Cheating as a Common Undesirable Behavior - Essay Example

?A common undesirable behavior commonly found in school scenarios is cheating. Cheating is a form of deception or lying as it covers what is real andwhat is the truth. Students cheat in different ways. It may be in the form of copying another’s work, whether intentional or unintentional, fabricating a story with very little basis or plagiarizing one’s works and passing it as his own. When discovered, cheating does not only impact the student’s reputation but also his relationship with others. As a form of deception, cheating is used to protect one’s own happiness or merits. It is an actually a selfish act, as it only protects only the personal happiness or contentment of the individual. A student cheats on his homework so he will not get a failing grade. He may be doing it to prevent his parents from being unhappy with him, or he is protecting his name or his benefits. Same as lying, cheating protects something that makes him feel happy or comfortable. But the same with lying, it jeopardizes one’s morality and confidence. It sacrifices confidence as it shows that the person is not confident that he will be able to answer questions on his own. It shows that the person is not able to accept his limitations, and is taking the easy way out in learning and improving himself. Cheating is a shortcut to showing that one knows something factual. It is not from his own understanding. And this indicates lack of self-confidence and lack of perseverance to really understand and learn what he needs to understand and learn. Cheating affects not only the person cheating but also other people around him. Because he is covering up for his lack of knowledge, pretending that he knows something he doesn’t, other people may believe him for his pretentions. And when he slips and the truth is revealed, that he does not really know what he is talking about, people tend to veer away from him. Deceptions are very damaging when discovered. It creates a gap between people. Remember the classic childhood story of The Boy who Cried Wolf? In the end, when one’s deceptions are discovered, it marks his persona and people tend to doubt his words. When it is the truth that they are speaking, they might find that people don’t listen to them anymore. One of the most common undesirable behaviors is lying. There are different forms of lying. People lie because of different reasons. Some forms of lying are cheating, bending the truth, fabricating stories or information and denying what is real or the truth. Anything that is fabricated or deceiving, in the form of oral and written communication, is lying. Everyone has an episode of lying. One of the most common forms of lying is cheating. This is very common with students. Cheating is not just about copying other’s answers during exams or for homeworks, whether intentional or unintentional. It also involves plagiarism, passing another’s work as his own and inventing or fabricating stories that are claimed to be factual. It can also involve stealing answer keys and even revealing answer keys by posting them through the internet or passing it off to friends. When it’s intentional, cheating involves not only the cheater but also the person who allows the cheater to copy his work. This shows that cheating may involve more than one person. Even if the person knows that cheating is bad and that he, himself, is not cheating, in a way he becomes part of the cheating process since he allowed the cheater to cheat using his answers. This shows how cheating affects relationships and the reputation of the cheater and person being used to cheat. The same with lying, one of the common reasons for cheating is to protect something that the cheater is benefiting from. Examples of these are maintaining high grades, getting additional credits, being known as the top in the class and getting attention from the teacher and parents because of the high grades. Another reason might be pressure from peers, wherein the cheater is part of a group who cheats. Jumping in the bandwagon is also another reason. This is true for papers bought online, wherein several students in one class search online and buy papers from a paper mill. The student feels that he belongs to the group if he does the same, regardless if he knows how to do a paper or not. Sometimes, triggers might be pressure from parents wherein the student will only be able to get incentives when they get high grades. Also, pressure from the school itself is also a reason. The cheater resorts to teaching because they have less time to devote on studying that particular lesson believing it’s not a priority subject. What reinforces the behavior is they don’t get caught for the several times they have done, or when discovered, they are not punished. When this happens, the cheater feels empowered, thinking that they will always get away with what they’re doing. Companies that offers ready or available papers also serve as reinforcements for the behavior. These companies seem to tolerate cheating, especially when they do not disclaim that these papers that they are selling are to be used only as patterns. In creating this behavior contract, it is important to understand that the behavior is not partially right or wrong. As there is nothing good about lying, there is also nothing good in cheating. Eliminating a cheating behavior is one step closer to eliminating a lying behavior, and vice versa. This behavior can be controlled, or even be eliminated entirely if the cheater is willing to do so. It is important to note that acceptance of the behavior is important and that the behavior can only be changed if the cheater recognizes the good and the bad that will happen with continuous or habitual cheating. Since cheating is an easy way out on things, the cheater will not be equipped, in the long run, with the skills and experience that they need to improve, grow and develop their skills and knowledge. It is not an overtime thing, but it can be corrected. A month may be enough to see progress about this. Non-compliance of the terms of the contract will result to damaged reputation, blocking of access to internet sites with book reviews and lesson plans, and, repeating all work that has been done. For compliance, the individual will gain access to more information and he will be able to build more good and stable relationships with people. Also, if the individual complies with the said terms of contract, the individual will be able to receive additional bonuses and incentives (whether they are working or students). This contract binds the undersigned to honesty when taking tests, finishing homeworks and papers. The undersigned, thus, agrees not to cheat on any exams, homeworks and papers that he will pass the teacher. The only information, file, data, answers and papers that the individual will pass to the teacher will be free of any plagiarism. Ways to succeed in this one month lock-in period into a no cheating program are the following: read and study the lessons, ask questions from the teacher to clarify topics in which the individual has problems with, and managing time wisely on all subjects taken so there will be no conflict when deadlines pile up. Read More