Cheating Is a Large Problem

¶ … Cheating is a large problem in our society today. Everything from sports athletes on steroids to questionable elections seems to be telling us its okay to succeed at any cost. But is this really the case? Morally speaking, almost any system would say that the answer is most definitely "no."

The simplest way to test for the moral correctness of something, I believe, is to wonder if you would agree with it from the negative end of the deal. In this case, that means cheating is only morally correct if its okay to be cheated out of something. I think everyone would agree that it is not. Now, some might argue that cheating doesn't really hurt anybody; this is the common unspoken thread in most of the excuses for cheating uncovered by Rebekah Nathan (Nathan, 29). At first, it appears that they might be correct -- it does seem more okay if it's a class that they are being forced to take, when they won't be using the information. But the fact is that cheating once, regardless of the circumstances, degrades the integrity of the cheater and the educational process as a whole. But even though cheating appears to be on the rise, in the world of academia and in our culture at large, I believe that there are ways to reverse this trend. There are, of course, practical steps that can be taken to catch and punish cheaters, but a more important issues to address is why people are cheating, and seeing if there are ways to convince them not to cheat.

This is the point that David Fink makes in his 2005 article, "The Toughest Test is Saved for the Teacher." In it, he details his part-time job as a college instructor, and the experience of catching a student cheating. He tells the student that he will not find happiness in what is basically stealing an achievement, and that is one of the most powerful arguments against cheating. Cheating does, in fact, cause harm -- it causes harm to the cheater, no matter what the circumstances, and therefore it is wrong to do. David Fink also mentions to the student -- and in the article -- that he knows people who have basically cheated and weaseled their way through life, and that they aren't necessarily happy or good people to know. I think that this, too, is an excellent observation and one that ought to dissuade more people from cheating. I'm sure most people know someone who basically fits this description; they tend to always be asking for things, and often behave as if they had a right to other people's hard earned money or other things. There is no dignity to the way they completely depend on other people. Cheating teaches you to become dependent, and plagiarism is just another way of silencing and limiting yourself. There is no sense of accomplishment; no commitment and no development of work ethic when cheating is used to accomplish a goal. I have my doubts as to whether or not Fink's words rang true for the student he caught, but they certainly sounded persuasive to me.

I was an easy person to convince, however, and anyone who met my parents would understand why. I was raised to have a very strong moral and ethical code, and cheating has always seemed abhorrent to me from the first time I can remember being aware of it. Perhaps this kind of morality, similar to others like those regarding personal relationships and possessions, must be learned young if they are to be learned at all. According to J.D. Heyman et al. In their article, "Psssst...What's the Answer?," the authors state that "Anita Cava, co-director of the University of Miami Ethics Program, believes ethics should be taught as early as kindergarten" (Heyman et al., 37). This might not be a bad idea. At that age, children are not under all of the pressure that college students cite as a reasonable excuse to cheat. This makes it easier for them to understand and admit that cheating is wrong -- just ask any five-year-old if cheating is okay and see what answer you get. A loud "no" indicating the obviousness of the answer wouldn't be too surprising in most cases. Explaining why cheating is wrong at this age might help it stay engrained, and perhaps the number of students cheating in college would begin to decline after the program takes effect. This would be a proactive way to stop cheating, rather than simply identifying and dealing with perpetrators after the fact; curing the problem instead of just the symptom.