Many of us have either cheated or seen another person cheat. The consequences of getting caught vary with each circumstance. Cheating at school can result in punishment from a failing grade to full expulsion. Not getting caught can reward the person with better grades to qualifying for an award or even a possible job promotion.

I have personally witnessed friends and family cheat and get away with it. I never told on them to the authority in charge, but I have never forgotten those acts. For me their dishonesty colored my opinions of them forever after. I'm not completely guiltless, but my greatest transgression was to claim that I did a job that another man should have been given credit for. I got away with it as that other man had moved on to another job at another company.

Cheating in any form is wrong and should not be celebrated, but it is a part of all our lives. I began this thread as a voice of confession / opinion / or a place to tell about an experience that we can all benefit from hearing about. I hope that it will be taken for the serious thread that I intended it to be.

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Wow...it really makes you think.
I never cheated in school. The thought of getting caught and my parents finding out would have killed me. Letting my parents down would have been horrible to me.
My parents told me they would always trust me, until I gave them reason not too.
Not that I never did anything wrong. I let my Dad down once, and it still bothers me to this day, even though he died 44 years ago.
But cheating? No.

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I don't recall outright cheating besides plagarism a few times in like, high school. This was back in the days when the internet was pretty new and teachers RELUCTANTLY accepted like, ONE internet source so long as you had multiple non-internet sources. So I'd find a couple sources in like, encyclopedias but take all my information that I actually used from the internet source, usually entire paragraphs which I'd then paraphrase.

I bullshit a lot, however. Partially because I'm decent at it and partially because there's a fine line between confidently expressing educated guesses and well... bullshitting. Feel free to call me on my bullshit if you're willing to explain yourself thoroughly, however 🙂

Your honesty is refreshing. I'm not sure that paraphrasing is actually plagiarism though. Cheating however is like filing tax returns with a few added/subtracted numbers in place of the precise figures. People cheat on their spouse / or partner. I've seen people cheat when reporting their hours worked. There are many forms of cheating, some past MLB Pitchers knew them all.

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Porforis, plagiarizing is not quoting one source, research is not quoting several sources! 🙂 You were just doing research!

I am embarrassed to say that I am not as clean as you guys are on this topic. At our college, we had an honor code which said “we would not give receive or tolerate others use of unauthorized aid.”

I justified/rationalized giving other people aid because other people in the class were helping their friends. My girlfriend/future fiancé/future wife would not have passed statistics without un-authorized aid. I let my little head do the thinking for my big head, which was wrong.

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Statistics class was hard, I mean difficult? Really? I don't remember having a problem with the class. I took it twice and got B's both times. At least that is what I recall. The only problem I had was with the Associate Prof. SHE actually had the wrong answer for a test question a couple of times. Sadly she wouldn't not admit her mistake. She asked who had "A" (The correct answer) about half the class raised their hand. Who had "B" about 1/4 of the class raised their hand. Who had one of the other answers that were totally wrong? (again about 1/4 of the class raised their hand.) Instead of doing the right thing and telling everyone she would change their grade or accept both answers or even saying let's just throw that question out she steadfastly refused. She told us it's only 1 point. But 1 point 2 or 3 times might be the difference in the overall letter grade for the class. I kept track and would have gone to the dean if I received a lower grade for the class.

I couldn't believe it when I took her advanced class a couple of years later. I was so made at myself that I forgot how poor of an instructor she was. My problem was I commuted and I wanted early classes so I could work afternoons. She was the only instructor willing to have stats classes at 8 am. The first day of the second class I almost walked out the door when I saw who the teacher was. Unfortunately I knew I didn't have any other option.

As far as cheating goes I am sure everyone has cheated. Just watch a 3,4 or 5 year old try and learn their boundaries. They want to see if their parents let them get away with things. If you are redefining cheating to only count of major offenses like cheating on a spouse or taxes or classwork, no I haven't cheated. Nor been tempted to cheat. If you want to include little petty things then as I said I am sure everyone has. I vaguely remember trying to see if my son could catch me when we played a game but I don't remember if it was physical like basketball and he would have kicked my butt or perhaps a card game or maybe a board game. I know afterward I told him to pay attention and here is why.

Speaking of card games. My great aunt didn't care if she won or lost when we played Euchre. She only wanted to see if she got away with reneging on a hand. She would laugh when she got away with it and give the other team 2 points. It made for so off the wall crazy games when we played with her.

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Stats may not have been hard for you, but my ex could not count to 12 without taking her blouse off.

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I understand. She was fortunate to have someone assist her. Your story reminded me of the worst professor I ever had. A close second was the one who taught FORTRAN. But he was a computer nerd before there were computer nerds and didn't know how to teach concepts to kids.

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For most of us, cheating first comes to mind as something that happens in school. However there are other forms of cheating as well. Insurance companies are famous for collecting premiums, only to turn into Ebenezer Scrooge when presented with a claim. The customer normally gets cheated out of the full amount they should get.

Cheating occurs in sports as well, that is why officials are employed to enforce the rules of the game. Doctors, Lawyers, Dentist, Retailers, Auto Repair Shops and more overcharge for their services on a regular basis. All to often we swallow hard and pay the outrageous bills. Complaining about the charge can only just makes matters worse.

Ever get home with your dinner from the drive through restaurant only to find that the apple pie you paid for is not there. Or you discover that the Chinese food that you just had delivered did not include a fortune cookie and they forgot the soy sauce too. Getting cheated has become a regular part of our daily lives.

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Smokey, great points. Cheating, when you get right down to it, is stealing. It is taking (or giving) something that wasn’t yours (or yours to give.)

Now lets go ‘steal’ a victory today!!!!

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