Cheating

Do you agree with Wenke that most students think cheating is acceptable? In your journal, write down your views of how common cheating is in your school and what students' attitudes are towards it.

• Yes, I agree with Wenke that most students think that cheating is acceptable. However, almost all of the students who believe that cheating is acceptable also know that cheating is wrong, and they shouldn't be doing it. In my school, I would say that cheating is an everyday, common occurrence. The most common type of cheating is copying homework, either from friends, or plagiarism, from the net. I believe that the attitude of the students in my school is that it's mostly fine to cheat on those small but annoying and time consuming assignments, since they don't really matter.
• I also agree with Wenke that cheating is increasing largely because of pressure. Not only is there a pressure to succeed and excel in school from teachers and parents, but there is also peer pressure. For example, people who usually don't cheat would either cheat in order to keep up with their friends' grades, or cheat because their friends want to keep their grades up but don't want to give the effort. I must admit that I have cheated before, sometimes copying other people's homework, or letting other people copy my homework. Even though I knew such actions were wrong, I still did them because of a certain amount of stress and pressure. However, the stress and pressure that I faced was that of time, not because of grades. Since then, I have learned to face reality honestly. If I did not have time to finish a particular assignment, then I would face it and tell the teacher, even if I would get a late grade. After all, late is better than getting a zero or losing credit and trust of others forever.