Opinion: Cheating out of education
By Hariadhi [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons
May 13, 2015
Fake it until you make it, right?
Schools all over the country have been cracking down on cheating. From cheat sheets to copying answers and plagiarizing, it’s getting harder to cheat and consequences are getting more and more severe.
GHS is one of the many schools that have a strict “no cheating” policy. Consequences for cheating and plagiarism are stated in the Compass. According to the Compass, a first time violator will be given a grade of zero, while multiple offenders could receive an academic failure.
Cheating for some is just a basic way to get by in school. Some people feel that the material they learned never clicked in time for the test, so they cheat to just get by. Others may have stayed up into the late hours of the night to finish work for other classes and couldn’t find the time, or were too tired to study.
While cheating may not seem like a big deal to some, others have different opinions. For those who took the time and studied or stayed up late to get their work done, it’s unfair that their hard work is being copied and turned in by another student.
A survey taken in the last five years conducted by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics shows that in both public and private schools, 59% of students admitted to cheating on tests in the past year.
The same survey also showed that one in three high school students admitted to using the internet to plagiarize. Plagiarism is common mainly because students don’t realize they’re plagiarizing when they are writing down a definition or taking down quotes.
I understand why kids do it. School is stressful. You have seven classes. If you are having a test in three of them that day, you don’t have enough time to sleep, study and do other classwork.
Sometimes, it is just easier to take a short cut and make a cheat sheet or copy or whatever you have to do to get the good grade.
But personally, I want to benefit from my education. I think that being an intelligent person is important. While cheating may be happening all around the country, students who are are copying answers and plagiarizing are only cheating themselves out of an education.
Mrs. Bergin • May 27, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Dear Alternate Route,
You are wrong. Period. Cheating is never justified.
As you stated in the above comment; “…it’s a temporary way to fight back against a system that screwed him or her over in the first place. Sometimes you need to fight an unfair situation with a drastic method…”
YOU are the “system” you speak of ~ the learner, the student ~ that is your FIRST priority. You, my dear, have the power to prioritize your study time and skills throughout the day/week/month. If the student does not do this, she/he effectively does “screw(ed) him(self) or her(self) over” ~ that, I do agree with.
The extracurricular activity you speak of, “a sporting event late that evening”, is why you are called a STUDENT athlete (*note: the word “student” is first).
As far as “Sometimes you need to fight an unfair situation with a drastic method…”, YOU are being unfair ~ to yourself. Be fair to yourself; don’t “fight” your education, EMBRACE it!
With sincerity,
Mrs. Bergin
Julia • May 14, 2015 at 6:47 am
Cheating never lets you learn the actual concept in the first place. Theoretically, one could cheat all through college and grand school, but what then? When you get into your job, you’ll have no skills that you actually learned!
Alternate Route • May 13, 2015 at 10:54 pm
I just want to express my opinion here. I’m a straight A student who studies hard for tests and makes sure that all my work is my own and cited properly. That said, I believe cheating is justified in very specific cases. The moral boundary really dissipates when laziness no longer factors into the equation. Here’s a hypothetical example: Someone has 3 difficult tests tomorrow, but they also have a sporting event late that evening, and an essay to finish, not to mention some other homework assignments. So the student gets home late but doesn’t have time to fit everything in. He/she stays up all night in an effort to make sure he/she is prepared, but still fails to meet the end goal due to the sheer amount of work. What if the student studied for 2 of tests but ran out of time to study for the 3rd? Is making a tiny cheat sheet an option? I’d say yes, because it’s a temporary way to fight back against a system that screwed him or her over in the first place. Sometimes you need to fight an unfair situation with a drastic method… Of course, you could make the counter-argument that the teacher would be lenient to a student with that kind of work ethic, but sometimes it doesn’t always work that way. When I had an overwhelming amount of work, I let my teachers know and they were very understanding. Not everyone is that lucky though.
Mrs. Bergin • May 27, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Dear Alternate Route,
You are wrong. Period. Cheating is never justified.
As you stated in the above comment; “…it’s a temporary way to fight back against a system that screwed him or her over in the first place. Sometimes you need to fight an unfair situation with a drastic method…”
YOU are the “system” you speak of ~ the learner, the student ~ that is your FIRST priority. You, my dear, have the power to prioritize your study time and skills throughout the day/week/month. If the student does not do this, she/he effectively does “screw(ed) him(self) or her(self) over” ~ that, I do agree with.
The extracurricular activity you speak of, “a sporting event late that evening”, is why you are called a STUDENT athlete (*note: the word “student” is first).
As far as “Sometimes you need to fight an unfair situation with a drastic method…”, YOU are being unfair ~ to yourself. Be fair to yourself; don’t “fight” your education, EMBRACE it!
With sincerity,
Mrs. Bergin