Academic dishonesty (was "Apologies and responsibility")

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 139421


> bboyminn:
> it would be more than fair for
> a student to bring additional reference information into class to
> perform a Physics or Chemistry experiment and I think that same thing
> can be applied to Potions, as long as, he isn't required to write up
> the experiment afterwards. Then, as I already pointed out, he has some
> obligation to cite additional reference material. But not doing so, is
> merely an oversight, it hardly constitutes cheating or plagiarism.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> Steve/bboyminn

Valky:
I wonder if I could add yet another angle of perspective to this
interesting thread. :D 
I confess I rarely have a problem with Harry's rulebreaking, mostly
because the WW society has IMO a real set of issues in terms of
justice anyway, most of the laws and rules Harry (and all Wizardom)
lives under are simply unreliable and the unfortunate mark of a
damaged, crumbling and wartorn society. Besides I am Australian, that
speaks for itself, at least to other Aussies <g>. The state of things
 can only be made better by someone with the guts to fight for a fair
go. Harry is usually acting upon his deepest sense of fairness,
compassion and courage, so he's all right by me.

That isn't the angle that I am proposing to be considered here,
though. That would be the following. I submit that if we are comparing
Potions practice to Chemistry practice then there is an important
measure in the practice of Chemistry that we haven't looked at. 
In a practical Chemistry lesson, you are graded on certain aspects of
your work. Two of these are your accuracy and precision, which as
Merrylinks said earlier, are the important components of a practical
outcome in Sciences, the results.  

Harry uses a set of instructions to carry out potion making, putting
aside that it is a different set of instructions to the other children
in the class, lets consider Harrys ability to follow those
instructions, which is one of the major requirements in the Potions
class, I think we have in canon. Harry may have separate notations to
the other class members, however he still must translate those
instructions into manual precision, and accurately manifest the
written instructions into real life potion. Without these things, it
is highly unlikely that any set of instructions would make any
difference. If we are still yet comparing this with a chemistry prac
then Harry's skills are most definitely in credit. The fact that Harry
can recreate a perfect potion from these instructions, might not be
such an insignificant deal. Consider. Why are the other students in
the class all not at the precise same stage of the potion as each
other? They are following the same instructions. Hence the reasoning
that none of Harry's own skill is on display in his well made potions
is to imply that everyone in the class was using a different set of
instructions, and Ron was just making it up out of his head, lol. The
fact is Harry is a highly skilled potions maker, Snapes notations did
not control his hands his eyes and his ability to discern the stage of
the potion using his own senses. Those things he did himself. 

I'd like to add another thought to this. I wonder if the Potion
Recipes in Snapes textbook are the same recipes that he would have
been casting onto his blackboard for the class to follow, had he been
a NEWT potions master. If it were the case, then it is possible that
Hary's potions performance in HBP is actually representative of what
he would always have been capable of with Snape lessons but no actual
Snape in the room sabotaging him every few minutes. I think this might
be a Theory, you know, even Hermione didn't do all so well as usual
without Snape as her teacher, I noticed.


Valky