Many define cheating as “stealing others’ ideas,” but I feel that is goes deeper than that. As it is stealing other ideas, I feel that it is cheating, one the person that is being cheated off of, two the one who is cheating and the three the system. The person’s ideas that are being stolen are not being accreted to them and therefore denying them of the honor of being the one who first made the thought. The person who is cheating is only cheating themselves of learning and expanding their intelligence, due to laziness, feeling the need to do such or just because there is the opportunity. And finally the system is being cheated because there may be an increase in test scores making it seem as though the students within the school are doing better than they really are.
Although some of the time the one who is being cheated off of is unaware that they are being cheated off of, some of the time they are aware of what is going on. Throughout the discussion, the point of what should happen to those who allow others to take their ideas and use them as their own was raised. Although there are the innocent people who are unaware of what is going on around them, those who allow this “cheating” to occur are no better than those who cheat in the first place. By allowing one to take your original work and answers, is one disrespectful to yourself and the hard work that you put into your paper, homework or test, and two encouraging something that is looked down upon. I think that is just as bad to give up ones answers so willingly as it is to take them. I always wondered why people would just give their homework to friends to allow their friends to take the easy way out of getting their work done. I always found that the I put in a lot of time in my work and I valued my work, and therefore did not want my friends to just take my hard work and get the easy way out when I had to try my hardest. Throughout the discussion, my group and I came to the conclusion that there should be punishments for those who willingly give up their answers to others to just copy.
For those who are doing the cheating, I have no respect. I never look up to people who decide to choose the easy way out and do whatever it takes to be at the top. I find it hard to respect those who do not work to get to where they. Some people cheat due to laziness and this shows me that they just don’t care. I feel that those who cheat out of laziness is because they don’t care to study but they do care about getting a good grade, because why would they cheat if they didn’t care about the grade that they receive. Due to the fact that they cheated to get to where they are it shows that they really didn’t get to learn the material that they were meant to learn. It would have been more beneficial for the students to learn the material on their own time and to apply the information that they learned to a test, paper, or project. On the other hand, students also cheat because there is the opportunity. Some may see an opening to cheat and take it, either for the fear of getting it wring or just because they rather not bother themselves with thinking things through. No matter what form of cheating is going on, whether it be through homework, a paper—plagiarism, of a test, each are equally wrong.
The final point that I wish to bring up about who is effected through cheating, is the system. Professors, teachers and administrators have specific set ups of grading and scales, and when the scales are shifted due to those who are cheating, it is effecting those who don’t cheat and did not do well in a more negative way. The system is set up in a specific way and when people cheat they are finding a way around the system. It is not fair for both the administrators and those in charge of defining these rules and for those who are effected by the system. Although it is not fair for the system to be cheated, there were numerous ways in which my group discussed that things could be changed. Some included having students write multiple versions of the paper to show that they have grown and made progress over their drafts. Another way in which the system can change is that they can eliminate scan-tron testing and add an oral part of the class, which one cannot cheat on.
Cheating seems to have a ripple effect, meaning that it does not end, or begin for that matter, with the person that does the cheating. Cheating affects many and always has negative consequences, for both those who are involved and those not involved. Cheating is a severe problem and nothing to take lightly, it is something that needs to be corrected and something that students should fear to think about and/or do.
