Jaedee was the best speller in the whole class and everybody knew it. He could spell difficult words very easily. His spelling ability got him the perfect score on each weekly spelling test.
It was ruled that the child making six spelling mistakes would correct all the incorrect spellings at least fifteen times.
Shonali, who sat next to Jaedee, always struggled with spelling. Last week, she wrote eight spellings incorrectly which meant copying each word fifteen times.
Jaedee grew so confident that he decided not to study for the next test. The test began. Ms. Bonami, their English teacher, pronounced each word and then repeated it. Everything was OK until she said “Handkerchief.”
Jaedee scribbled h-a-n-d-k-e-rc-h….now what? I….? His mind was blank. His eyes rolled to his right where Shonali was sitting. There it was, written in her handwriting. There it was, written in her handwriting. His eyes went quickly back to his own paper and finished the word with the letters “i-e-f”. He remained tense as Ms. Bonami read the word aloud for a final brush-up. He had copied from another child for the first time.
“Is this the way I want to maintain my perfect score –by copying from others?” He was thoughtful. He was upset. Something was troubling him strongly. He quickly erased the word and replaced it with what he knew was the answer. He wrote “e-i-f”. He put down his pencil and sighed with relief.
He put down his pencil and sighed with relief. “So what if I do not have the perfect score? At least I will live with my honesty.”