'There are many paths to enlightenment - their teachings rich and varied, offering wisdom and 'food for thought', and everything we need for our journey to awakening lies within us. In the beginning, spirituality appears like a bud on a bloom, opening gradually, tempting us with a glimpse of its splendour and unfathomable depths. It is here we create the blueprint for our collective existence.'
IT IS a contemplative essay on life, and appears in Many Dreams, One World, a book featuring works of primary school pupils.
But two parents who read the 440-word piece, entitled The Journey Of Life, were not convinced it was the work of a 12-year-old.
They chanced upon it after their children brought home the book handed out by a group of primary schools in the southern part of Singapore as examples of good writing.
An Internet check confirmed their suspicions. The Primary 6 pupil had plagiarised the work of an adult Canadian author.
One of the parents said her suspicions were aroused by the seriousness of the subject - on how life's difficulties present an opportunity for spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
The other, private tutor Anne Tok, said she googled a line from the essay and up popped the work of Canadian spiritual healer Nancy Tabah Whynott. 'Surely, any teacher reading it would have suspected that the essay was plagiarised or, at the least, written by the parent,' said Madam Tok.
When The Straits Times told the girl's principal on Tuesday about the plagiarism, she was surprised. She was not aware of it.
The principal explained yesterday that the teacher-in-charge had selected essays done by the pupils as a class assignment for which marks were not awarded. The girl was in the best Primary 6 class and an avid reader. Although the teacher did notice some unusual phrases in her essay, she did not suspect plagiarism.
The principal said that when the teacher met the girl yesterday, she did not realise the seriousness of what she had done.
When her parents were told, they claimed to be unaware and promised to speak to her. The girl starts secondary school in the new year.
The principal said several hundred copies of the book had already been distributed, but the remaining ones will be held back. The school has already informed the other schools involved in the project of the plagiarised piece.
The principal said she will remind her teachers to check pupils' work if they suspect plagiarism, and remind pupils that it is wrong to pass off other people's work as their own. She said that her school viewed plagiarism seriously and taught its pupils about copyright issues as part of teaching them the importance of integrity.
Several primary school heads contacted said plagiarism was not a problem in their schools.
Said Mrs Jenny Yeo, principal of South View Primary: 'Our teachers do check if the level of work seems above the child's ability, but as yet we have not found a blatant case of copying.'
But Madam Tok, the parent who blew the whistle, said she has come across plagiarism even among the children who come to her home for English tuition.
Two veteran primary school teachers said that in recent years, they, too, had caught a few pupils copying from the Internet.
Said a teacher in a top primary school: 'Some children are clever enough to go to the more obscure sites and they cut and paste from a few essays so it is hard to detect.'
