<p>Seriously, like in high school, is it good to be honest?</p>
<p>Scenario example:
The teacher is giving this quiz. You answer the test, and she says you can self grade. You decide to be honest and mark all the incorrect answers. Your other friends, on the other hand, immediatley fix their incorrect mistakes and get a perfect score, while you have a really bad score.</p>
<p>Your friends get into Harvard. You don’t.</p>
<p>Ok, well this is a bit of an exaggeration with the Harvard part. but seriously, if this were the case, would honesty get you anywhere (granted the teacher does not even know the kids do this and does not give them a black mark)?</p>
<p>It’s sad to say it but, that’s really what high school is all about. I have a friend who copies every single homework assignment, cheats on every test, and sucks up to every teacher. And she is near the top of the class…<br>
So being honest makes you feel good, and if your okay with being the honest nice kid, go for it. But being dishonest is a lot easier if you could see what actually goes on in my school. I dont know how people can live with themselves…</p>
<p>For me (and I’ve been in that situation a lot), it was so I knew that I was being honest with my grade. Anytime I do anything dishonest I feel horrible about it and end up being honest later. I know my grades are ones that I deserve. At least I earn my grades, you know? I don’t have to (or want to) cheat just to get a leg up on people. If I don’t get into Harvard because of that, and some other kid in the class does who did that, then I don’t really want to go to Harvard if that’s the kind of person I’ll be running into everywhere.</p>
<p>you guys make good points. but you guys probably agree that “maybe” under the circumstances that its ok to lie and cheat to get your way? otherwise, people will stomp all over you, metaphorically</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think it ever is. I want to make my way in the world doing the “right thing” even if it means it happens at a slower pace. Eventually things will even out. I’ll become a millionaire, my cheating/lying/backstabbing friends will become publicly corrupt and thus become broke and it’ll be a good day ;).</p>
<p>Honestly (heh), I don’t care if people will stomp all over me if I know what I’m doing is honest.</p>
<p>Honesty does get you somewhere. My dad is a bright guy (went to three ivies), but most of his work has come from a golfcourse-yes this is revelant. Many people will "self-grade’ themselves on a golf course to get a lower score; my dad always counts his penalties and gives himself an honest, though high, score. His three biggest clients have come from this. </p>
<p>Also, I knew a cheater who cheated her way through every test/quiz, etc, then got a 1500 out of 2400 and bombed her SAT IIs (<400 for 2 of them, one 450ish) and APs (1, 1, 1), I wonder if colleges believed her grades? I was actually really mad at my school for letting her get such high grades (100’s, etc) and then have her bomb any actual objective proof of knowledge. (Note; I do know there are people who don’t test well-on the SAT-but if you CAN do well on SAT II type tests in class, you should be able to take an SAT II and get at least in the 550-650)</p>
<p>honesty is easier. seriously it takes a lot more effort to lie than to tell the truth, you have to make sure all your lies are consistent with each other or you won’t be believed.</p>
<p>Integrity is far more important than performance. I know where you are coming from but it is shameful for you to even ask such a question. Yes people cheat, they are the ones who have admitted they are too damn stupid to get anywhere in life the real way.</p>
<p>You know those cheesy posters teachers hang on the wall, here’s one you should pay heed to: </p>
<p>Failing with honor > Succeeding with fraud.</p>
<p>Ah… the conflict between the ID and Superego…</p>
<p>but isn’t it rather the fear of Getting caught/social judgement that stops you, rather than honesty itself? In a world with no-one else existing, would you care if you cheated on a test?</p>
<p>At this point it really doesn’t seem like honesty gets you that far (at least not personally). Assuming you wouldn’t get caught, it’s much more practical (and tempting) to get your friends to spill the test questions/cheat in some other way rather than kill yourself studying, stay up late, and feel like you’re going to die the next day in school. </p>
<p>I’m not condoning cheating. I feel like socking people like that in the face. But teachers are truly oblivious for the most part when it comes to catching cheaters. Even if the kids are caught, they rarely get more than a slap on the wrist.</p>
<p>I agree with lilygraces. I’d rather be honest than a corrupt business person. Money isn’t everything. I’d rather not live with any regrets. And if you do everything with integrity, you’ll be proud of everything you’ve done. You’d be happier.</p>
<p>And yet I’ve already heard from my friends how they embellished their college applications (aka say they worked 20 hours a week instead of 8-10, said they spend 5 hours a week on key club instead of 2, etc). That’s their choice, but it makes me sad that they did that.</p>
<p>I think honesty can get you somewhere. There are girls in my AP Spanish class who cheated on our final and got 99’s. I studied really hard and got an 88 and a B+ for the quarter, while they got A’s. The cheating bothered me because I was striving so hard to get an A, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t mean anything. All the kids who are chronic cheaters have low SAT scores and have no chance at a top college because of that fact (I’m talking 1500-1600 low also). When it comes to some things, you just can’t cheat and those are the things that will bite cheaters in the ass.</p>