Warren Spohn
English 2
Dr. Gibbons
4/5/04
Cheaters
The recollection of the amount of
times I have cheated, or allowed others to cheat, is an overwhelming
realization. In high school I remember
my friends and I all having the test questions and answers because a friend had
taken the test earlier or had stolen the test.
I can recall one of my teachers explaining to the class various ways
that he had cheated on exams too. The reality
of cheating is that everybody does it during his or her life. In order to preserve our self-interest humans
will lie, cheat, and even steal in extreme cases. Our society has allowed for cheating to
become a daily routine because it is difficult to punish a cheater, when you
are guilty of cheating as well. However,
somewhere a line must be drawn in order to decide what amount of cheating will
be tolerated because that is the only way we will begin in the direction of
honesty.
Human self-interest is what drives
us all in daily activities. In high
school, my girlfriend worked very hard and was a high achiever, although she
too is guilty of cheating. She wanted to
go to a good college and therefore she yearned for a transcript decorated with
a complete row of “A’s”. In order to
achieve this goal and satisfy her self-interest she compromised her morals by
allowing herself to cheat in order to get her “A”. Looking back on her actions now I do not see
it as a complete disregard for her morality because she was cheating in order
to do well in her class. “There is too
much competition between students, which leads to increased pressure to do
well.” (par.6) She felt the need to do
well in her class, which resulted her weakness to cheat.
The fact that all human persons
cheat contributes to why society allows for cheating to continue. I mentioned one of my teachers explained to
the class one day the tricks he used for cheating. This made it hypocritical of him when he
would discourage cheating in his class because how would it seem if he punished
a student for behaving the same way he had?
Because our society cheats it becomes vague as to where society’s
position about cheating stands. We all
understand that cheating is not morally just and a popular slogan within our
society is “Cheaters Never Prosper.”
However, Wenke points out that television segments, “Guess what?
Cheaters do prosper,” are proving the traditional slogan false. Wenke continues to acknowledge that “98
percent of students who participated in the survey (Who’s who in America high
school students) admitted to cheating.” (par.8) Our society allows for cheating
to lead to accomplishment, so why would someone not cheat?
The key idea here is
toleration. When did or society decide
to tolerate cheating? Wenke quotes Robin
Stansbury as saying, “State and national statistics show cheating among high
school students has risen dramatically during the past fifty years.” (par.4) It
is unclear to me as to why and when cheating became so dominant in our society
and why my generation tolerates cheating so much as well. I believe that my generation suffers from all
of the pressures to go to a good college and make a lot of money for later in
their lives. Wenke states, “In this kind
of society, morals take a back seat to how much you earn and how prosperous you
are.” (par.8) This is a disheartening fact because my generation will soon be
running the world and if we are so tolerant of cheating, our society will be
suffocated with deception.
I am at a loss when I try to think
of a solution to the epidemic of cheating that is upon society. Morality has truly been thrown out of the
intense pressure on individuals to do well and the easygoing attitude toward
toleration of cheating. Since all
members of society contribute to the cheating and dishonesty surrounding us, I
suppose it will take effort from everyone to attempt to stop cheating and
regain the satisfaction of pride from earning something, rather than cheating
your way to get what you want
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