Story: Tricky Students and Wise Professors

(Image of St. Johns College at Cambridge sourced from Wikimedia)

Young trickster Flora was a wizard at cheating her way through school. She had the peripheral vision of a wiz and she was a class act in academic misconduct. She could hack the internet for answers, she could see others tests from miles away, and she even could mark up her arms with answers undetected. Flora was the integrity council’s worst nightmare. She had managed to cheat her way through high school and now her final test was fooling a college professor.

Old Professor Smith was known to be a stickler on grades. He taught financial accounting and allowed for not a single decimal point to be misplaced. He was ruthless in marking X’s in red ink and relentless in making sure all of his students were honest in their work. He valued determination, authenticity, and the truth. He was the poster child for top notch professors. Flora had met her match.

Flora had a financial accounting test coming up quick and she came up with the plan to fool Professor Smith. Flora's plan was perfect. She decided to test out the water bottle method. She wrote all of her notes and answers on the back of a water bottle label and then reattached the label seamlessly. “Professor Smith is going to have no idea what hit him,” Flora brooded to herself.

Test day rolled around and all of the students were on edge, except for Flora. Flora couldn’t foresee any problem. Tests were passed out, the class went silent, and the scantrons were pulled out. Flora was taking peeks at her water bottle and everything was going according to plan until she undid the cap and took a sip of water in hopes of making people less suspicious. As Flora was setting her bottle down to get back into the groove of things her classmate knocked it over in the process of holding up her hand. Water spewed from the bottle and landed all over the floor. The bottle was emptied, classmates were now wet, and Flora’s answers were exposed.

Old Professor Smith quickly came to the soaked situation and discovered the answers hiding behind the facade of an empty water bottle. Professor Smith looked up at Flora and smiled and then proceeded to say, “Finish your test.” Flora felt sick. She had never been caught before nor did she expect this type of outcome. “Wasn’t he supposed to scream, holler, and kick me out?” she thought to herself. Flora found herself sweaty and nervous. She could no longer write because her hands were shaking uncontrollably. She went up to the front of the class, turned it what she had and walked out only to receive an email in her inbox from Professor Smith that read, “See you in my office tomorrow at noon.”

Many nightmares later and a breakfast that was quickly stomached, Flora headed to see Professor Smith. She knocked on the door promptly at 12:00 o’clock and the wooden door slowly creaked open to reveal Professor Smith with a frown on his face. Panic seeped into Flora’s veins. She had never felt such guilt, she knew what was to come. Professor Smith gestured for Flora to take a seat and she reluctantly did. Before Professor Smith could utter a word Flora burst into tears and profusely apologized. Professor Smith’s face did not change and Flora fell silent as he began to speak. “If we ask anyone what cheating is, that person may tell us that cheating is an act of dishonesty. Based on this answer, we have to ask ourselves, whom exactly we are lying to.”

Flora sat in disbelief as her tears dried. She began to critically think. It didn’t take long for Flora to realize that she had been lying to herself all along, she was the one who had been fooled. Professor Smith had watched her come to this realization and then gave her a second chance to take her exam the following week. Flora thanked him and walked out the door with a new wave of motivation. As the door shut, Professor Smith's heart grew softer as he knew he did his job well. Professor Smith guided the way for Flora to be sprung into what education is supposed to look like: honest, truthful, and hard work.

Author's Note:

I chose to base this story around the Fox and the Stork from La Fontaine's Fables. This particular story stuck out to me because I knew I could somehow put a creative spin on it and make it relatable to the audience. One of the storytelling prompts was to somehow make it relevant to OU students, which is exactly what I did. I felt as if that prompt was fitting for this story and for me as it is my last semester here at OU. I wanted to add a deeper meaning than the original one, which is why I chose to keep the professor's honesty intact and guide Flora with his own wisdom to see what was right and what was wrong. In the original, the fox just walks away with his ears burning in defeat and the stork is gleaming with pride. You can't fight fire with fire so I wanted to change it to something that had more depth.  The picture I chose was of St. Johns college in Cambridge, where I had the pleasure of visiting. I thought that this particular photo eerily resembled some of OU's buildings so I snuck it in there.  

Bibliography:
The Fox and the Stork, link to the online reading.
Fables of La Fontaine, link to online reading.

Cheating quote sourced from Dinara Kairbayeva.