Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Parenthood - The Situation, S01E05

What is the right punishment when you know that your child plagiarized on an essay? Although Sarah Braverman (Lauren Graham) is mother on the show who struggles the most in that role, I really had to applaud her choices, though with any other child, it might not have worked out.

At Parent-Teacher interviews, Mr. Cyr (Jason Ritter), the English teacher, tells Sarah that her daughter's essay was brilliant. He has a lot of faith in Amber (Mae Whitman), which is a very good sign since she was nearly held back a year. Unfortunately, it turns out that the paper was one Sarah wrote 20 years before when she was in high school.

Sarah's initial reaction is to inform Mr. Cyr of the incident. On the one hand, he has the right to know, particularly as he informs Sarah that he would be willing to write Amber reference letters on the strength of the essay. But that faith, in combination with the flattery Sarah feels that Mr. Cyr thinks she could have gone to college, which she never did, prevents Sarah from speaking.

Instead, Amber has to write the paper for her. As a parent, this may be the best decision, since Amber will still have to do the work and will still learn from the experience, but it will not put the black mark of plagiarism on her transcript.

In the episode, Amber confessed to her teacher, submitting her new essay instead, which proved she really did learn her lesson, but would such a thing have taken place in reality?
What would you do/have done had your child done the same thing?

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