When you hear of Philo T. Farnsworth, you would think that the first impression that would come to your mind is some kind of significant historical figure. Unfortunately, Farnsworth is far from that. In fact, he was widely well-known at his time, but he is ever forgotten now due to several regretful mistakes.
Surprisingly, Fransworth was a very accomplished television inventor; ever since "...the age of three, he was making precise drawings of the internal mechanisms of locomotives. At six, he declared his intention to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. At fourteen, while tilling a potato field on his family's farm in Idaho, he saw the neat, parallel lines of furrows in front of him, and it occurred to him...that a picture could be sent electronically through the airwaves in the same way, broken down into easily transmitted lines and then reassembled into a complete picture at the other end. He went to see his high school science teacher, and covered the blackboard with drawings and equations. At nineteen, after dropping out of college, he impressed two local investors with his brilliance and his conviction. He moved to California and set up shop in a tiny laboratory." (Gladwell, Malcolm, The Televisionary)
A pure genius you would say. However, Farnsworth believed that he can take his invention of the television independently, without any assistance from corporations, patents or partners. In his words, "If you had the vision and you made the vision work, then the invention was
yours...(Gladwell, The Televisionary) Having this thought in mind, someone else took Farnsworth's idea, made it as their own and publicized it.
If Farnsworth simply took the action of applying a patent on his innovation, he would have ended up being a one of the few famous life-changing persons in the world.
Similar to the patent is the Academic Dishonesty Policy. District 225 strictly follows this policy. This document of "guidelines" simply explains why one should not copy, cheat, allow a person do work for you, you do the work for someone else, etc. Every year, every teacher, in every class reads the Academic Policy to every student in order to enforce these rules. Would you think that this following example demonstrates Academic Dishonesty?:
During the passing period, Samantha asks her boyfriend Tom what was on the Calculus quiz he took that morning and which she will take last period. No papers are exchanged; they just talk about the quiz. Tom thinks he blew two of the problems, so he doesn't give Samantha any answers, but he tells her the problems on his quiz.
Think twice. This ABSOLUTELY exemplifies an example of Academic Dishonesty.
I think that the reason why this policy is frequently enforced is so that we will be prepared for the outside world when we encounter it in the future. When it comes to college, and one cheats or copies, that person is kicked out of the college for good. No exemptions. No excuses. They're done. At least we have consequences, but we can still continue going to Glenbrook South. But what they do in college is basically what they do in reality. If you invent something, you want to protect your innovation so no one else can duplicate it and so you can receive the credit for inventing that. You don't want to end up like Farnsworth, cheated and forgotten; you want to end up being a famous successful inventor!
