suffer when we start to conflate ideas with the people who hold them. Just because you hate Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or Barack Obama doesn’t mean everything they do or say is bad. In fact, those three men have done more to shrink government and lower taxes than all Republican presidents of the 20th and 21st century combined.

Similarly, just because Republicans support civic education doesn’t mean that liberals should automatically oppose it. The civic education bill sponsored by McBurney IS bad in that it supports and furthers standardized testing, but at least it is an advocacy for teaching Florida students about the role of government in their life, and their role as citizens in a democratic republic.

***

Second, spinning Arizona’s ethnic studies legislation.

Arizona recently passed a law about education that has many liberals in a tizzy. It seems clear that the intent of the bill was to constrain ethnic studies classes and classes on that perennial conservative bugaboo – multiculturalism. Tom Horne, the Republican who sponsored the bill, supposedly wrote it in response to learning that a Latina teacher told her class “Republicans hate Latinos.”

That may be the case, but since the story is from the ubiquitous, but not very reliable AP, I’d take the story with a grain of salt. We don’t know if the teacher really said that, or if that was the impetus for Horne’s bill.

The key points of the bill are –

“Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:

Ø Promote the overthrow of the United States government.

Ø Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.

Ø Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.

Ø Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

I have had more than my fair share of ethnic studies classes, and I’ve never been in one that even comes close to promoting the overthrow of the US government. Nor have I ever been in an ethnic studies class that promotes resentment toward a race or class of people, was designed solely for a particular ethnic group, or advocated ethnic solidarity.

This is a bill passed against a mythical stereotype rather than classes as they actually exist. And, as far as the language of the bill goes, it’s not so bad. Students SHOULD be treated as individuals and not as representatives of their race, nation, sex, gender, or ethnicity.

But, do you know who actually DOES teach to children of a particular ethnic group, and teaches them to resent different races, and promotes the overthrow of the US government? Some (but, not all) home school programs favored by Christian militia groups.

It seems to me that the liberal spin on this could be praising the Arizona lege for restricting many home school programs and schools favored by Christian militias.

Regardless of Horne’s intent, this bill will probably have almost no effect on any class. Rather than whinging about how horrible this bill is, liberals COULD be on the offense and point out how the only people this will affect is some-but-not-all home-schooled children.

I’m willing to bet there are zero elementary or secondary school classes urging children to overthrow the US government (or college-level classes for that matter). I am equally certain that there are children home-schooled by militia-loving parents who are taught this every day.

***

And third, Bill McCollum’s support for an unprecedented increase in the size of government.

You would think a desire to oversee a huge increase in government power would make McCollum anathema to Republicans and conservatives in the state of Florida, but he’s counting on the nativist tendencies of Florida conservatives to blind them to his recent advocacy for a mind-boggling increase in the state government’s powers.

McCollum flip-flopped on his original stance on the Arizona immigration bill. Originally he stated that Florida had a different set of problems and would need its own unique legislation to deal with those problems. Then (presumably because that didn’t poll well) he had a change of heart and embraced the Arizona law, writing “I would support a similar law for Florida.”

OK, let’s think this through for a moment. How will we distinguish citizens from non-citizens? Clothes, shoes, skin color, language, neighborhood, etc. are not sufficient to determine citizenship or non-citizenship. Drivers license? Ummm, how many people did you know in high school with fake IDs? And, yes, they are better now, but kids still acquire fake IDs. If all we’re relying on is driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs then all we’re doing is creating a black market for forged identity cards.

If you want to seriously enact and enforce a law like this then ALL citizens will need new high-tech identification cards, matched to their birth certificate or immigration status files. In order to make sure citizens comply we’ll have to impose some sort of fine or penalty on those who refuse to get IDs (otherwise how will we tell the illegal immigrants from the cranky libertarians?).

So, to implement McCollum’s immigration policy we’ll need tax dollars to cover the cost of the new IDs, the people to assign and keep track of those IDs, and law enforcement to make sure everyone has a new ID. We will also have a government that has a permanent file on every single citizen mandated by law.

And yet, we hear nary a peep from the tea partiers and libertarians who are willing to go to war over the perceived excesses of Health Care Reform.

I have three topics for this week’s Politics Monday.

First, civic education in Florida.

Even Florida Republicans sometimes advocate liberal values. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, sponsored the “Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act,” which requires middle school students to be tested on civic knowledge. The bill passed both houses unanimously. Civic education has been a cornerstone of liberal education policies from John Dewey to Ralph Nader.

If I were feeling disingenuous I’d congratulate the Republican legislators who supported this liberal bill for their great courage during this time of conservative backlash, etc. etc., but I don’t really believe that’s the case. I think that many conservatives, Republicans, tea partiers, libertarians, etc. hate liberals more than liberalism.

I can sympathize. There are some astoundingly idiotic liberals out there, and sometimes I’m embarrassed to belong to the same group. And, I’m sure I embarrass my tribe-members equally on occasion.

We all suffer when we start to conflate ideas with the people who hold them. Just because you hate Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or Barack Obama doesn’t mean everything they do or say is bad. In fact, those three men have done more to shrink government and lower taxes than all Republican presidents of the 20th and 21st century combined.

Similarly, just because Republicans support civic education doesn’t mean that liberals should automatically oppose it. The civic education bill sponsored by McBurney IS bad in that it supports and furthers standardized testing, but at least it is an advocacy for teaching Florida students about the role of government in their life, and their role as citizens in a democratic republic.

***

Second, spinning Arizona’s ethnic studies legislation.

Arizona recently passed a law about education that has many liberals in a tizzy. It seems clear that the intent of the bill was to constrain ethnic studies classes and classes on that perennial conservative bugaboo – multiculturalism. Tom Horne, the Republican who sponsored the bill, supposedly wrote it in response to learning that a Latina teacher told her class “Republicans hate Latinos.”

That may be the case, but since the story is from the ubiquitous, but not very reliable AP, I’d take the story with a grain of salt. We don’t know if the teacher really said that, or if that was the impetus for Horne’s bill.

The key points of the bill are –

“Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:

Ø Promote the overthrow of the United States government.

Ø Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.

Ø Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.

Ø Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

I have had more than my fair share of ethnic studies classes, and I’ve never been in one that even comes close to promoting the overthrow of the US government. Nor have I ever been in an ethnic studies class that promotes resentment toward a race or class of people, was designed solely for a particular ethnic group, or advocated ethnic solidarity.

This is a bill passed against a mythical stereotype rather than classes as they actually exist. And, as far as the language of the bill goes, it’s not so bad. Students SHOULD be treated as individuals and not as representatives of their race, nation, sex, gender, or ethnicity.

But, do you know who actually DOES teach to children of a particular ethnic group, and teaches them to resent different races, and promotes the overthrow of the US government? Some (but, not all) home school programs favored by Christian militia groups.

It seems to me that the liberal spin on this could be praising the Arizona lege for restricting many home school programs and schools favored by Christian militias.

Regardless of Horne’s intent, this bill will probably have almost no effect on any class. Rather than whinging about how horrible this bill is, liberals COULD be on the offense and point out how the only people this will affect is some-but-not-all home-schooled children.

I’m willing to bet there are zero elementary or secondary school classes urging children to overthrow the US government (or college-level classes for that matter). I am equally certain that there are children home-schooled by militia-loving parents who are taught this every day.

***

And third, Bill McCollum’s support for an unprecedented increase in the size of government.

You would think a desire to oversee a huge increase in government power would make McCollum anathema to Republicans and conservatives in the state of Florida, but he’s counting on the nativist tendencies of Florida conservatives to blind them to his recent advocacy for a mind-boggling increase in the state government’s powers.

McCollum flip-flopped on his original stance on the Arizona immigration bill. Originally he stated that Florida had a different set of problems and would need its own unique legislation to deal with those problems. Then (presumably because that didn’t poll well) he had a change of heart and embraced the Arizona law, writing “I would support a similar law for Florida.”

OK, let’s think this through for a moment. How will we distinguish citizens from non-citizens? Clothes, shoes, skin color, language, neighborhood, etc. are not sufficient to determine citizenship or non-citizenship. Drivers license? Ummm, how many people did you know in high school with fake IDs? And, yes, they are better now, but kids still acquire fake IDs. If all we’re relying on is driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs then all we’re doing is creating a black market for forged identity cards.

If you want to seriously enact and enforce a law like this then ALL citizens will need new high-tech identification cards, matched to their birth certificate or immigration status files. In order to make sure citizens comply we’ll have to impose some sort of fine or penalty on those who refuse to get IDs (otherwise how will we tell the illegal immigrants from the cranky libertarians?).

So, to implement McCollum’s immigration policy we’ll need tax dollars to cover the cost of the new IDs, the people to assign and keep track of those IDs, and law enforcement to make sure everyone has a new ID. We will also have a government that has a permanent file on every single citizen mandated by law.

And yet, we hear nary a peep from the tea partiers and libertarians who are willing to go to war over the perceived excesses of Health Care Reform.

Crist vetoes SB6. I’m actually somewhat surprised. I assumed he’d sign it to shore up support with his Republican base.

“I veto SB6 because this bill is contrary to my firmly held principle to act in the best interests in the people of Florida,” said the governor, speaking to a packed room of reporters. The bill, Crist said, would “placed teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs and their teaching certifications” for student learning gains that aren’t clearly defined and are often beyond their control.

Crist vetoes SB6. I’m actually somewhat surprised. I assumed he’d sign it to shore up support with his Republican base.

“I veto SB6 because this bill is contrary to my firmly held principle to act in the best interests in the people of Florida,” said the governor, speaking to a packed room of reporters. The bill, Crist said, would “placed teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs and their teaching certifications” for student learning gains that aren’t clearly defined and are often beyond their control.

It’s time to start planning some kids activities for the summer. Tampa Theatre hosts a kids film camp throughout the summer. You can sign up for different ages, different classes and different times. Check out their web page for complete details.

“At Tampa Theatre Film Camp, students will create live action and stop motion animation movies on Mac computers using programs like I-Movie and Garage Band and footage they shoot with digital cameras. Each student will premiere his or her film on Tampa Theatre’s big screen and receive a copy on DVD.”

Only members of Tampa Theatre can register until the end of the month, and registration is open to the general public on April 1.

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR WEEK AT SUMMER CAMP

Monday and Tuesday: Hands-on training sessions for various aspects of filmmaking (how to use the digital camera and programs, lighting, sound, on-camera acting, storytelling, creating storyboards and scripts, editing, etc.)

Tuesday and Wednesday: Break out into production teams, create storyboard and scripts for your group film projects. Begin filming when ready.

Wednesday and Thursday: Continue filming with group. Download footage from digital camera to iMac computers. Edit with iMovie or iStopMotion programs.

Friday: Complete editing. Screen the completed films for parents during the last hour of camp. (Morning session 11am-noon; Afternoon session 3-4pm)

There will be a Film Camp Film Festival Saturday, August 28th. Sounds like fun!

It’s time to start planning some kids activities for the summer. Tampa Theatre hosts a kids film camp throughout the summer. You can sign up for different ages, different classes and different times. Check out their web page for complete details.

“At Tampa Theatre Film Camp, students will create live action and stop motion animation movies on Mac computers using programs like I-Movie and Garage Band and footage they shoot with digital cameras. Each student will premiere his or her film on Tampa Theatre’s big screen and receive a copy on DVD.”

Only members of Tampa Theatre can register until the end of the month, and registration is open to the general public on April 1.

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR WEEK AT SUMMER CAMP

Monday and Tuesday: Hands-on training sessions for various aspects of filmmaking (how to use the digital camera and programs, lighting, sound, on-camera acting, storytelling, creating storyboards and scripts, editing, etc.)

Tuesday and Wednesday: Break out into production teams, create storyboard and scripts for your group film projects. Begin filming when ready.

Wednesday and Thursday: Continue filming with group. Download footage from digital camera to iMac computers. Edit with iMovie or iStopMotion programs.

Friday: Complete editing. Screen the completed films for parents during the last hour of camp. (Morning session 11am-noon; Afternoon session 3-4pm)

There will be a Film Camp Film Festival Saturday, August 28th. Sounds like fun!

The presentations from TEDxTampaBay are now up on YouTube. There were a lot of good topics, but I was most impressed with this remarkable talk by Elizabeth Davis of the Akilah Institute. I recommend it.

“Elizabeth is currently the Executive director of the Akilah Institute for Women, a school that she founded in Rwanda to provide hospitality career training.”

TED is a “big ideas” conference held every year in Long Beach, California. Started just over a quarter-century ago TED now hosts conferences across the globe and works to encourage similar independent events to bring “ideas worth spreading” to local communities through the TEDx program.

The Tampa Bay area will see its own TEDxTampaBay event this February 12. Seating is limited, so they’re asking for a statement from those seeking seats. Why do you want to go to a TED event? You can fill out an attendee request here.

If you just want to follow along you can become a Facebook fan here, or follow along on Twitter here. Both of these streams should be picking up steam over the next month as the event approaches.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about TED visit their page and watch some of the presentations. Presenters for 2010 Long Beach conference have been announced and can be found here. Speakers this year include Bill Gates, Benoit Mandelbrot, David Byrne, Michael Shermer, and Ze Frank plus 3 dozen more. You can find a list of previous speakers here.

Here are two classic TED talks. The first is from 2006 and the other from 2007, and both are by stats guru Hans Rosling.

“You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called ‘developing world.’”

“Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.”

“Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

“What sets Rosling apart isn’t just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You’ve never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling’s hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.”