Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Plagiarism and the kindergartener.

Oy vey...
The PTA at our school hosts a creative arts contest each year for children in all grade levels. I told my daughter that she could draw, paint, write or play the piano. She decided to play the piano and got to work right away getting a song down. We recorded it and sent it in. We were proud of her effort and let her know.
We sent the entry off about 3 weeks ago and then on Thursday something popped up on my Facebook page from PBS. It was a song from "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That." The title of the song sounded a lot like my daughters song so I clicked on it and sure enough...my daughter plagiarized this song.
I am certain that it was completely innocent, she's only 5 years old after all. However, it brings up a whole slew of moral issues to contend with. On one hand, it is awesome that she can hear a song and get the notes to play on the piano. On the other hand; intellectual property, copyright, oh my...
We told the principal of the school what had happened and she offered to speak with dd about it. I told her I didn't think it would be necessary this time but if it happens again we'd ask her to speak with dd about it. From what I understand dd's entry is now disqualified and will be sent back to her.
We haven't spoken with dd about it at all, she has no idea what's been happening. We're going to have to speak with her soon. Any advice?

So, was she supposed to create the song, or would playing it have been enough (assuming it was correctly credited?). I too think it's pretty darn impressive that she can play a song she's probably heard a few times on the piano, so I would emphasize that - what a skill!! As far as plagiarizing, I would go in with the assumption that she didn't know this was wrong. My ds10 still is a bit confused on the subject - how to include facts, but put them in your own words... what exactly needs to be credited? I mean, unless you're doing new research, isn't most of what we learn coming from SOME other source? Especially for gifted kids, and maybe kids like my ds who are very literal, this can be HARD! And even dd18, who is a writer and very creative, has worried about inadvertently "lifting" some idea since she reads nearly constantly. So, I guess my point is that I would be very, very positive and in fact, I'd probably take the blame myself ("we should have talked to you about this; I'm really sorry, honey"). Keep emphasizing what an amazing player she is and what a great skill that is. Talk to her about creating her own music, if she'd like. This isn't the advice I'd give for an older child, but at five or six, I think that the most important thing is to not discourage her and to keep the creative spark alive.
Theresa

I would tell her that sometimes we copy another persons work because we admire it and it is okay to sing or play a song that we heard before for our own enjoyment but we cannot take credit for another persons work. You can make up a scenerio that she could relate to. For example, if she (let's say her name is Mary) had written a really great story,left it at her desk and then her friend came took it and showed it to her teacher. The teacher tells her friend that she did a fantastic job and she could go out and play at recess time . It would fine if the friend said, "oh I didn't do this it's Mary's" so instead Mary got the praise and got to go outside for recess but it would not be fine if the friend accepted the praise and got to go for recess and Mary had to write a whole new story because she lost her work.

Hi, I agree with momtofour, however...
I think part of why you are having a hard time bringing it up with her is that it really should have been a discussion between the two of you first, even if you are 110% sure of what happened.
It just seems like a trust thing, and an area where you might have missed an opportunity for her to come forward herself if you both determined that she did plagiarize.

I think the best thing is to just explain what you found, asap, what you think happened, and that you already called the school and then let her talk.

I am hoping this won't sound too negative.

Heck, my undergrads have trouble with this!

I've had a couple of my grad students have issues with how to put facts in there own words... Perhaps starting the discussion as early as kindergarten would help remedy the problem...

Thanks so much everyone! We're probably going to speak with her about it tomorrow. I think I am going to meld a lot of the advice together into one small conversation. We're going to keep it short, light, and take some of the blame off of her shoulders. I am sure she has no idea that playing a song she heard before was wrong, I think she will probably remember hearing the song before once I mention it knowing the way her mind works.
It's a really deep topic and the consequence of not having a song in the contest will be steep punishment for her as she was really looking forward to the ceremony. Because it's such a deep topic and one that will be revisited over and over in her life I wanted to make sure I was approaching it correctly. There is going to be some finessing involved as I don't want to leave her with the idea that she used someone else's work and that it was okay to do or the inverse of she used someone else's work and she is a bad person.

My highschool art teacher told the class that you have to change at least seven things in a picture to make it your own. I don't know if that's legally right but it's at least quite good enough to show a young child the difference between plagiarizing and drawing inspiration from something. Think of that mcdonalds commercial "oh I wish I was alreDy there, instead of here, playing this song. Oh I would have a big chocolate shake, a cheeseburger, and also, whoops, and also fries. And not share any, with my dumb brother. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dut". Duh duh, duh duh, duh. Of mcDonalds."