Academic Integrity

I have my own moral principles, and one of them is not to copy in an exam, or do any sort of plagiarism. Whether it’s a class test, term test, an assignment or finals doesn’t matter to me.

I’m someone in the top strata performers. I listen to lectures diligently. When there was a surprise test a few weeks before the finals, I failed at school. I didn’t regret it because I knew I deserved it for my preparation level. There have also been times when I’ve stood alone at college for non-submission of assignments. This made me lose marks in the internals. However, I’ve been happy for not choosing to compromise on my value.

I was tampering with this value – my academic integrity – in other means somehow, under the guise of being good. Little did I realize it until I got punished for being good.

I’ve been taken to the principal in school and Head of the Department in college for making notes. You got to believe this. I complete most of the math problems or programming assignments for the next day, just at home the previous day so that I can take some rest from continuous writing in the class (I’m a slow writer). During breaks, my note circulates around my class and sometimes even goes to the next classroom without my knowledge, and from there straight to the staff cabin. My bad!

You might argue that I was spoiling my friends by providing my notes. Indeed, I was. But the people who demand must also have that feeling and reason themselves before involving in such activities. Getting back, with punishment, I stopped the pass-game and managed to seal the hole in my value system.

As a SoCS post, I don’t really get where this is heading to. So, let me conclude. I’ve lied to myself at times in ways that don’t pose threats to anyone but me (unavoidable self-deception, sadly). My self-honesty can be questioned but not my integrity. I have never again vandalized my integrity consciously, esp. with academics.

Do you think one’s academic integrity plays a role, small or big, in one’s development as a responsible human? Or, do you think I’ve missed the little joys of schooling by not indulging those deemed-to-be-fashionable activities?

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This late post is inspired by the ‘Stream of Consciousness Saturday Prompt’ by Linda G. Hill. The challenge is to exhibit conscious writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on the content. The SOCS prompt for this week is to find a word that ends in “-sty” or use the word “sty.”

#SoCS Badge

I tried to integrate the word ‘honesty’ into my writing to adhere to the prompt but somehow it went totally with integrity. Considering both as closely knitted values, I guess that’s okay.