What is your opinion on yourself cheating or letting other people cheat off you?

Cheating will not get you anywhere. If you choose to cheat, you’re only hurting yourself. In my opinion, i’d rather get a bad grade than cheat or get caught cheating. You’re doing a good thing by not letting your friend cheat off your math homework and by actually trying to help him understand the material. I wouldn’t let people cheat off you though. Why let someone else take the credit for your hard work and studying? Also, i’m willing to bet if a teacher catches them cheating off of you and it looks like you’re letting them, you’re probably going to get in trouble as well.

@KrystaElyse

Oh yes, both people will get in trouble and I’ve seen that happen before. But the time I let someone cheat off me on a test was just that in math our teacher gives us the same version of the test and the person sitting next to me can see mine easily; she doesn’t have to obviously look. The only thing I don’t do is cover the test with my hand, which I don’t do anyway. In physics one time someone cheated off of me with my knowledge but he sat behind me and barely had to do anything to see my test if I sat off to the right.

And these people who cheat off me still get B’s and such. They can’t see everything. When people copy homework they always change the wording or say “can you dumb that down for me?” lol

And don’t even get me started on the Physics Lab Report Train…

Letting people cheat off you doesn’t help you either; you’re just boosting their grades, which is more competition for your grades when it comes to ranking. You also aren’t helping them learn good study habits, so if they get into college with those grades, they won’t be able to handle the work when they get there. You’re not doing a service to anyone by letting people cheat off of you. Helping a friend out when they’ve had some trouble understanding an assignment or occasionally giving a few answers to someone who genuinely forgot or ran out of time for an assignment is something different than letting people cheat off you all the time, especially on tests, with your knowledge.

@TitsMcGhee

It doesn’t happen often enough for me to consider it a problem. The last time I let someone cheat off of me with my knowledge was in the beginning of the year with a math test. She just said “don’t cover the test with your hand”. So I didn’t. I’m not even sure if she looked. Also, no offense to them, but their grades aren’t really going to compete, they already have Cs or Bs or whatever, not anything that would come into competition with my grades.

This doesn’t count homework, though. But I don’t count homework.

When I was in high school I had no problem with it. The high school education system in the U.S. right now needs a lot of work. Many many young people don’t get the help they need. I think it depends on what level you are looking at the question. Of course it is better to teach someone to fish rather than catch the fish for them. But I will say I did it and don’t feel a bit bad about it, not one bit.

Now as an adult I do not think cheating is okay at all. It’s not okay in the workplace or in College. So just watch yourself if you move up the ladder.

I let a guy cheat off of me on a test in 6th grade. He copied from other students too, and found correct answers for ones that I got wrong. He got a higher score that I did. Doesn’t that suck?

Then I let another guy cheat off of me on a test in 10th grade. Idiot – he copied all of my answers exactly. He went from being the lowest scorer in class to being the highest. ... and he got exactly the same questions wrong. That was a dead giveaway to the teacher. We both got in trouble.

I found this happen to me the other day; we were in the middle of taking a test and this kid whips out his cell phone and looked up every single answer to the test. I was a little… jealous, I guess would be the word, since I was struggling with a few answers, but I’ve never been one to ever cheat on tests. So I just did my best, and he ended up doing better on the test than I did. Of coarse, I’ve been tempted to say something, but never have…

…which shows how much of a “man” I really am, I guess. I’m just not the type to be a “tattle tale” either, I guess.

You’re not doing anyone any favors by letting people cheat off of you. Personally, I think that letting people cheat off of you is a worse offense than actually doing the cheating.

@Ivan

Duly noted. And it isn’t really about “doing them favors” from an educational point of view. It’s about “doing something that they’ll like”.

Don’ work harder, work smarter ;)

School and tests are an artificial situation created by lazy people who don’t have the time or the knowledge to assess people the only way that works: seeing them work on problems. Since the assessment system is bankrupt from the beginning, it’s hard to see how cheating a cheat is any worse than not-cheating a cheat.

The world does not work by individual effort. It works with teams a collaboration, for the most part. So-called “cheating” actually prepares you better for the work world than doing everything on your own does.

I’ve sent my kids to a school that doesn’t use tests or other useless assessment mechanisms. They do teach kids to do the standardized tests, but that’s because everyone has to take them. I wish I could send my kids to a high schools that also take a more progressive approach. And when it’s time to go to college, I have no problem with colleges that have substituted non-grading systems, such as portfolios, in the place of grading systems.

Go ahead. “Cheat” all you want. It’s meaningless. If you don’t cheat, you are still gaming the system. The system itself is a cheat, and teaches kids the wrong values, and wrong lessons in ethics.

@daloon

Many people work well with the current system. Myself an example. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with that. It’s something I’ve found myself to be good at. Plenty of other people are good at it too and some aren’t. What of that? Do you think we should be able to continue to participate in what we are good at?

You are free to stay there. All I’m saying is that it isn’t really preparing you for what is needed in the work world. It’s part of the reason many great students have a hard time making the adjustment. Do you want to be a student all your life, or do you want to do something?

@daloon

Of course I want to do something, but I don’t think that someone who is a good student in the “traditional” system will necessarily have difficulty transitioning. For one thing, one can always hold a job and be a student at the same time. Also, how difficult is making the adjustment really? Are we talking never quite getting or it or just taking extra time to get used to it and perform successfully? Because I’ve known people who have become successful who were hardworking students in your traditional grade-oriented education system.

Most people in this country who are financially successful came from this system. That doesn’t make it a system that can’t be improved.

A lot of artists and athletes did not do well in this kind of system. Many folks come out ill-prepared to do anything that will get them a decent job. I think we’d be better off with more creative types, and fewer grade grubbers.

Look, I was a grade grubber, and I’m not proud of it. I think it messed me up in some ways. I would have been much happier following some different routes than I did, and the focus on grades made it much more difficult for me to know my real interests.

Aren’t we talking about cheating here though? When is it okay to cheat exactly? And how does that prepare you in life? I know when I was in school there were plenty of times where we were given the opportunity to work as a group to get things done, and I agree that it’s essential to learn how to work well with others…but i’m finding it hard to understand how taking someone’s hard work or time spent studying and using it as your own or passing it off as if you actually put some effort into studying is acceptable?

@daloon well said and well worded, you verbalized my thoughts exactly

Thank you so much, @RedPowerLady

@KrystaElyse: think of it this way: does cheating matter in a corrupt system? I suppose you’re suggesting that there’s honor among thieves. I’m saying honor among thieves is beside the point.

@daloon – Hmm… I guess I understand what you’re saying now.

@daloon

A person can still be creative and get good grades. You’re dividing this too much. I know what my interests are: linguistics, geography, computers, photography. Whatever I end up doing I want it to incorporate that.

@Dansedescygnes: I’m not trying to suggest you do anything different. I’m just using your question as an excuse to talk about a pet peeve of mine.

Be careful about cheating when it comes to photography – that’s artistic plagiarism. Or it just means that you aren’t allowing creativity to come into your images. Only Richard Prince has really managed to get away with that.

@TitsMcGhee

Cheating at art is lower than the elevation of Death Valley, I’d never do that. Like I said, I don’t cheat. I let people cheat. And I would never do that with art. I want my own work to be my own work, damn it! :)

@Dansedescygnes: I got (and am still getting) good grades, and I’m creative. Kudos for allowing your art to be yours. I’m a photographer, and one of my biggest fears is someone stealing my images from the internet or what have you. All I can say is ENCRYPT WITH METADATA ALWAYS.

I didn’t like it when other people attempted to cheat off my work on tests, since I made the effort to study.

@aprilsimnel

Well, I probably SHOULD feel that way, but I don’t… :P

@TitsMcGhee

If I ever end up displaying a gallery, I will do that. The thing is, though, I haven’t done much artistic photography. Most of what I like to do so far is take stock photos.

@Dansedescygnes: Ah, well, that’s a different ballgame. If you ever do, though, be sure to protect your rights as an artist and creator.

@TitsMcGhee

Hey, well, I could sell my stock photos someday. I don’t want people copying that either. But I have also dealt with B&W photography and have displayed them in a little show before. That was many years ago, but I have recently become more interested in it once I found a friend who has access to a darkroom and also shares the same interest.

As someone who has taught in the past, when I discovered two papers with identical answers I could rarely tell who was the cheater and who was the facilitator, so I had to penalize both.

Helping someone cheat is rather like helping an alcoholic get a drink.

Neither a cheater nor an accessory to cheating be.

@Darwin

Well, the thing is, when it comes to tests, they’re not subjective, they’re always objective in the answers.

And in terms of homework, I prefer to tell people answers or reword my own as opposed to handing them the paper and saying “here, copy”. I almost got caught with that once and decided that was stupid.

@Dansedescygnes – Have you heard the saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?” The same can be said in reference to cheating: “Give someone an answer and they will pass the test. Teach someone to find the answers and they will be ready to take on the world.”

You are not doing your friends any favors by giving them the answer instead of handing them the book you got it from, or even telling them to go to the library (or Google).

What school really is about is socialization and learning how to find the information you need to get a job done.

@Darwin

Well, I’m not made of time. I have a few friends that I prefer to help as I mentioned in this question. But the people who ask me for something on occasion (this is not a consistent thing) I will just give it to them. I know they’re not stupid, just lazy.

@Dansedescygnes – You would still do them a much bigger favor if you didn’t give them the answer. Laziness is not something to be encouraged or rewarded.

Just say “Gee, I don’t know” and consider it a form of paying it forward since they will be forced into finding it out for themselves.

I hate cheating during a fair competition. But that’s very different from your question. Like daloon mentioned earlier, cheating can actually be embraced when the assigment is beyond stupid.
Why would anyone want to do a bad assignment when you can copy it off someone that has already done the unnecessary work. Yes, I am assuming that there are alot of poor assigments by bad teachers. Or just plain unnecessary information that you do not need in your life. I’d rather cheat than waste my time on it.