Why Do People Cheat Essay Research Paper

Why Do People Cheat? Essay, Research Paper

“I’m preparing for the real world. Business is unethical. Cheating is just good training. I’ll be better able to handle what’s put at me when I get out.” “‘Oh, it’ll only be this once’ or ‘Everyone else does it, so why shouldn’t I?’” Sly glances at a neighbor’s work, an open book on the lap, or even high-technology methods—the resources of the cheater are many and varied. Whatever the methods, there are many statements like those above to justify cheating. For example, in the United States, surveys show that more than half of all students cheat, or have cheated, during their school years. Cheating, though, is a problem almost everywhere and everyone at one time or another has cheated. But why is cheating so widespread? Even if it is a way of getting higher grades at school, is it really worth it?

Why do people cheat? To justify the practice, some students claim that school is boring and that they prefer to spend their time on things that really interest them instead of studying. Others say that they are virtually forced to cheat.

However, not everyone feels the need to make excuses, as a poll in the USA shows. Many of the young people questioned admitted that one of the main reasons for cheating was simply laziness. Some of them admitted that they did not cheat when they had studied their lesson. If this is really the case, anyone tempted to cheat should consider the following warning in the book of Proverbs: “The one working with a slack hand will be of little means.” (Proverbs 10:4)

“Success is one of the reasons people cheat.” (McCabe 285) With these words the NASPA Journal touches on another factor that is often mentioned by students. For example, years ago, good grades were desirable. Today, they are a necessity if students plan to apply to college. Cheating has gained greater acceptance as students try to cope with academic pressures. Students have been affected by these pressures, as is shown by a survey organized among 160,000 young Americans. Sixty percent of them said that they studied in order to pass tests and only 40 percent in order really to learn. Randy Herbertson, president of the student body at Colorado University, thus claims that “cutthroat competition” (Hollinger 297) pushes students into “desperate actions,” (Hollinger 297) such as cheating.

Is cheating the best way? Granted, the pressures to make good grades may be intense. So if cheating helps me to succeed, you might reason, then why not do it? As in the story The Extremes of Honor: “academy ever anticipated the find of pressure that the class of 1994 would have to withstand…..stealing and studying a copy of an exam for a notoriously difficult course–eventually enmeshed 133 midshipmen.” (Brock 312-313) For several reasons. One is the risks involved. Indeed, the consequences can be far-reaching when the fact that a student has cheated becomes part of his permanent record. As a director of campus judicial programs explains: “Any student committing an act of academic dishonesty will run a serious risk of harming future educational and employment opportunities.” (McCabe 289) A friend of mine named Jeff had this experience. He explains: “I was caught plagiarizing in the spring of my junior year, and I just couldn’t get my English teacher to forget it.” !

As it turned out, he was not able to get into another school that he wanted to attend.

But even if you are not discovered or the danger of being punished is minimal, cheating has other, long-term consequences. A young girl, for example, cheated in mathematics. Did it help her? She says: “I still failed the quiz. I didn’t learn anything from it.” (Albas 22) Her failure may have opened her eyes. But would she have learned any more if the cheating had worked? No, the cheat is the loser at least in one area: the benefit of learning while in school. Anyone who acts this way runs a grave risk of having serious problems later in life. If someone has gained a diploma by cheating, and then this diploma opens up a job for them, what will they do when their abilities are put to the test?

Moreover, the cheater forgets that the years passed at school can serve not only to build one’s intellectual abilities but also to form good qualities. The book Teenagers Themselves gives one reason why young people may sometimes forget this aspect of the question: “Teenagers…are basically short term thinkers…..The adolescent mind will readily exchange future character for immediate escape from punishment.” (Spangole 135)

This is perhaps not the case with you, but is it not true of the one who cheats? Would it not be better for him to learn to face up to problems while still at school? The book of Proverbs is very much to the point when it says: “The plans of the diligent one surely make for advantage, but everyone that is hasty surely heads for want.” (Proverbs 21:5)

According to religion, being honest brings other advantages besides a good personality. These include a good conscience, peace of mind, and especially the opportunity to have a good relationship with the Creator of the universe. As Morgenthau states: “The moral law is not made for the convince of man, rather it is an indispensable precondition for his civilized existence.” (310)

Cheating is also unfair to those who do not cheat. Other people may have tried their best and remembered what