Copy that: Burke plagiarism is a non-scandal

Mary Burke's plagiarism scandal isn't a scandal; it's a sign of desperation. (PHOTO: shutterstock.com ) Published Sept. 30, 2014 at 3:06 p.m.

Here's a quiz. Which of these things is not like the others?

A. A few years ago, we added a concrete parking slab and a retaining wall next to our garage. We got a few quotes first, and every concrete guy who came to the house brought a book of photos and testimonials. We got to flip though the book, and when we saw a retaining wall style we liked, we said, "We like that one. Do that for us, please."

B. This year, I'm teaching 10th grade English. I haven't taught that class in the better part of a decade and not at all at the school where I teach now. But Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is on the calendar now just as it was the last time I taught it. When the other teachers and I were planning this semester's final exam last week, I dug up the questions I wrote about that play for a final exam I gave years ago at my previous school. We're going to put some of those questions on the final this year.

C. In the 1990s, the economy of Japan was awful. They call it Japan's "lost decade." The country's response was a policy of austerity, pulling back on government spending in the hopes that the private sector would step into the breach and get the Japanese economy back on a solid footing. When the economy of Europe collapsed in the 2000s, places like Greece and Italy following Japan's lead also pursued austerity, attempting a specific and common policy solution to a common problem (FYI, austerity didn't work. Japan's economy is booming right now because of a strong stimulus, while Greece is simply hoping that maybe, just maybe, they'll finish the year with barely positive growth for the first time in years).

D. When we got married, my wife and I hired a band we really loved to play the reception. They put on a hell of a show, playing a lot of our favorite songs of theirs, in fact. And we were very glad that they played all the right notes and sang all the right words in the right order. That's why we hired them!

E. Did I mention I'm a teacher? My class syllabus clearly says, "If you can Google it, I can Google it." Yet every year I have multiple uncomfortable conversations with students who insist that the site I show them online must have copied from them, not the other way around.

So what was your answer? Did you pick E? You should have. Answer choice E is the only one that describes an actual instance of plagiarism, something that, as a teacher and an English teacher at that! I have very strong feelings about.

The other answer choices are not plagiarism, or even close to it.

By now, you have probably figured out what party I am coming to, even though I am very late to it (real life got in the way of my writing a column last week when this might have been more relevant). And that party is the Mary Burke plagiarism "scandal."

Read more from the original source:
Copy that: Burke plagiarism is a non-scandal