>I agree, this may also be the case for many high school students whose >libraries are insufficiently supplied with Classics references. Or for >those who live in the 'country' miles away from a university- This was >certainly the case for me as a young student here in Vermont! Let us try >to be a bit forgiving. Haven't we all been students at one point?
I think this response misses the point. Most of these assignments are clearly meant to be carried out with a copy of the Aeneid and one's (own) brain. I do think those of us lucky enough to have access to large libraries should be as helpful as we can with requests for specific information from people who really need it. But I don't see how living "miles away from a university" provides an excuse for inviting other people to do your homework. At the same time, I have to say that such requests--as in this case--can spark lively discussions that will be of little use to the would-be plagiarist and in that sense are not an unmitigated bad thing. Perhaps instead of ignoring the request as Susanne Hafner suggests (hello Susi!) we might ask the initial questioners to show good faith by putting out their own ideas and inviting comment. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Gregory Hays Dept. of Classics, University of Illinois 4072 Foreign Languages Building 707 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801 USA http://members.aol.com/greghays/index.html "I'm just like _The Cherry Orchard_: half of me keeps saying to the other half, 'You must work, my friends, you must work,' and the other half does anything to keep from it, although the *idea* sounds lovely to it." -Randall Jarrell (letter to Robert Lowell, 1949) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
