Lie, Cheat, Steal: High School ethics surveyed

Nick017
Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:15:03 +0000

What do you want ashfg09? A pat on the back because you never have cheated? Okay, congrats. You want to believe that you are better than me because you have helped society more? Sure, have some pie.

As long as cheating yields a positive weighted average when you consider the probability of being caught versus the magnitude of the potential gain, people will cheat. You too, mr. morals, if the gain is worth it, I guarantee it. And no, I dont cheat - I have never had to. But if the valedictorian status required me to cheat to keep it under my belt, I would, and condemn it if you want, but given the sheer number of people who cheat for my spot at my school, your criticisms would fall on closed ears. Have fun wearing your moral code that you say you have as a shield, I have more respect for people who have their eyes fixed upon a future and will do what needs to be done to get it.

Newsflash, HS is just a road to college. You have fun and learn the things you need to learn for college in HS, but really, the whole purpose of HS is to get on and stay on the right track for you. In this morass of flimsy truths, exaggeration, and cheating, if you fail to acheive your dreams, because of any reason, then its your failure. Even if it was because you werent willing to cheat in a way that harms no one. And dont take your anger out on the people who dont have their heads shoved up the honor code’s hypocritical ass, and do what they need to do to get to accomplish the things they need to.

Oh yes, and of course someone will say that I am perpetuating the problem by approving cheating even though i dont cheat, but look. The problem perpetuates because it just does - it has since the beginning of mankind. A few of you were talking about Rosseau. I think that all of that philosophy is derived from the idea that we always have self-preservation on our minds. If cheating rewards us significantly more than not cheating, we cheat - every man has a price. Maybe you would cheat to earn money needed to pay for medical treatment that your mother needed. So, the point is how can cheating then be cut out of the HS experience? Keeping in mind that we all care about self-preservation, schools need to make it so that the advertised reason not to cheat is not because its “BAD”, but because you WILL be caught and punished really harshly. That is what will reach cheaters - showing them that the probability of not preserving their academic lives is much greater than the magnitude of the reward. And follow through on it - design systems to catch cheaters, make teachers design tests that you cannot cheat on without being punished really badly. Turn the inclination to grab that reward around by playing on our inclination to not stick our foot in the fire.