Academic dishonesty

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 139523

Eggplant:
> If you were 16 and in Harry's position what would you have done? I'm
> not asking what a moral paragon would have done, nor am I asking 
what
> you hope you would have done, I'm asking what you honestly think you
> would have done in that class on that day. As for me, I'm certain I
> would have kept on reading the notes in the margin and kept my mouth
> shut about it.
*(snip)*

Ceridwen:
Yes, I would have kept it, used it, and kept my mouth shut.  I don't 
think I would have let Hermione know I'd kept it, either, once my new 
book came in.  Things get quieter that way!  However, for debate...

This is getting to be a long, though interesting, debate.  I 
personally think it was cheating, just because he's supposed to be 
learning, not deliberately going off to improve.  He doesn't seem to 
understand why this or that is added, and he doesn't seem to 
understand the theory, or the possible interactions between 
ingredients, good or bad.  They aren't his notes, but he takes the 
praise.  In my mind, it's the same thing as copying someone else's 
test or homework.  It's detremental to his learning.

Yet, it's N.E.W.T. Potions.  He should have learned all of that by 
now, and been ready to take his first steps at improving on an 
established formula.  Still, that doesn't negate the similarity to 
copying from someone else.

So, I asked the husband.  He's got his own idea of right and wrong, 
and he's taken all sorts of stuff like this in college.  Even though 
this is more like high school. I figured I would at least get a 
different perspective from asking him.

He sees using the notes as being all right, since the teacher gave 
him the book.  The teacher should have known that the book was 
marked, in his opinion, so once he approves it by giving it to Harry, 
then the use of the changes is all right, even sanctioned.

What was wrong, according to him, was that Harry did not return the 
book when he got his own.  Since it wasn't his book, he had no right 
to keep it without permission.  I asked if it would be okay since he 
exchanged the new one in order to keep the old.  He said sure, *if 
the teacher agreed* to the switch.

Since I'm already stumbling along, tripping toward one side and then 
the other, on this issue, I'll take the husband's word.  Even if it 
does go against the copying from someone else's test or homework.  
Harry was wrong not to return the book he borrowed, substituting 
another in its place, without informing the book's owner or person 
responsible for it.

Ceridwen.