The Shadow Scholar

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The Shadow Scholar
« on: January 20, 2011, 06:32:53 AM »
The Shadow Scholar
Ed Dante

I work hard for a living. I'm nice to people. But I understand that in simple terms, I'm the bad guy. I see where I'm vulnerable to ethical scrutiny.

But pointing the finger at me is too easy. Why does my business thrive? Why do so many students prefer to cheat rather than do their own work?

Say what you want about me, but I am not the reason your students cheat...
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

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Escaped Lunatic

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Re: The Shadow Scholar
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2011, 04:45:47 PM »
Yeah, and people who sell other illegal and/or unethical items bear no responsibility for creating a market and making their wares easily available.

When he gets tired of this scheme, I guess he can always hang out near a mental health clinic selling cyanide pills to depressed people and say that we shouldn't blame him.
I'm pro-cloning and we vote!               Why isn't this card colored green?
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Re: The Shadow Scholar
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2011, 05:41:25 PM »
Who? What?  mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmm
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

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Monkey King

Re: The Shadow Scholar
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2011, 05:48:42 PM »
Pretty interesting read though - and students of education are his most common customers? Hoho...

As he admits, that's gotta be really hard work.  Research essays are draining I think, especially if you are not really into the topic.  I'd like to know what the quality of the actual work produced is.

Re: The Shadow Scholar
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2011, 07:28:44 PM »
Yeah, I LOL'd a few times reading the piece.  He says he doesn't proof read what he writes for others, and I guess this adds verisimilitude.  And as we all know about written academic work for assessment, it's mostly on questions with (at least formally) well-known answers and the student's input is supposed to be in how well they handle discovering, presenting and (to some degree) assessing the well-known answer...

Consider mature age students at universities.  Anecdotally, they usually do better work than young students.  And it's mostly attributed simply to better time management and a better awareness of why they're in school again and how to put their interest into practice.  So, some older guy with some practice and a small amount of research could fairly easily trot out some decent undergrad work, and even make a good showing in some postgrad assignment.

If the business of education were mostly about the production of scholars, he'd be out of a job, though.  Or, at least, one presumes so.  For the sake of that claim I'm assuming a scholar is someone who can and will discover and present hitherto unrecognised knowledge.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: The Shadow Scholar
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2011, 11:27:54 PM »
I laughed a few times too. I wouldn't be too concderned about the claim that education students are his best customers. It may or not be true, but this guy is clearly trying to provoke a reaction. I would take all of his claims with a grain of salt.

I kept wondering if that would be more up my street than dancing for bananas teaching EFL. Considering what I'm doing now, it almost counts as a move forward.