by Kieran Carney

Created on: January 13, 2008   Last Updated: January 14, 2008

Schools all around the U.S. have one thing in common; cheating. Cheating is, and has always been, a major concern for school staff members. Whether it's a valedictorian copying answers off a quick quiz, or a pot-smoking teen who writes notes up their wrists for reference, we know one thing for sure; it's happening whether we like it or not. Cheating, we can all agree is wrong. That's a fact. But what's controversial and purely based on an individual's perception, is what exactly is the reason behind this backstabbing deed? Is it blatant laziness that results in completely diregarding all homework assignments, thus the ultimate cheater? Is it simply the teacher's fault for teaching student only partial lessons? Could it even be a disastrous mixture of teacher/student miscommunication?

More importantly, let's take another look at this issue. What can absolutely be considered cheating? Is it just a quick peek at another studen'ts answers just to make sure that he/she had no error? Could it possibly be taking a few quick key facts and writing them on the desk in front of you? Maybe you can consider cheating as an innocent whisper to your friend, "Hey, what did you get for question number twenty four?" This is quite debatable. To truely fid a common ground for those who want to know what cheating is, we can start from what we know. The dictionary statements for cheating come in a variety of forms. There is the noun, cheater, which stems from cheat, meaning a person who commits the act of cheating. The true meaning is a person who acts dishonestly, deceives or defrauds. The verb, to cheat, in the dictionary, states that the act of cheating is to practice fraud or deceit, to violate rules or regulations, to take an examination or test in a dishonest way by improper access to answers. And to get extremely technical, let's start from the original word, cheat. It's definition is to deceit or defraud, to elude or to swindle. We can properly form an assumption using the facts above to conclude that cheating is wrong, cheating is a negative habit. It is used manipulatively and in a less pure form, dishonest.

Anything dishonest is morally unacceptable. The punishment for dishonesty is also completely the opinion of the school. The severity of punishment based on the severity of cheating is often enforced. For example, if a student was caught with a copy of the teacher's test complete with answers, the punishment will more than likely be the most severe. This is because the

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