<p>The problem of cheating is so widespread. And I think that it’s a problem. Many friends tell me that it’s a good way of getting grades, but I think that it’s immoral. As for me, I always try to get prepared. If I fail, I know that I pay not enough attention to the subject.</p>
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<p>Holy sh–! I can not believe you allowed this girl to be Valedictorian. I would have reported her to school administrators all the way to the top. I also would have reported her to the colleges we were applying to, telling them our school won’t do anything about it.</p>
<p>When my kids got to high school they started to complain about classmates cheating. As the stories grew more frequent, it became increasingly obvious that it looked like the teachers were doing nothing to prevent it. Stories about teachers looking directly at turned-on cell phones during tests, then turning away and leaving the room. Students clearly talking and the teachers clearly in earshot. In english classes they did try to stop it by having all writing assignments done in class so parents couldn’t write the papers. But overall, this supposedly excellent hs seemed to reward cheaters. I couldn’t really tell my own kids that they shouldn’t cheat. Why they should settle for lower scholarships at lower-ranked colleges. But i know they didn’t.</p>
<p>Sure, we talked about payback and karma and sat scores, but what bothered my kids the most was it was clear that too often teachers did nothing. That, and the thought that one of these kids might be their surgeon some day.</p>
<p>One day i had to pick up my d and had to wait in the main office outside the principle’s office. A parent came in. A true bully. Started yelling the second he appeared. Wouldn’t sit to wait, but barged into the principle’s office. Screaming about lawyers and the school board and irrefutable proof and lawsuits. The principle stood her ground and stayed calm until the parent stormed out still planning this lawsuit. She even returned the cell phone. But then i understood why so few kids got accused of cheating. The township simply can’t afford the lawsuits. And sue they will, because there are huge scholarships at stake. In this case, this staff behind the counter whispered to me, a fellow student had complained in class, the teacher had taken the cell phone, and the school had to respond. </p>
<p>Remember when you were a kid and you lost your homework and the teacher threatened to call your parents? Man, you’d do anything, but “please don’t tell my parents!”</p>
<p>So what’s the real problem?</p>
<p>If my kids had gotten caught cheating i would have kicked their butts from here to tibet.</p>
<p>Stikl</p>
<p>Btw, just got email from d at college. Average on bio midterm? 64. Her grade? 88. </p>
<p>Wonder how that kid with the confiscated cell phone did on his midterms.</p>
<p>My experience is similar to sofrustrating’s. My wife teaches high school English. The school district is terrified of parents, and that filters down to the teachers. Trust me, you just want to quit your job when day after day some parent calls you up or visits you in person and with no waiting at all begins screaming and shouting and calling you names, and because no one will back you, you have to suck it up.</p>
<p>And that’s just for typical stuff, like a low grade. An accusation of cheating is likely to bring down more fire and brimstone than most humans are emotionally equipped to handle. A teacher who wants to go there needs a thick skin, a supportive administration, and enough evidence to convict a murderer.</p>
<p>For all those who say you shouldn’t snitch, or should only snitch if it affects you personally: I hope you don’t get a job in:</p>
<p>Wall Street
Corporate Finance
Quality Control
Product Development
Healthcare
Law Enforcement
The EPA
The SEC
etc, and so on…</p>
<p>And for people who think it is okay because someone may have some issues at home, remember poor Bernie Madoff who had all sorts of issues when his portfolio returns were suffering. Or poor Chas who had the high alimony payments when his wife ran away with the pool boy and his coke habit was just getting way too expensive and his helicopter had those unexpected repairs. He needed the money to keep his lifestyle up so what is a little more cheating on Wall Street.</p>
<p>@wasatchwriter. Your wife has my sympathy. I don’t get why the administration doesn’t back up the teachers on these issues. </p>
<p>BTW, the problem with these lawsuits is not as much the plaintiffs (although they are bad), or the lawyers. At the end of the day if the juries would just laugh these plaintiffs and lawyers out the room, the lawyers wouldn’t waste their time and the bar would be raised about what comes to trial.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that 30 years ago if my parents had the nerve to sue the school for something which was my fault, that a jury wouldn’t have deliberated for more than a minute before coming back with a not guilty verdict.</p>
<p>I know exactly how you feel, and I am so glad to see I am not alone.</p>
<p>A kid in my class has been cheating for years, and it only really started to bother me when I found out he had cheated off of me for the past 6 months. </p>
<p>Another girl in my class has been cheating, and she “broke” the curve. If she hadn’t cheated, I would have gotten the highest score. Once it started affecting my grades, I told the teacher flat out who had cheated, and I don’t miss any sleep. ;)</p>
<p>What if you you saw someone looking at their hand and copying answers off their hand in the middle of a test? This happened to me on Friday , I was finished with my test and I was bored so I started looking around in class and literally saw this kid taking answers from his hand. I knew he was cheating because I could clearly see the words on his hand . I was contemplating on whether I should tell the teacher or not but I didn’t want to get involved but I literally have never seen someone outright cheat in class.</p>
<p>As a professor, the problem that we have is not whether a student benefitted from cheating or not, it is that no cheating can be tolerated regardless of the outcome. And to the point of “you have to cheat sometimes to get ahead”, like the story about the valedictorian, I had a coworker who lied about going to Princeton and he ended up fired. He did however end up hired by a company, and no one knows if he still lied about going to Princeton. He was dismissed from a tenured professorship and promising career because of it.</p>
<p>My advice is not to cheat unless first you morally are fine with it and the consequences do not outweigh the benefits. There are some scenarios where a student will fail if they don’t cheat, but at our university, and many others, the penalty for being caught cheating is a minimum of failing the class and a maximum of expulsion.</p>
<p>I agree that continual cheating will catch up with a student, but even intermittent cheating hurts all students. Once you get to junior and senior year in college, there tends to be more of a focus on term papers and term projects, and there are ways to make sure that you aren’t copying other’s work. Of course someone could hire a person to do their term paper or term project, as a completely new thing, but that is getting quite costly and beyond the means of most college students.</p>
<p>However, I do know people making $200,000 per year who do nothing but check up on contractors, each of whom are making $50 - $200 per hour depending on the job. You can consider that cheating in some way, or you can consider it great people skills.</p>