Moral Question - Cheating

[dazzleman]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Cheating is not good for you, and it is at the expense of others, implicitly.

If others took the test supervised and (presumably) were prevented from cheating, or even limited in their cheating, taking the test unsupervised and cheating would give Jake an unfair advantage, which does come at the expense of the other kids.

Also, if you don't know the material and get passed on, it becomes a trap.  Cheating is a trap.

Not to mention the breach of trust with a teacher.  Whether he should be trusting any kid to take the test unsupervised is another question.  I would say no, and I would make Jake take the test in the room where I was monitoring detention, if I were the teacher.  That would solve the problem.  Jake could then leave whenever he finished the test, and that would distinguish him from the kids serving detention for rules violations.

Going forward in life, trust and reputation are two of the most important assets a person can have, far more important than the grade on a high school test.  Trust and a good reputation open a lot of doors that are closed once they are gone.  Abusing somebody's trust is not something to be taken lightly.

[ian]

Dem no/no

[John Dibble]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Would you honestly want aerospace engineers to be designing planes if they cheated their way through college?

[Lunar]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Would you honestly want aerospace engineers to be designing planes if they cheated their way through college?

I wouldn't mind if they cheated on a few tests in high school.

I think there's a difference between cheating on something that's going to be significant later in your life and something that's completely negligible.

[Tory]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Would you honestly want aerospace engineers to be designing planes if they cheated their way through college?

I wouldn't care if they had cheated in German class. If they were designing airplanes without the skills required then they were doing something at the expense of others(see my earlier post).

[Tory]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Cheating is not good for you, and it is at the expense of others, implicitly.

It would be at the expense of others if it was a contest, not something for individuals. And frankly, I'm not sure why he should give a damn about his teacher. Who in the hell cares what some language-teacher thinks?

[Inverted Things]

Nothing wrong with cheating on a test. 99% of the "educational" material you learn in school is useless anyway.

[dazzleman]

I would do it and I definatley recommend you do it as well. There is nothing immoral about doing what is good for you if it isn't at the expense of others.

Cheating is not good for you, and it is at the expense of others, implicitly.

It would be at the expense of others if it was a contest, not something for individuals. And frankly, I'm not sure why he should give a damn about his teacher. Who in the hell cares what some language-teacher thinks?

It's not about this teacher.  It's about the fact that breaking trust quickly becomes a habit, and comes back to bite you later.

[Lunar]

It's addicting?  I think intelligent people are capable of cutting corners when its negligible and going through all the processes on serious issues.

[Akno21]

Eventually, I don't know when, could be a day or a month, but you will get this huge guilty feeling in you, and it's harder to admit something like this to a teacher than some petty thing to a friend. For some reason, either guilt or unintended consequences (people think you're smarter than you are), you'll regret it.

[Lunar]

Eventually, I don't know when, could be a day or a month, but you will get this huge guilty feeling in you, and it's harder to admit something like this to a teacher than some petty thing to a friend. For some reason, either guilt or unintended consequences (people think you're smarter than you are), you'll regret it.

I think you exaggerate the consequences.  People will think you studied for 20 minutes or whatever more than you actually did? When was the last time you lost sleep at night because someone judged you highly?  Isn't that the reason why we comb our hair in the morning and wear nice clothes?

[angus]

No, and no.  The entire point of a test is to determine whether or not you know the material.  If you pass a test purely because you cheated and thus continue on in that subject, then one way or another it's going to come back to haunt you, whether it's through someone finding out or through you suddenly being stuck in a situation where it's simply assumed that you do know that material.

exactly.  also, you devalue your degree.  want to know why folks at MIT get the jobs they want?  because employers know that MIT folks are smart and hard-working.  Want to know why community college folks don't?  because they're the ones who cheated back in high school and therefore didn't learn enough to get into a proper university.  Your instructors cannot guage your mastery of the material unless you let them.  And they cannot find out where they need to improve unless they are able to guage your mastery of the material.  This is not a moral issue.  It is a economic one.  And you are foregoing economic opportunities if you choose to skirt the system.  This will damage you most of all.

[John Dibble]

Eventually, I don't know when, could be a day or a month, but you will get this huge guilty feeling in you, and it's harder to admit something like this to a teacher than some petty thing to a friend. For some reason, either guilt or unintended consequences (people think you're smarter than you are), you'll regret it.

I was once told of a guy who graduated from UGA. He cheated his way through. He now has his degree hanging in his bathroom, and he has it there because he feels he did not earn it properly.

[John Dibble]

It's addicting?  I think intelligent people are capable of cutting corners when its negligible and going through all the processes on serious issues.

Intelligent people are capable of passing without cheating with far more beneficial results. I find doing things the right way always pays off in the end.

[A18]

Nothing wrong with cheating on a test. 99% of the "educational" material you learn in school is useless anyway.

Very true.

[A18]

I very rarely have cheated on a test, but I never felt guilty about it. It was just crap like spelling, state capitals, and some geometry problem.

[Lunar]

It's addicting?  I think intelligent people are capable of cutting corners when its negligible and going through all the processes on serious issues.

Intelligent people are capable of passing without cheating with far more beneficial results. I find doing things the right way always pays off in the end.

Oh, I dont' doubt that they're capable.  The decision should never be between cheating and failing a class, struck out of desperation.

[dazzleman]

It's addicting?  I think intelligent people are capable of cutting corners when its negligible and going through all the processes on serious issues.

Cheating and breaking trust are a slippery slope and can easily become a crutch on which a person is dependent, if it becomes a habit.

I don't think one cheating episode will ruin you for life.  But if it becomes a habit, it will come back to haunt you.

Angus also made some great points about the longer-term economic consequences of developing the cheating mentality.