Cheating In The Classroom Only Cheats Yourself

A friend slips you a note with the answer for questions 1-5 and tells you that the test coming up in your next class is simple and not even difficult. Now that you have the answers written down by someone who has taken the test, you don't even have to worry about doing well on it.

This may have been a scenario from a school setting back some time ago, when paper and pencil was the prevalent method that students used to help themselves and others to cheat on their studies and classwork. These days, technology has changed all of that and in fact has made it easier for students to take advantage of "alternate" methods to get the right answers on an exam or to write out a lengthy report. An article I came across talks about this issue of students and cheating in the educational setting. There's many different methods covered in the article that range from printing off an already written paper to websites that let users type in the math problems they have and the answer will be given to them without having to do the work. Some students even hide the cheat answers in their graphing or pocket calculators.

So even though there's many "alternate" routes that can be taken to get the correct answers or the perfect paper in a class, are they really worth it? Let's think about this one for a second. Sure, the instant satisfaction of getting an "A" on an exam or a 100% on a math test would be exhilarating, but does it really sustain the feeling? In a sense, a person is only cheating them self when they do these things because let's say in the future if you need to know the material for a surprise quiz or even a position in the field of work that you choose, you won't know how to do it and the lack of knowledge about it will show. Depending on the field, many employers will test your skills on the subject matter of the position that you're trying to get. How can one expect to get the job if they can't pass the initial skills test? On top of that, there's the obvious consequences of being caught. Failed assignments, exams and other types of punishments for cheating. Along with all of that, there's no replacement for the feeling of knowing that you worked hard for what you earned.

The causes for cheating could be numerous. The increased pressure in modern academics, peer pressure to want to get the highest grade possible, family pressure to make them proud, self pressure to get into the best university possible, etc. The reasons are numerous and near limitless, but in my opinion, there's no substitution for putting in the time, effort and hard work to learn the material that's being studied. There's the old saying "you reap what you sow", in this case of doing the right thing and not cheating on education, there couldn't be a better example.