At Least They're Committed

Across the country fourth graders are each year handed a stack of crudely drawn pictures with pre-written titles and encouraged to write a short story about both elements. In the case of Edisonsblackdahlia, formerly known as DSII, the results of his efforts came home in a book bound together by a construction paper cover and ribbon through two hole punches. Maneuvering through the poor penmanship, I delighted in his writing and I marveled at his descriptions, character development and flow. One story in particular stood out: Archie Smith, Boy Wonder. I was so impressed by his work that I posted it to this very blog along with a photo of him dressed as Heath Ledger’s Joker. Maybe I should have changed the title throughout, but I didn’t and so now a couple of times a year, when it’s time for fourth-graders across the country to write an article about the crudely drawn photo and Archie Smith title, I get a flurry of hits on this blog, presumably from 10-year-olds looking for, um, inspiration. Near as I can tell, there are probably only four or five such plagiarists out there each round of assignments. Even so, young deceptors, this past round there were a few ‘late’ hits . . . oh, about enough time for the assignment to be turned in and your teacher to check your work out online to see where you’d come up with it. I figure this observation, since it’s newer, might come up on a Google search before Edisonsblackdahlia’s actual story. Consider yourselves warned, clever children, you’ve been warned. 😉