Academic dishonesty (was "Apologies and responsibility")

[lady.indigo at gmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 139432

Steve <bboyminn at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Let's change the scenario slightly. Let's say that Harry found a nice
detailed Potions book at the bookstore or in the library, and brought
that to class because he felt it was a more up-to-date and more
accurate reference than a 50 year old text book. Would you still
have the same view of his cheating, even if you don't consider it
/technically/ cheating?<<


Lady Indigo:
If he didn't share that text with Slughorn and the rest of the class, 
leading people to think it was *his* brilliant new discovery? Yeah. Plus 
these notes weren't readily available to other students. If he'd taken the 
initiative to do extra research available in a public forum, that would have 
at least constituted some kind of work. But these added ideas fell into his 
lap.

So for the record, since I find lists useful, Harry:
1. Won a contest using additional help that he didn't produce himself and 
wasn't readily available to anyone else.
2. Used a shortcut (the beozar) to get out of a lesson where the point 
wasn't just the result, but also understanding the principle behind that 
area of potionsmaking, something he definitely hadn't figured out by the end 
of the lesson. (Sure, Slughorn still praised him, but Slughorn was praising 
a loophole that *Harry never found*. And I don't doubt he'd have found any 
excuse to butter Harry up, anyway.)
3. Hid the truth about his textbook from Slughorn and attempted to do the 
same with Snape, then recieved detention for the use of it when he was found 
out. If he wasn't doing anything wrong, why the coverup? The lying? The 
taking the punishment without arguing with Snape or appealing to Dumbledore? 
I've seen these questions get asked a few times now and nobody's even 
bothered to answer them.

So even if you only see Potions as a series of recipies or pre-planned 
Chemistry methods, where even at the NEWT level theory is completely 
unimportant, there are still moral ambiguities to what Harry did.

- Lady Indigo