Those Who Copy Together, Stick Together

(Our French teacher is sharp as a tack and particularly sarcastic. He is handing back assignments by calling out a name and handing it back with a comment: “Well done”, or “You didn’t understand the first part”, or something to that effect. All of a sudden, he holds up, for all to see, an assignment which he has stapled to another.)

Teacher: “Look at this. They’re stuck together.” *waves the paper above his head* “They’re so similar they actually stick together.”

(He then calls out the two guys who had copied off each other.)

Teacher: “You guys copied off each other.”

(They are standing nervously.)

Teacher: “You weren’t bad. I gave you two seven out of ten. You deserved it.”

(He explained what they got right, and what they missed.)

Teacher: “So seven divided by two is three and a half out of ten, each. Never let me catch you copying off each other again.”

(With flourish, he snapped apart the two stapled sheets of paper and handed them back to the two, who now looked sheepish. Class resumed. He was smart. Instead of slapping a zero and the guys and giving us a lecture, he’d made sure we were ALL on warning that we would never get it past him if we tried to copy off each other. And we never did.)