We’ve all been there. When it’s a choice between what tests to study for, which chapters to skim, or whether or not that vocabulary test is really going to tank your grade; there always seems to be a final, but tempting, less popular option: cheating.

Hiding a copy of the answers under the test, writing the answers in permanent marker on your forearm, or maybe even the bona-fide classic, looking off of your neighbor are all common methods to cheating.

Technology has also added the opportunity of receiving answers via text message, having a friends take a picture of the test in a previous class or using Google Chat to get an answer.

Methods aside, there’s a more pertinent issue at hand with teens as it concerns cheating, and it has nothing to do with the number of ways to do it.

It has quite simply become so easy to take the shortcut, that doing things the right way has no appeal anymore. Or at the most, very little; just enough to keep the students with true integrity in the books and dutifully prepared for even the most insignificant quiz.

Reitz students have had to make this difficult decision, choosing between doing the right thing and taking the easy way out for an easy grade.

As stated by Mr. Adye, a classroom veteran with more than 20 years of experience, the most oft-cheated-on type of assignment are extensive papers and multiple choice tests.
Some students seem to have lost motivation to hold themselves accountable for class performance when they don’t have to, especially when the test or quiz at hand doesn’t seem to merit much attention.

The netbooks, as viable an educational resource as they are, have opened the pandora’s box of cheating, as students now have (almost) the entire internet at their disposal to peruse for the answers to any test they can imagine.

It’s not just netbooks, either. For years, students have been texting their friends for answers, Googling a definition, ChaCha-ing a tough question, photographing tests, or checking Wikipedia for an obscure fact. The opportunities are endless; literally.

Studies have shown that the information contained on the World Wide Web as a whole exceeded the entire collective of information held by humans about a decade ago. If a student wants to cheat, the means are certainly out there.

Freshman Josh Hulsman knows about options. He found himself tasked with completing a worksheet in Spanish last year that he simply “had no clue how to do”; so  he cheated off of a classmate.

Long story short, he got caught. He came out with a lesson learned and a newfound sense of consequence.

“If the teacher catches you in class it is pretty embarrassing,” stated Hulsman on how he learned from his mistake. “Plus if I would have studied more, I would have known the answers.”

On both ends of the spectrum, students “cheating out of desperation” as describe by Adye, and those who are simply “in over their head” are both in the wrong; cheating cannot be justified, but having the good sense to turn a classroom gaffe into a learning experience is a smart choice, as Hulsman discovered.

This is not an attack on Reitz students, or those students completing diplomas at whatever level. Adye discussed the theory that at a high-school stage of adolescence, individuals are still developing, both mentally and in their ethical standards.

“10 years from now, [they] may not be willing to stoop to the same levels they might now,” Adye said.

This is certainly not a hit on any of our teachers either, having to face the issue in their own classrooms and deal with the fallout.

“I would prefer that for the rest of my teaching career, I’d never have a student cheat again,” said Adye, though he noted its inevitability.

This is a call to action; a friendly reminder from a fellow student that cheating has its consequences, and chances are, you’re not ready to face them.

Not to mention the fact that the jump from 12th grade to college freshman will often include an entirely new level of ‘zero tolerance’, where consequences for cheating often meet at the corner of Scholarship Retraction Rd. and Expulsion Ave.

“There is nothing so satisfying as that moment when you have achieved what you thought was impossible through your own effort and work,” stated Mrs. Kathie Shipley, Reitz’ foreign language department head.

“Cheaters can never get to that moment, and it is a shame.”

Reading a few pages in a book, cramming for a vocab quiz, or skimming the book you read to prepare for a test is and will always be the safer, wholly incorruptible alternative to breaking the rules and cheating.

You did sign that school rules contract in August, after all.