Cheating In Schools

Any topic is game... you can discuss it here! Just keep it clean, OK?

Moderators: malletphreak, Hostrauser

Do the risks of cheating out-weigh the benefits?

Yes?
22
69%
No?
10
31%
 
Total votes: 32

User avatar
BGRtumpet
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:15 pm
Location: Santa Clara CA

Cheating In Schools

Post by BGRtumpet » Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:33 pm

Hey so I'm doing a project for my AP English Class looking into cheating among students.


I'm supposed to collect opinions from various individuals of different backgrounds to try and gain a more objective perspective on the topic, so, if you have some spare time and feel motivated to answer any of these questions I would greatly appreciate it if you did so.

Here are the questions:

(The boring two)
How do students rationalize cheating?
What are the consequences?

(getting better)
Do you look worse on people for cheating?
How about tattle-telling?
Do the risks of cheating out-weigh the benefits?

once again many thanks,
David Cesar
Wilcox Black and Gold Regime (NCBA)

Trumpet--Benge CG

'05 Mask of Zorro
'06 Rhapsody (in blue)
'07 "Symphony 99" (music from Beethoven's 9th and Dvořák 's 9th)
'08 Jurassic Park

User avatar
senza cervello
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 444
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:21 pm
Location: Rowland, CA

Post by senza cervello » Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:49 pm

Here are the questions:

(The boring two)
How do students rationalize cheating?
- Necessity
- Deserve it
- Not fair
- Not cheating will guarantee failure

What are the consequences?
- Degradation of Morals

(getting better)
Do you look worse on people for cheating?
- Depends on the circumstance

How about tattle-telling?
- Depends on the circumstance

Do the risks of cheating out-weigh the benefits?
- I think this is worded poorly. A better question might be "Do the benefits of cheating outweigh the risks?" Same words, different order.
- To the original question, I say no, the risks of cheating do not outweigh the benefits. If it did, than cheating would pretty much not exist. It's largely a gamble when you cheat.
The o_O emoticon gives me the heebee jeebees.

User avatar
IsnipeWithAknife
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2858
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Post by IsnipeWithAknife » Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:09 pm

do students really rationalize cheating? I don't know whats going on their heads but almost everyone cheats on homework. not really on tests. Consequences in my high school was a failure from the course and you sign a contract to not cheat for X amount of years. I don't know what happens when you break that contract but I assume its bad. If you cheat in college you fail the class and you report to an academic council who decides whether or not you will stay in school. I've seen one of my classmates in college get owned this way, he reused an essay that his frat brother wrote.

I do look down on cheating and tattle-telling. I just mind my own business and respect the choices of others as long as they aren't physically hurting people.

Do the risks of cheating out-weigh the benefits? When it comes to homework I think HS teachers and college TAs know when students are cheating and are too nice to do anything because they know how much they can pwn a student and destroy their future academic career. College professors will care about cheating but the only time they are around is when administering tests. Tests are a big deal since they come around 2 or 3 times a quarter so they definitely make sure nobody cheats on those.
WHS '05, UCSB '10
WOP OT Round 1 Picture Battle Champion!
WOP OT Mafia Game II: First ever mafia champions
http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/spam/

User avatar
fieldshowqueen
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2493
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:24 am
Location: Moreno Valley, CA
Contact:

Post by fieldshowqueen » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:37 pm

"Cheating" and plagarism are written into the District's Student Discipline Guide here which the student and parents must sign every year. Additionally, each teacher has their own methods to stop it from happening (use of Blackboard, use of turnitin.com, etc.) I've told my children from day 1 that you lose more than you gain by copying from others, but like all students they have probably "cheated" at one point or another in their academic careers.

From a "different" perspective ... cheating in college not only will get you kicked out of school, but it could severly impact your career options. Example: I hired a person who was a supposed honor's graduate in business management. After 90 days it was very apparent he had no idea what he was doing, and at his training review he admitted to hiring someone to write all of his college papers, take notes, and (before ID was required for tests) have someone take his mid-term and finals for him. Was the benefit worth the risk? No ... he and the company agreed to part ways. Thank goodness he didn't have a job that might degrade the health or safety of his fellow employees. As it stood, he was a waste of 3 months of my time and at least another 40 hours to hire someone to replace him. Makes me wonder if what he could have accomplished had he done the work himself and learned what he needed to know.

So ... don't cheat.
Image

User avatar
Ex Nihilo
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 1820
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:12 am

Post by Ex Nihilo » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:18 pm

the only way i have resisted cheating is my ego. i hold myself to a high standard and feel that i am too good for cheating.

bit of a snobby approach i do admit... but it works better than the punishment.

User avatar
Nreuest
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2342
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:23 am
Location: Home
Contact:

Post by Nreuest » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:43 pm

i don't even know how to cheat in school, that's the only reason i don't do it.
"I haven't slept for ten days......because that would be too long." - Mitch Hedberg

User avatar
The Aceman
Support Staff
Support Staff
Posts: 3599
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:58 pm
Location: Escondido, Ca
Contact:

Post by The Aceman » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:36 am

Nreuest wrote:i don't even know how to cheat in school, that's the only reason i don't do it.
Uhhhh, it's easy, you don't do your homework so you ask your friend if you can copy their answers so that it will take you the 5 minutes before class starts to complete, rather than the regular hour it would normally take. That's really the only situation I "cheated" on during H.S. If I had to go back and do it all over again. I would do the exact same thing I did the first time. I still understood the material and aced my tests though, and since I never got caught, I'd have to say the benefits did outweigh the consequences. Had I been caught, it might be a different story.
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
Image

Squirtle
New Recruit
New Recruit
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:55 pm
Location: Fairfield, CA
Contact:

Post by Squirtle » Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:00 pm

The Aceman wrote:
Nreuest wrote:i don't even know how to cheat in school, that's the only reason i don't do it.
Uhhhh, it's easy, you don't do your homework so you ask your friend if you can copy their answers so that it will take you the 5 minutes before class starts to complete, rather than the regular hour it would normally take. That's really the only situation I "cheated" on during H.S. If I had to go back and do it all over again. I would do the exact same thing I did the first time. I still understood the material and aced my tests though, and since I never got caught, I'd have to say the benefits did outweigh the consequences. Had I been caught, it might be a different story.
It sounds a little like you're ENCOURAGING us to cheat lol :shock: but I can't say anything because i am guilty of cheating on homework once in a while.

User avatar
supermutant
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 706
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2002 3:06 pm
Location: Gig Harbor

Post by supermutant » Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:42 pm

Who exactly is being cheated here: the school? Nah. The teacher? You must be kidding. The student who missed the process designed to help him/her master something. 8-)

User avatar
The Aceman
Support Staff
Support Staff
Posts: 3599
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:58 pm
Location: Escondido, Ca
Contact:

Post by The Aceman » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:35 pm

supermutant wrote:Who exactly is being cheated here: the school? Nah. The teacher? You must be kidding. The student who missed the process designed to help him/her master something. 8-)
Well like I said, I understood the material, sometimes I just procrastinated a little too long on my homework. 8-)
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
Image

User avatar
IsnipeWithAknife
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2858
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Post by IsnipeWithAknife » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:35 pm

HS HW is busywork
WHS '05, UCSB '10
WOP OT Round 1 Picture Battle Champion!
WOP OT Mafia Game II: First ever mafia champions
http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/spam/

User avatar
Ex Nihilo
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 1820
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:12 am

Post by Ex Nihilo » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:37 pm

IsnipeWithAknife wrote:HS HW is busywork
AMEN!

i plan on being a teacher and i vow never to give pointless busywork.

User avatar
fieldshowqueen
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2493
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:24 am
Location: Moreno Valley, CA
Contact:

Post by fieldshowqueen » Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:51 am

Ex Nihilo wrote:
IsnipeWithAknife wrote:HS HW is busywork
AMEN! i plan on being a teacher and i vow never to give pointless busywork.
I am in love with you :kiss: Tell me where you get that teaching assignment and I will direct everyone's child I know to your classroom.

I realize there MIGHT be SOME outside studying necessary for SOME classes, but 9 full boxes PER CHILD of notes, homework papers, quizes, tests, essays, and labs EACH YEAR is ridiculous ... and that's just the (doodoo) they bring home. ...and I am not exagerating - I keep every assignment from day 1 through the last day each year because my kids have had to "prove" more than once they did an assignment or got a particular grade on something that was "overlooked" or "inadvertently not entered in the computer correctly". There are 18 boxes in my garage that will be dumped next week. Did they cheat on any of this? Probably. I know I would have.

I think a definition of "cheating" should be open for discussion. Obviously getting the answers from an answer key or taking someone else's essay and popping your name in at the top is cheating. But, is copying homework cheating? What if you are in a homework study group and everyone comes up with the same answer in discussion ... is that cheating because technically you all wrote down the same answer? Is looking at someone's proof of a question on a math test to jog your brain into gear so you can work through to the answer cheating? I'm not trying to justify or rationalize cheating, and my answer of the OP is it is not worth the risk, but it would seem that some things that might be considered cheating are in actuality something further from that line.
Image

User avatar
mkosbie
Drum Major
Drum Major
Posts: 2412
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:21 pm
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Post by mkosbie » Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:28 pm

As a general rule, cheating is not OK under any circumstance. Teacher's who assign a lot of homework often do so because they know the topic they're teaching normally requires a LOT of practice before it can be done well. While individual assignments seem like busywork, an entire quarter/semester of not doing them can suddenly become a handicap on the test.

Admittedly, there are some cases where the work really is unnecessary. Even then, however, cheating is not justified. The percentage of your grade you earn from the work you cheated on effectively becomes a buffer for the rest of your grade, meaning you don't have to perform as well on the other assignments BECAUSE YOU CHEATED. This could potentially create a situation where you only pass a class because you cheated, even in an apparently innocent manner.

On a larger scale (tests and papers eg), cheating completely destroys your education. As FSQ pointed out, if you cheat, you won't succeed in the real world. It goes farther though; people form their opinions of schools around the country based on the students who come out of them. So, universities will respect a 3.0 GPA from an HS with notoriously well-performing students more than a 4.0 GPA from an HS with notoriously poorly-performing students (yes, this is a bit of hyperbole). The same applies in the business world. A degree from Harvard is more respected than one from Cal Poly.

Individuals who cheat, and cannot live up to the degree they supposedly have, mar the reputation of the institution they came from. I'll bet you FSQ will hesitate before hiring another graduate of whatever school her first mistake came from. His cheating negatively impacted the value of his entire school's degrees.

The fact is, nobody whens when people cheat. Period.

NOTE: I just noticed my amusing typo above. I've decide to leave it for comic affect.
It's 5:00... do you know where your ancestors came from?

User avatar
Hostrauser
Support Staff
Support Staff
Posts: 7984
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 6:46 am
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Contact:

Post by Hostrauser » Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:04 pm

mkosbie wrote:I've decide to leave it for comic affect.
Comic effect. :P

Post Reply