What to do with Cheaters?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

<p>First of all, don't insinuate that all of us who would advocate not turning in the cheaters are cheaters ourselves.</p>

<p>I could just as well say everyone who advocates turning him/her in is an anal-retentive prick who doesn't have enough faith in his/her own abilities and so has take everyone around them out.</p>

<p>A smart kid will get into medical school. A cheater is not going to "take" a qualified applicant's spot. At some point in one's life, you can't get by cheating - that usually comes in highschool when he/she gets caught by a teacher, or maybe in college, the first time nobody is willing to let said person cheat off them. Or maybe it comes when that person is 65, and he/she realizes that their whole life has been a lie. </p>

<p>A person should gain satisfication simply from knowing they work hard and are qualified. They shouldn't feel the need to call everyone else's faults to attention unless they are covering up for their own insecurities.</p>

<p>I don't like the sense of entitlement people get when they see something "unjust", like a person asking for a couple answers on a science test. It's like, what kind of issues do you have not to just be concerned with your own business? Do you honestly think these people will "steal" life opportunities from you so you need to "get them out of the game" early? Give me a break. To me, ratting out two kids for such a minor infringement reveals some of a person's own insecurities.</p>

22

<p>I'd rattle out a kid for cheating. Actually, I'd tell him/her I saw, and if I see him/her doing again, I'd tell the teacher.</p>

<p>A person "should" gain satisfaction from knowing they worked hard, but you can't generalize and say it's true in all cases. I know cheaters who still don't feel like they did anything wrong, and this is after they've gotten caught. A cheater can also get into medical school...by cheating. As long as they don't get caught, they've the appearance of being an honest and good student. Your assumption that there -will- be that moment of epiphany has to potential to come true, but it might not.</p>

<p>You have no idea what courage it takes for the "squealer" to get up and say that so-and-so were cheating. It's not a sense of entitlement, it's a sense of principle.</p>

23

<p>Wow, this has gotten pretty heated...</p>

<p>First of all, to the posters who bring medical school into this debacle, there is NO WAY on the good, green Earth that ANY of these girls will have aspirations beyond UT-Austin. That's just a fact.</p>

<p>I actually agree with the folks who say that cheating will come back to bite you in the end. It makes sense, doesn't it? These girls spent their ENTIRE academic careers cheating, and so far, it's working for them. There will always be that one time when they go too far or have a professor that is uber-vigilant about things like this.</p>

<p>To Taggart - Actually, I've already threatened them twice, but I've been very apprehensive in acting upon my threats. One of the girls is also teacher's pet, so I don't know how the whole bruhaha would boil over if I DID tell.</p>

<p>To groovinhard - Hard to admit, but you're completely right. But I think you're being a little unfair when you insinuate that I'm trying to placate some secret jealousy. That is far from the truth. I actually pity these girls (again, they are HABITUAL cheaters) because they will never learn to appreciate knowledge beyond it being a ticket to college. They will be BARREN (not fertility!) for the rest of their lives because of their actions in their formative years.</p>

<p>And it's not a sense of entitlement that moves me. I would be hard pressed to find a person who could sit beside two cheaters a whole semester, constantly seeing them pass notes and whispering the answers to each other, in a class where people STRUGGLE to make B's (btw, am not one of those who struggle, so I actually hate them less than other people in my class who know what's been going on), and label any outrage they feel "insecurities" or petty jealousy. These two girls are in no way my competition...they cheat to slide by, not to excel, and their actions hurt my classmates more than they hurt me personally.</p>

<p>P.S. I'm not considering ratting them out for this ONE incident: As I said before, they are habitual cheaters. I'm not the only person who notices it...half our grade knows that they are liars and scammers. If it's Spanish one day, it's English another day. Please don't think that I would squeal on one-time cheaters...this has been going on a long time.</p>

24

<p>^ great post.</p>