Blog on the Lillypad
Sunday, February 15, 2004
 | Get Credit for Your Own Work, kids!
Over a year ago, I received an e-mail from a woman who asked me to send her a bio of myself as quickly as possible, as her child had to do a report on me, and it was due tomorrow. I can't remember exactly how I replied. As far as I recall, I told her to have her child send me a list of questions to answer, and I would answer them. A couple months after that, I received several different e-mails from some children, obviously in the same class at school. They all had to do reports on me and wanted me to send them a paragraph about myself. I wrote to each of them and told them to send me a list of questions and I would answer their questions right away so that they could write their reports. None of them replied, except for one, who asked me again just to send a paragraph, and I replied again by saying I would answer questions but would not write the report for them. |
To remedy the problem created by children (and every now and than an over anxious parent) writing to me at the very last minute before an assignment was due, I created the "Nuttin but the FAQ", which is designed to give out some bio information but in such a way that the child still has to write it into report form. I taught English for five years. I am strongly motivated to get kids to do their own work and not copy it from sources (which is plagiarism).
A couple weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a young lady asking me to send her Robert Lipsyte's e-mail address because she has to write a report on him for school. Robert Lipsyte, if you don't know, wrote a terrific YA book called The Contender. It's a classic for teen reading. I read it about two dozen times as I went from my teens to my late twenties. And the nicest compliment I ever got about VALKYRIES was when Dr. Bill Yost told me he could see the influence on The Contender in my writing (though I don't think Mr. Lipsyte has anything to worry about).
I wrote her back to tell her that I'm honored that she would think I write to Robert Lipsyte, but I have no idea what his e-mail address is. So today I got another e-mail from her, begging me for any contact info on him that I have, as the report is due by the 25th, and she'll get a detention if she doesn't have anything.
How, I wonder, have we raised children who expect people to do their homework for them, and in time for their deadlines? Anyway, I wrote back to the young lady and gave her a brief instructional on how to find the information from people who can supply it for her (teachers, librarians, etc.) and how to do web searches. And I told her she needs to do her homework with diligence. Regrettably, I have no idea how to contact Robert Lipsyte! Yes, all the stories you've heard about me and Robert Lipsyte being pals are merely rumors.
