After reading these two sections, i learned a lot from Martian Luther King Jr. being a plagiarist himself to Chinese people cheating and bribing on entrance exam. I also had some of my question answered after reading the book like when plagiarism started. I would have never guessed that man students from the research she did along with the help of her four students. I was also surprised to hear that not only students, but faculty members did some plagiarizing even after the got their degrees.
When I read the part in the book where Susan mentioned Martian Luther King Jr. plagiarizing I was just in plain shock. This historical figure who changed the way we live in America and is honored by many people actually did some plagiarizing himself. The book does mention that MLK’s professors let his plagiarism slip on a few occasions. One the reasons the book gives is that MLK’s professors were probably racist and didn’t want to set him to everyone else’s standard. Another reason for this mishap is overseeing the plagiarism due to the fact professor would over see it and just see his characteristic. Either way I see it, I still see MLK was a good, honorable, life changing man. If he were to see his own mistakes, he probably would have made a more epic speech than the one he wrote up.
Another part in the book that made me take a second look to certain Asians is the fact that Chinese people cheat and bribe their way into a good university.I had an idea of how colleges in China would accept people in to their college but I would have never guessed potential students cheating and bribing their way in. Writing cheats hidden on their underwear with invisible ink, hiring an impersonator, and having people answer your signals were the ways people cheated in China. I knew that plagiarism was bad, but i didn’t know it would this deep of plagiarism just to get into a good college. I was pretty mad reading how easily these people got in to college while students like me hard to actually use ours minds to get where we are today.
Just to be clear, the Chinese exam system Blum describes was set up (hundreds of years ago) as a way for the government to find the best and the brightest citizens to fill government jobs. Those tests weren't to get into college. It's just an example of how people are more likely to turn to cheating if the stakes are very, very high.
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