Martin Luther King also plagiarised. In his case it was his doctorate from Boston University [Martin Luther King Jnr's Plagiarism]. This took a committee of scholars to research this. They had nothing better to do. In any case, issues of plagiarism at a university are fraught with issues given that most doctorate dissertations include a bibliography that's even larger than the thesis itself. If there wasn't any copying at the university then there'd be no doctorate degrees to give out.
But I'm digressing, my issue is with Mr. Spence of the TDSB. I can forgive a couple of digressions, but after I read the proof of the extent to which he plagiarised, then it blew me away. In fact, I was almost coming to the conclusion that perhaps there's nothing original that this man has said. It's a lot of copying. Check out this article from the Toronto Star and you'll see what I mean. There's no doubt that this was copied. But he doesn't stop there. He goes too far. For anyone who watches TED TV, you may be familiar with Sir. Ken Robinson and may have even seen this YouTube/TED speech titled, Schools Kill Creativity. It's a brilliantly composed plea to open up and diversify teaching. In any case, there's a very funny story that Sir. Ken Robinson tells during the speech. It's about a little girl sitting at the back of the class. The six year-old girl was in a drawing lesson, at the back, drawing and the teacher said that this little girl hardly paid attention but in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and went over to her and asked her what she was drawing. The girl replied "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "but nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl replied, "they will in a minute!" When Sir. Ken Robinson tells the story, he starts by admitting that he's retelling a story. He says, "I heard a great story recently, I love telling it..."and then goes on to relate the story. He doesn't tell us who told him the story, or where he heard it, but it's obvious that he isn't taking claim for the story. Well, guess what. Apparently (since I wasn't there) Chris Spence has also told the story claiming that it's something that he witnessed, and did. That he was the one actually in the classroom and approached the student.
This is really sad because the legacy that he wanted to leave, the legacy that he could have left, a legacy that was so within his reach, is not the legacy that he will leave. Maybe many won't take it as seriously as I am and only his greatness will be remembered, those he touched will simply ignore the egregious acts as I have forgiven Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr., but the extensive cheating in many of our heroes, those we look up to (and don't get me started with sports heroes) has eroded my confidence, or trust, in anything that I hear from anyone in any position.
Why?
This is easy to understand. We all want to be seen as heroes, as intelligent, to the public and its easier to take something from someone that's smart than come up with something original. There's a fear of being wrong. Sir. Ken Robinson (who I quote often) says the following, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." So this need to look great in front of others is completely opposite to looking bad which is what you'd look like if you were wrong. So, to save yourself from being wrong, try very, very hard to look right.This isn't like standing on the shoulders of giants. According to Wikipedia, a source that should be investigated before being totally relied on, that phrase is first attributed to Bernard of Chartres. The meaning is clear. That you can use the works of great people to achieve even greater things. Sir Isaac Newton apparently also used a similar phrase in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676, he said, If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. So looking at the work of other people and using it to become better isn't bad. It isn't plagiarism. The world is bigger and full of people with ideas. In 2012 the planet passed the 7 billion population mark. Everyone's creating and producing. The entire notion of the first to do something is questionable. Like I used to question if Livingstone discovered the source of the Nile. I suppose at some point it's possible to have absorbed so much information from childhood that separating what is an original idea from what is simply a translation from another source can be difficult. On snippets or fragments of ideas. But not entire PhD dissertations, or entire publications. Word for word.
Consequences
Major egregious acts of plagiarism like Chris Spence's should have major repercussions. I'm not going to judge him here, that's not my job. I'm done with him, he's been exposed and the various interested parties who own the rights to the original material from which he copied may, or may not, go after him. Even when that happens, the issue of punishment, repayment, or whatever, may be a very difficult one. In Alex Haley's case, he settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Did the public realise that the book had drawn heavily from a source? Did they realise how much? I doubt it perhaps since I didn't hear about the plagiarism till this particular case regarding Chris Spence. It couldn't have had a material impact. It seems from everything that I've read that Chris Spence really took education seriously. He had a huge impact on the kids he met in the schools he visited. He focussed on trying to teach, even though it was at no cost. If my child was going to his school, being taught by him, coached by him and looking up to him. Then perhaps I'd think differently about how the system should treat him. I think it's OK to try and fool me, but please, leave the children alone!See: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/01/10/chris_spence_suspected_plagiarism_found_in_articles_speeches_dissertation.html
and: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/11/you-cant-be-the-director-of-education-and-plagiarizing-apparent-serial-plagiarist-resigns-as-head-of-school-board/
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