Elizabeth Chernick

Class Debate
Health 9
September 23, 2010

Class Debate

“I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating” (Sophocles)

Students who are caught cheating or plagiarizing an assignment should be given a failing
grade on the thing they cheated on. On the other hand, if there is any doubt or suspicion that the
student cheated, they should be given the benefit of the doubt.

However there is a larger problem; the path of growing up is an influential one. Now =
later. The adolescents of today are the adults of tomorrow. Therefore, cheating one’s way
through school could encourage cheating one’s way through life. I believe that it is the teacher’s
and parent’s responsibility to encourage moral behavior through adolescence that will encourage
moral behavior through their adult years.

Cheating on a high school assignment, especially an exam will REALLY limit your
options for after high school education like universities or colleges. The majority of medical and
law schools will most likely not accept a student that has cheated because these are professions
that require a high degree of moral actions. If you get used to cheating on assignments in high
school (even if you don’t get caught), you may become accustomed to not doing your own work;
and this will pose a big problem. When you cheat in college or university, the consequences are
far more intense than in high school. In high school, generally the worst thing that would happen
is that you would receive a zero on the assignment; but in college or university you might be
kicked out. The bottom line is that it’s better to study and learn the information than cheat
because that’s what you’re at school for anyway.

In reality, it has become so simple to cheat in school. Whether it’s ‘borrowing’

someone’s homework and actually using their answers, using the answers in the back of the
textbook, or looking over someone’s shoulder in a test. Some students argue that teachers don’t
give them the credit for how smart they actually are to come up with a new way to cheat and not
get caught. But, in the time that you took of think of a new way to cheat, you could have done it
 Elizabeth Chernick
Class Debate
Health 9
September 23, 2010

the right way and actually studied. When there is no punishment for cheating, students will
continue to cheat.

Even teachers in Rouleau don’t tolerate cheating. But, like schools everywhere, there are
always people who cheat. Cheating creates an unfair advantage, always favoring oneself. What
good is cheating? Sure, you get a better mark than if you would have just done it yourself; but
when you cheat, you are actually cheating yourself. High school is supposed to be to prepare
yourself for the future; you become more skilled, more educated, and smarter. But if you cheat,
you are defeating the purpose of school. You’re supposed to learn, not copy and cheat.