By EMILY CLANCE
Copyeditor
I’m guessing we’ve all probably been hearing this since elementary school, but it bears saying again: winners never cheat, and cheaters never win. I’m also guessing that more than a few of us have broken this rule at some time or another, probably on a particularly difficult test or assignment. After all, it’s only a “general education” class; you’re never going to use this information, right?
This is not okay. It doesn’t matter if it’s “just” a gen-ed class or “just” a prerequisite; your classes matter. As a student, it’s your job to learn the material well enough to at least pass an exam. Cheating teaches you nothing.
I’ve overheard someone in one of my gen-ed classes complaining about how the woman next to him kept her test covered so he couldn’t see her answers, almost as if he had a right to copy off of her test and use her answers as his own.
Am I missing something? Is it all of a sudden right to mooch off other people’s work just because we’re in college?
Cheating is both dishonest and incredibly unfair. If you’re cheating and getting great grades, but other students are working their hardest and still not making a passing grade, that’s not fair to either of you: it’s not fair to the student doing the work, and it’s not fair to you, either. You’re not learning the material, so you’re going to be the one who’s unprepared for that paper, test or for the final.
I know the core classes are a drag. I know they’re boring and most of us think we’re never going to use the majority of them, but that’s still no reason to be dishonest and cheat just to get a good grade.
Major classes, on the other hand, are a different story. The classes in your major are supposed to prepare you for a job in your chosen career path. You still need to learn some skills before you’re ready to go out and get a job. Cheating in your major classes will get you absolutely nowhere. Instead of learning the skills you’re supposed to learn, you’re taking the easy way out, again.
If you can’t be honest in your classwork, how can you be expected to be honest in your career?