Student Debate: To Cheat or Not to Cheat

Cheating can be different for everyone.

However, what has been found through these interviews of Arrowhead students, is that cheating and memorization, are a predominant aspect of the school system and it’s up to the students to decide what to do. Maiya , a sophomore at Arrowhead, says, “I believe cheating is fine for busy work that is given from teachers, because with or without the cheating we aren’t learning. However, cheating on a test is not acceptable because it gets rid of the point of even attending school.” A student at Arrowhead, who prefers to remain anonymous, says, “School isn’t for everyone and if you’re not going to utilize or learn the material being ‘taught’ during class, you’re just there because law requires you to be..

. Why even do the busy work if it’s not beneficial to you at all? Some of us won’t graduate school, and that’s fine, because we’ll go on to get jobs and earn a salary either way in most cases. Therefore, I feel that cheating is acceptable as well as inevitable in certain circumstances.” However, Emily P a junior at Arrowhead, says, “No, I don’t believe cheating is acceptable in any way, it does nothing but lag your own knowledge.” Often times, you can hear students exclaiming the statement, “Students don’t learn anymore, we memorize.” Whelan, says, “Yes, most students are just memorizing because the ‘learning’ we do is through notes given to the kids, yet we rarely actually learn the information given to us, it is memorized for the test and then forgotten.

” Another topic of controversy about the school system, is whether or not testing depicts the general intelligence of students. Do these tests measure the strengths and weaknesses of students in a way where they can excel where they need to, and work on what they don’t? Anonymous source, says, “No, I believe tests don’t measure knowledge on a broad spectrum, tests measure our ability to memorize. There are many aspects of our knowledge that aren’t measured in school that are essential to develop as people.” However, Emily, says, “I earn my grades. But ultimately it depends on the teacher and class, it revolves around the method of teaching. If this is a good teacher, you won’t need to memorize, you’ll learn and there will be no reason to cheat.”