Sourcing Thoughts

"More than anything else, I regret that I have not set a good or proper example for the many thousands of young people I've been privileged to meet and know.
"I have come to this decision (resignation/apology) after a great deal of reflection, and no small amount of consultation with family, friends and colleagues. I do so with a profoundly heavy heart."
Chris Spence, director of Education, Toronto District School Board

The plagiarizing phenomenon that has rattled and curdled trust throughout academia and the scientific and literary world in the last while seems endemic within society. No one is ignorant of the fact that it is immoral, unethical and pathetic to portray someone else's creative ideas, thoughts and words as though they represented their own authentic and wholesome expression.

That someone of the stature of a director of education for the country's top school board in terms of the numbers of students, teachers and schools involved, would so indulge is staggering.  Mr. Spence cannot claim he was unaware he was appropriating someone else's work for his own.  He appears to have done so repeatedly, and with some aplomb, with the self-assurance that he would never be held to account.

His reputation is now in tatters. There is no excuse that is palatable enough to shrug off his ridiculous attempts to appear knowledgeable using someone else's reasoning and expression.  He has himself been forced to admit that as an educator he "should know better" than to make use of others' work, presenting it as his own. 

Well, the fact is he did know better.  Irrespective of which he chose to embark on deception regardless. Which makes it rather implausible that he will ever be able to restore his reputation, uphold academic integrity and make amends, as he has declared himself prepared to do.