TXMary2 Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Has anyone used Simple Schooling? They have a high school unit on the Solar System, that I am curious about. I am just wondering what people think of the materials there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 I had a really awful experience with Simple Schooling. I paid $90 for a subscription that included all the printed unit studies as well as the "interactive" units. I had a heck of a time trying to download the PDFs; many files were corrupted and even repeated attempts to download some of them failed. When I started looking through the ones I had downloaded, I found a whole lot of plagiarism (whole pages copied word for word from other websites) and a lot of errors in the parts that she did write herself. Many were really basic facts, e.g.: the distance from the earth to the sun is 93,000 miles (um, no!), penguins only live near the south pole (actually they live in Africa and South America, as far north as the Galapagos, which is at the equator), and many others. There were spelling errors in vocabulary lists, and bad grammar throughout. Her American History "curriculum" is actually an old text available on google books, which she copied in it's entirety without attribution. I got suspicious when I found references to Native Americans as "savages" and other very dated language, and I googled various sentences, which pulled up the text she had plagiarized. I also found a glowing review of her history curriculum on a white supremacist website. :ack2: When I confronted her about the errors and plagiarism, she got really nasty and verbally abusive, and cancelled my subscription without a refund. Jackie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted December 2, 2012 Author Share Posted December 2, 2012 I had a really awful experience with Simple Schooling. I paid $90 for a subscription that included all the printed unit studies as well as the "interactive" units. I had a heck of a time trying to download the PDFs; many files were corrupted and even repeated attempts to download some of them failed. When I started looking through the ones I had downloaded, I found a whole lot of plagiarism (whole pages copied word for word from other websites) and a lot of errors in the parts that she did write herself. Many were really basic facts, e.g.: the distance from the earth to the sun is 93,000 miles (um, no!), penguins only live near the south pole (actually they live in Africa and South America, as far north as the Galapagos, which is at the equator), and many others. There were spelling errors in vocabulary lists, and bad grammar throughout. Her American History "curriculum" is actually an old text available on google books, which she copied in it's entirety without attribution. I got suspicious when I found references to Native Americans as "savages" and other very dated language, and I googled various sentences, which pulled up the text she had plagiarized. I also found a glowing review of her history curriculum on a white supremacist website. :ack2: When I confronted her about the errors and plagiarism, she got really nasty and verbally abusive, and cancelled my subscription without a refund. Jackie Wow! Okay, good to know! I guess I will scratch her off my list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Wow! I just bought the classic nature study! I've used a few unit studies and liked them fine. I have no way to know if something has been copied or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Plagarisma is a decent tool to help you find plagiarized material. I used it with one of my writing classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Wow! I just bought the classic nature study! I've used a few unit studies and liked them fine. I have no way to know if something has been copied or not. I noticed differences in writing style — there'd be a section that seemed pretty scholarly and professionally written (complete with professional graphics) followed by a few paragraphs that were much more awkwardly written, then another section of text that was well-written, but in a different style. When I pasted various sentences into Google search, I discovered that the well-written stuff had been copied and pasted from assorted websites, complete with associated graphics, and the awkward paragraphs were hers. None of the copied text or graphics were properly attributed — she listed herself as sole author, with a copyright in her name. Add to that the number of factual errors that I found just quickly skimming a few units, and I had to wonder how many more errors there were in areas where I didn't already have the background information to be able to spot them. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Plagarisma is a decent tool to help you find plagiarized material. I used it with one of my writing classes. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I noticed differences in writing style — there'd be a section that seemed pretty scholarly and professionally written (complete with professional graphics) followed by a few paragraphs that were much more awkwardly written, then another section of text that was well-written, but in a different style. When I pasted various sentences into Google search, I discovered that the well-written stuff had been copied and pasted from assorted websites, complete with associated graphics, and the awkward paragraphs were hers. None of the copied text or graphics were properly attributed — she listed herself as sole author, with a copyright in her name. Add to that the number of factual errors that I found just quickly skimming a few units, and I had to wonder how many more errors there were in areas where I didn't already have the background information to be able to spot them. Jackie So far I've only gone through some Beatrix potter units, leaves, and half of one on insects. Very very basic things. I'll have to keep an eye out. I've been recommending it to my friends too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HejKatt Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I had a really awful experience with Simple Schooling. Just wanted to say that I remember when you posted this, Jackie, and others also chimed in. Here are the threads I read, they contain more details on the plagiarism and unprofessional behavior. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/257722-x-post-has-anybody-here-used-simple-schooling-middle-school-physics http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/318406-i-feel-like-ive-been-had/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asadsays Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Plagarisma is a decent tool to help you find plagiarized material. I used it with one of my writing classes. Or you can also use this tool https://seotoolscheck.com/plagiarism-checker its free and very reliable tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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