Poseur

They didn't cheat on the SATs...

I abhor cheating myself, but I try not to impose moral judgments on others. The only times I've ever cheated to my benefit are as follows:

(1) In fourth grade, I looked at someone else's test to see where she was because I wasn't sure if I was working quickly enough. Not only was I way ahead of her, but I also noticed that she got the question that she was working on incorrect.
(2) Several (maybe 5-10) times in my high school career, I've forgotten to do a worksheet for homework and copied someone else's (these are assignments checked for completion, not graded.)
(3) One time, my friend who sits next to me was looking at my Calculus test, and he notified me of a dumb addition mistake I'd made that he had caught while checking his work against mine. I didn't ask; he volunteered the information. I corrected it.

Yes, you can argue that facilitating cheating is just as bad as (or the same thing as) cheating -- I have on several occasions (as in situation 3) let others cheat off of my work. This year, though, I've tried to avoid doing so as much as possible. I do not by any means approve of it, but I think that everyone has a right to make his or her own decisions.

When helping someone by letting him or her cheat off of my work (e.g. copying my assignments), I feel obligated to make sure he or she understands the material, so I take on the additional responsibility of explaining my work. So, generally, it's not merely a process of allowing copying -- it's just a more convenient way of helping someone complete the assignment himself. (For example, two or three times, I've sent a classmate the text [1-2 paragraphs] of my conclusion for a Physics lab and followed it with a bit of clarifying information. This student wants help -- am I obligated to take the time out of my life to reword or summarize the entire thing so that I'm not "cheating" by letting him see my own?) As for tests: I do not encourage others to copy my work, but I sort of have a laissez-faire attitude about it; I don't take extra care to make sure that they do not. I believe that they are only cheating themselves.

As for people one and four, I have respect for their intellectual capacity. By no means do I admire their accomplishments gained through dishonest means, nor do I think that they deserve their grades (despite the fact that I'm positive they would have been able to achieve them on their own merit), but you know what? I accept that life is unfair. People cheat to get ahead. It's not just high school; it's real life, too. My admiration for them would be much higher if they never cheated, but I still respect their intellect.