Today, our conversation class discussed academic cheating. The discussion was for me very eye-opening as I discovered some students who directly and plainly stated that cheating was a natural part of education and it wasn't really a big deal. They openly admitted to cheating in school at certain times and felt sometimes it was necessary. How do you feel about people who cheat on exams or other forms of testing? Are you outraged or is it just something that we have to accept as being part of an educational system? Can anything be done about it? What experiences have you had with cheating? What motivates one person to cheat and the other not to cheat when given the choice?
2 comments:
Cheating, in Chinese/Taiwanese culture (Oh, how I hate to say this!), is kind of regular thing to do in life. Since my pupil age, school taught me how to cheat a school inspector. For getting better grades, some students did everything in order to escape from punishment and win praises from their teachers and parents. The moral standard is ambiguous over "cheating" on many aspects in our life. Most of people doesn't have a strong moral code to follow -- i.e. we don't have a "faith" (or religion) that it prohibits us from lying or cheating. We don't see the consequences after cheating, since for that, it's common cheating everywhere.
I'd like to defend the traditional moral standards, but I am not sure what they are. So, I have to make correction: I'd like to defend the upright virtue. It is a virtue that one person use to value oneself.
-- Nagging Sheba
Very candid comments Sheba. Thanks.
I have to say, though, I have never cheated in school. There just wasn't any need. My parents never punished me for a bad grade, nor did my teachers for that matter. There were some students that did occasionally cheat, but they did so because they were either lazy and didn't study at all or they were close to failing the class and didn't want to repeat the year.
I completely understand why students would want to "escape punishment" as I've heard how brutal some parents and teachers were and still are in administering punishment. I'm not sure,however, I understand "winning praise." I don't feel I could accept praise for something I knew I achieved by cheating. The praise, like the accomplishment, would be meaningless.
Regarding the moral standard you mentioned, it seems to me that imposing a standard is never helpful. We need to individually learn that there is more value in the experience of an honest failure than that there is in deceitful accomplishment.
- Paul
Post a Comment