The story of John and Mary
It seemed to be a clear-cut case of cheating. The two students turned in the identical exam. College policy in this case was to give both students an automatic 'F'. Having been a professor for several years, though, I have learned not to be too quick to jump to conclusions. When both students came to my office to meet me, at my request, I presented them the two exams and asked for an explanation. This was the point where one of them broke down and told me the whole story.
John and Mary grew up in the same small town. They had been friends since kindergarten, and since their school had only one class for each grade, they had been in the same class for thirteen years. Mary had always had trouble in school and , in the fourth grade, been identified as having a learning disability. With hard work and a lot of help from a lot of people, Mary graduated from high school. Her grades weren't great, but they were just barely good enough to get into college.
John graduated with really good grades and set several school records in basketball. He was a really good player but nowhere near tall enough to make it in a big-time school, so he went to a smaller college where he could be a starter on the team. That meant he missed a lot of classes being away at games.
Their first two years of college, John and Mary signed up for all of the same classes. Mary did not want anyone to know that she had trouble reading. She was really excited about being at college like a 'normal person', where no one would know she had to go to the resource room every day. Mary went to every single class and took notes. When John would miss class, she would tell him everything the professor said. John would read the textbooks and tell her everything that was in the book. They would study for the tests together and agree on the answers. Mary would tell John what she wanted to say in her papers and he would type the papers for her. He didn't mind. He typed really fast and he admitted that sometimes when there wasn't a game and he just felt like sleeping in, Mary went to class and gave him the notes, so it all worked out.
Everything had worked okay the first three semesters but now Mary was starting to have problems. Every student had to pass a writing exam to graduate from the college. She had failed it twice and was too scared to try again. Now, here she was in a professor's office, accused of cheating.
Next, solving Mary's problems: Advice for students with disabilities