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Cheating at school
My comments in response to a teacher calling cheaters idiots.by SoulRiser
A teacher sent this to me:
"Study for the test rather than cheating. You idiots complain that school isn't fair, then you go and try to violate the system. It's not rebellion, it's stupidity. If you really want to screw the system over, do well and school and show them that you're capable. It's people like you who make it that CD players aren't allowed in testing rooms, and that calculators have to be cleared before tests.
Oh, and by the way, none of these would work. C'mon, adults are smarter than that, you don't think they wouldn't have tried any of these when they were younger?"
My comments:
Just one little problem. If you don't get caught cheating, there's no difference, it will seem as though you studied anyway, and you save yourself a lot of effort. Most of the time, the stuff you study is useless in later life anyway, so if you can get by without memorizing it, why not?
Is it only incapable people who cheat? I don't think so. Some of the SMARTEST people cheat at school. Why? Because they're smart enough to find ways to get by with the smallest amount of effort and get away with it. You only get caught if you get reckless (or you have a teacher with eyes at the back of their head).
You say they wouldn't work? The fact that so many people cheat is proof of their effectiveness. I've cheated many times on tests and FINAL exams, and never got caught. I know many others who have done the same.
If you studied hard and did well, and the school wants to acknowledge you as a "success story" to advertise them, then it does exactly that. If however, you cheated and did well, and the school wants to use you as a "success story", it's actually an insult to them. It proves that, despite all their best efforts, you still managed to do "well" without doing it their way. Sure, everyone may not know you cheated, but you will, and if you're like me, you'll find great enjoyment in that fact :)
Plagiarism
A lot of people have also complained about the whole "free essays" thing, calling it plagiarism. How so? People submit their essays for the SOLE purpose of them being re-used. That is what happened here when this site still had an essays section, and that is the impression I got from other essay sites I have visited. Hell, I submitted stuff on those sites, FOR PEOPLE TO USE! Plagiarism is when you steal ideas from someone without giving them credit. If they submitted their work in the public domain, without even attaching their name, how then is that stealing? "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - I don't know who said that. Oh dear! I stole someone's quote! But I have no idea who said it! Somehow, I don't think he/she would mind anyway.
Written by: SoulRiser
22 July 2002
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