Happy Ending?

After I sent home the e-mail about the plagiarized essay, Dad went ballistic. I haven’t received a volatile e-mail like that in a LONG time. He was outraged that I would accuse his son of cheating and ranted about what an awful person I was and how I never had a nice thing to say about his son. I think my patience hit its limit. I e-mailed him back that he should look at the essay and I’d call him the next day.

Silence via e-mail. I called after teaching and received voice mail, so I extended my invitation for after school help again to his son. Later that day, I received the signed conduct notice in my box at the office with a note scrawled at the bottom, “I still don’t agree with this.”

But you know what? The kid showed up for help. It was 45 minutes late, but he was there. I’m not sure whether he was splitting his time between teachers or whether Dad drove him back to school. In any case, we spent 25 minutes going over grammar and toward the end, I asked him to show me his note cards for his essay. The notes were fine; he just didn’t have a clue how to tranform them into paragraphs of his own. We spent the next ten minutes going over how to write an essay from notes. The more I talked with him, it was clear that he actually did know the facts–he had just panicked on the essay and didn’t know what to do. Instead of asking for help, he took the wrong path.

After we had a solid paragraph in ten minutes, I made him an offer. I would accept a HANDWRITTEN essay by him, with a significant late penalty, if he would do the work on his own. Due Tuesday. I also helped him with some supplies for his oral presentation today. By the end, he seemed excited about the presentation and he was smiling when he left.

Am I rewarding a kid for cheating? I don’t think so. I truly think he made a misguided decision. In the end, what’s important to me is that he learn how to research and write a paper. I want him to have the confidence that he can do this. Will he turn it in? Hard to say. But at the end of the day, I know I walked out with a kid who felt better about himself. To me, that’s worth it, and that’s a happy ending. What do you think? Am I being a sap to make him that kind of offer?
(I’ll probably still have hate mail in my in-box from the Dad about what an awful teacher I am.):loser: Oh well.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the editor at M&B, reassuring me that my book is still under consideration and is sitting on the senior editor’s desk. Bless her. I was starting to get a little antsy. Okay, obsessive. Neurotic. Needing therapy. But all is well, so far, and I wrote another 3 pages on my book last night.

TV Update–
Idol: Thank goodness Taylor won!
24: Not as exciting as I thought it would be. I swear George Lucas wrote the romance dialogue on this show. Ick!
Lost: Hey, at least they have a logical explanation as to why the plane crashed. Still, I’m wondering what in the heck that “disease” storyline is. And how much do you want to bet Michael and Walt end up right back at the island?