Better than expected.... isn't allowed?

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My daughter loves writing, in fact, she always has! So when she started high school and began taking honor's English, I was happy that her grades in English were high enough to be recommended for this class. we were hoping that it would be challenging enough for her, while preparing her for college. (She wants to be a writer) She was given her first real writing assignment a few weeks ago. She was so excited to get started on it... that as soon as she walked in the door from school, she began writing. I have to say that I sat and watched her write this piece in a matter of minutes and it was flawless! I read it 3 times and was just in awe at how she took a subject and painted a picture with her words in great detail and with such artistic flare and imagination. I was sure that her teacher would just love it! The next day she came home with her paper, with a 48 on it! and a little note scribbled on the bottom, by her teacher, that read "Great job, next time write it yourself instead of copying it from the Internet." My chin hit the floor! I couldn't believe this! I watched her write her assignment! She had NOT copied anything! After a long talk with her teacher, we managed to convince her that my daughter DID indeed write her own paper... After she looked at my daughter's test scores and homework scores and saw that her grades were straight A's... she changed her grade on her writing assignment. But it got me wondering.. shouldn't a teacher naturally expect the best of her students instead of thinking that it was plagiarized? wouldn't that kind of treatment encourage her students to be a little lazy, rather than doing their best... since they run a risk of being called a plagiarist? Have you ever done your very best on something, and then told that it wasn't yours simply because it was too good?