<p>Just a little story I told here once before that's relevant to the attitude problem: At the university where I used to teach, I once had two members of the same class turn in the same paper, with only a couple of paragraphs' order changed. (Yes, I know--pretty silly--and the class had only twenty-some students in it, at that!)</p>
<p>The student who had actually written the paper had allowed the one who copied it to read it "for ideas on how to write the assignment." They both played on the same sports team, and I think the better student really did just want to help.</p>
<p>When I confronted the two privately after class, the one who had copied from the other rose from his chair and tried to attack me physically. I had never raised my voice or done anything else to incite such a response. All I had done was quietly inform the two that they would be required to rewrite the papers in my office within a week to avoid taking the matter further. I thought that was extremely generous. (Both were freshmen and I wanted to teach them something rather than punish them at that point--my mistake, I know.)</p>
<p>The one who had written his own paper pulled the one who was trying to attack me down and took him out of the room to explain reality to him. That's an absolutely true story, and it happened over twenty years ago. Things have probably only gotten worse in terms of feelings of justification.</p>