Author: Mackenzie Jefferson

Mackenzie Jefferson

March 26, 2020

Plagiarism Policy and Bloodchild 

Introduction

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler is a short story that is about the relationship between a boy named Gan and a creature named T’Gatoi. In this world, the Terrans are ruled over by Tlic. T’Gatoi and Gan’s relationship on paper looks like a happy love story. However, the relationship is abusive and domineering. T’Gatoi and Gan have a power dynamic where T’Gatoi holds all the power. This strange power dynamic can be seen at SUNY Geneseo. Most notably in the Plagiarism Modules. Plagiarism is a problem plaguing college campuses. Some students will do whatever it takes in order to maintain a perfect GPA. The school has laid out rules in order to prevent this from happening. Instead of fostering an environment where grades do not necessarily reflect intelligence or create more achievable GPA goals. The university uses scary repercussions if someone is thought to have plagiarized. Even if someone plagiarized themselves. This unfair dynamic does not need to be in a relationship like in Blood Child; or in academic partnership.

Body Paragraph 1: 

The relationship between T’Gatoi and Gan was unequal. T’Gatoi and Gan should have had an equal relationship but T’Gatoi had all the power. For example, T’Gatoi strips down Lomas and tells Gan to go out and slaughter a large animal and bring it back. Gan has never done this before and hesitates and then she hits him with her tail: hard. Gan quickly got up and looked for a weapon to kill an animal. This shows the inequality between the two. In an urgent situation, T’Gatoi hits Gan. This was extremely abusive behavior and Gan still responds to this. He listens to her. This highlights their inequality. The relationship with the school is the same way. The student and the administration should be on the same playing field. However, this is not the case when it comes to plagiarism. Academic dishonesty for the school it writes. “If the student denies responsibility and the faculty member is convinced that the student is not responsible, the matter is dropped.” However, in the same article, it lays an article out a plan to directly punish a student if not believed to be true. This highlights the abusive nature of the school to make sure students follow the rules.

Body Paragraph 2: 

T’Gatoi has a lot of power. T’Gatoi instituted a policy united the Tilc and Terrans families. T’Gatoi was what stood between the Terrans and the desperate Tilc. The who; family knows they owe everything to T’Gatoi. T’Gatoi is shown asserting abusive and unnecessary power on to the family. But because of her political power, the family knows that they owe T’Gatoi everything.

Body Paragraph 3:

 T’Gatoi had an indifference to Lomas pain. Gan is thinking only of Lomas’ pain

T’Gatoi was also been seen to be insensitive to emotional turmoil her iron fist control over Gan and his family. For example, T’Gatoi cut up Lomas with her claw. Lomas screamed in agony but paid little attention and licked the blood way. Gan feels he will have to vomit soon. T’Gatoi shows noticeable indifference to Lomas pain and reinforces the divide between Terrans and the Tilc. T’Gatoi thinking only of the babies. Gan seeing Lomas’s pain. 

Body Paragraph 4: 

Qui has already witnessed a similar traumatic experience to what Gan will soon witness. He doesn’t have this foundation of trust; he was not raised by Tilc rather than face the problem Qui runs away. Gan doesn’t have fear or hate towards the Tilc as Qui does. Qui still makes sure he gets his egg. Instead of being unafraid like Gan. Qui often runs away from reality. I think this is similar to the story recommended to the student to read in the plagiarism module The Story is called the peak and it’s a scary story where college students were suspended for plagiarism. A scary tale to read to convince students to stay far away from plagiarism. However, the story wants us to fear the administration and want them to feel bad for what they have done. For example, it says It must be extremely frustrating for those honest students

to see a small number of fellow students taking an unfair academic

advantage

Conclusion:

Geneseo’s policy on Plagiarism is messed up. It needs to be revised. Blood Child explained the abusive relationship between. 

Mackenzie Jefferson

Goal-Setting Rewrite

An epigraph is a short quote that suggests a theme. This course’s epigraph is from Blood Child by Octavia Butler. “If we’re not animals if these are adult things except the risk Gatoi in dealing with a partner”. When first reading this epigraph, I had no idea what this meant. There was little context. Now, with conversations in class and the material readings, I have a firmer grasp on what this epigraph is expressing. It addresses failure. The most frightening point in any college student’s career. College students learning that it is okay to fail. It is a gamble that will help with growth. It is revealing that it is a risk to trust. You are risking comfortability and safety. But risk leads to development. Our class discussed growth. Having a goal will help make the learning process easier. In college, you experience a lot of change. Without goals, many feel lost or directionless. Some may consider these growing pains. These discomforts include becoming self-confident, experiencing loneliness and needing to learn. Goal setting is the key to having a successful college experience.

This epigraph speaks about the value of setting goals. For instance, when handling writing this paper it was directionless. I relied heavily on sprouts of energy. I waited to write this because I was afraid of the work that would entail. I would rather fail at something that I don’t work hard at. I can recognize the experience of failure. So, I avoid the hurt of the whole situation entirely. Which isn’t the point of growth. You can’t avoid things and still expect to mature. I mean you can, but it’ll be a slow change. My goal for this class is to have a better sense of self and to set boundaries. I want to feel confident in my decisions and not backpedal.

A boundary that I need to set for myself is prioritizing schoolwork rather than socializing. This dilemma I’m facing is something that is like how Gan is feeling throughout the story. In Blood Child, the main motif revolves around eggs. In this society, sterile eggs are for human pleasure. For example, getting drunk and living a longer life. These eggs are advocated by the Tilc for the Terrans to use. Nevertheless, the eggs are also used for the Terran’s demise. The Terrans get sick and die when they are fertile. Despite this fact, the Eggs are still promoted by their society. I associated this dichotomy to the problem we face in college. In campus culture socializing is promoted. The school offers a plethora of clubs and even Greek life. This helps foster strong a campus community. Not to mention making lifelong friends for students. Socializing seems advantageous for the students and is highly promoted by SUNY Geneseo. However, when done in excessive amounts socialization was my demise. Having a social life is fun but it ended up hurting me in the long run. It’s a distraction from another core value high achievement. I decided to focus on my social life mercies my studies. Socialization is a trap like the egg’s in Blood child.

In class, we also discussed whether Geneseo students are adults or kids. When you’re 18 you’re living on a cusp between being an adult and a kid. Blood Child is a coming of age story. Gan prefaced his story with “my last night of childhood began with a visit home.” Stating that there is a distinct difference between childhood and adulthood. In Bloodchild Gan is faced with difficult adversity. It wasn’t until he experienced this was he an adult. This is similar to my belief on adulthood. There are some experiences one must go through in order to be an adult. That’s why I think most students here are just kids. In a sense, college is a coming of age story. We are challenged mentally in many aspects. It’s rare for young people to have a strong sense of self and awareness that many adults have. This process is hard at any age.

In class, we talked about whether someone has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Having is a growth mindset is thinking that things can change. Having a fixed mindset is believing that things cannot be changed. Students should want to have a growth mindset because then you can be learning. Most people have fixed mindsets. They believe that is people were to change it would be in fixed stages. That is why people think there is a difference between a child and an adult. They think that development comes in stages. A fixed mindset is the thought that if you turn 25 that’s when you become in a real adult or when you’re 16 that’s when you leave childhood. Life doesn’t come in stages set packs easy to digest stages it’s all curve. You learn things little by little you change slightly. And then when you take a step back you realize you’re a completely different person than you were maybe 5 years ago. This is because in a sense everybody is growing whether they realize it or not. Everybody’s changing nothing is set in stone. so, it would be counter-intuitive to believe that there is a difference between a kid and an adult. Plus, to think that some kids are we wiser than the adults in power

In conclusion, the epigraph is more than it’s literal meaning. The meaning of the course epigraph is that you need to trust. Trust is a risk that requires you to have faith yourself and the other. In college, you need to trust the institution and yourself. Both parties need to feel safe while stepping out of their comfort zone. This will allow growth in the school climate and the student body. This helps prepare them for the real world.

Mackenzie Jefferson

2/4/20

The course epigraph is “if we’re not animals if these are adult things except the risk Gatoi in dealing with a partner”. When first reading this epigraph, I had no idea what this meant. There was little context. Now, with conversations in class and the material readings, I have a firmer grasp of what this epigraph is saying. It is revealing that it is a risk to trust. You are risking comfortability and safety. This risk leads to development. Our class discussed growth. Having a goal will help make the learning process easier. In college, you experience a lot of change. Some may consider these growing pains. These pains include becoming confident of yourself, experiencing loneliness and wanting to learn. This epigraph also addresses failure. The scariest thing to any college student. College students question whether it is okay to fail. It is a gamble that will help with growth.

This epigraph speaks about the value of setting goals. For instance, I am handing this paper in late it is disorganized and rushed. I can directly understand the experience of failure and being afraid to allow myself to not succeed. So, I avoid the whole situation entirely. Which isn’t the point of growth. You can’t avoid things and still expect to mature. I mean you can, but it’ll slow and a more gradual slope. My goal for this class is to have a better sense of self and to set boundaries. I want to feel confident in my decisions and to not backpedal.

A boundary that I need to set for myself is to prioritize school rather than socializing. I felt this dilemma I’m facing is something that is like how Gan is felt throughout the story. In Blood Child, the main motif in the story revolves around eggs. In this society, they use sterile eggs for human pleasure. For example, getting drunk and living a longer life. The eggs were heavily pushed by the Tilc. The eggs are used for the Terrans demise when it is fertile eggs. The Terrans get sick and die when they are fertile. Despite this fact, the Eggs are promoted by their society. I associated this dichotomy to the problem we face in America. In campus culture, socializing is promoted. We live in an extroverted world. If you think about it in the grand scheme of things we live in America and everybody wants to be an extrovert. The only way to get ahead is to have conversations. At least communicating with people you’re not going to be lonely. It’s kind of like the system we live in, so we pushed to believe that you need to be sociable. You need cannot be a hermit and you need to talk to people. That it will be your pleasure to do so but when done and excessive amounts socialization was my demise. This paper on time because I decided to focus on my social life mercies my studies

Also, in class, we discussed how students are kids or adults. It all depended on how you viewed college students. We are living in a weird Limbo whether we are children or if we are adults. I felt like this related again back to Blood Child because it was a coming of age story. In a sense college like a coming of age story. We are finding out what it means to be an adult. We have to face hardships and you have to be OK with that. in college, we have to be OK with being challenged. we have to be OK would be hurt and to be OK failing. that’s the only way that we can grow. we’re still kids because we haven’t reached OK yet. so when do you stop becoming a kid ? does it ever stop because being OK with the things that hurt or challenge you? It is so rare it’s almost unachievable at any age. so is there a distinct difference between a child and an adult ? or are we all living in a state of confusion and we use labels to differentiate between each other

I had the advantage of adding this part of class into this essay. in-class we talked about whether someone has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Having is a growth mindset is thinking that things can change. Having a fixed mindset is believing that things cannot be changed. Students should want to have a growth mindset because then you can be learning. Most people have fixed mindsets. They believe that is people were to change it would be in fixed stages. That is why people think there is a difference between a child and an adult. They think that development comes in stages. A fixed mindset is a thought that if you turn 25, that’s when you become in a real adult or when you’re 16, that’s when you leave childhood. Life doesn’t come in stages set packs easy to digest stages it’s all curve. You learn things little by little you change slightly. And then when you take a step back you realize you’re a completely different person than you were maybe 5 years ago. This is because in a sense everybody is growing whether they realize it or not. Everybody’s changing nothing is set in stone. so, it would be counter-intuitive to believe that there is a difference between a kid and an adult. Plus, to think that some kids are we wiser than the adults in power

In conclusion, the epigraph is more than its literal meaning. It means that we need to trust and to have faith in ourselves. In our case to trust college or the institution that we live in. It’s fine to not feel safe it’s OK to get out of your comfort zone. Because you might be best in a bubble but if you let yourself grow there’s no knowing what you can achieve.