Is Cheating Morally Wrong

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Recommended: The effects of academic cheating

Cheating can be defined as academic dishonesty to achieve a better grade; it includes copying one’s homework, plagiarizing, or viewing another’s test. The discussion of whether cheating can be justified or is always wrong has been debated and become extremely relevant in recent years. There are arguments to both sides, but in the end, cheating cannot be justified nor is it ever okay. Nothing can counter the fact that cheating in school is morally wrong, can create a hostile learning environment, and more. Cheating is morally wrong in its definition. It incites lying and claiming another’s work as one’s own. A student who cheats off someone gets the same grade without the hard work. The seemingly harmless act lessens the importance …show more content…

A competitive aura is built, but an unhealthy one at that. Naturally, people want to be the best and being the best is more important than ever to society. It is a common practice among students to use sly methods to get the upper hand. Instead of learning all the information they need, students cheat and just cruise their way to a good grade .Others combat these practices with their own and the race to be the best in school becomes a full out war. Many students, mainly the ones who do their work, get to the point where they end up taking legal action; there have even been lawsuits over less than a tenth of a GPA point. One student sued, “...for two hundred thousand dollars in compensatory damages and more than two million dollars in punitive damages...Her weighted G.P.A. was 4.6894, which reportedly put her .055 points ahead of her closest competitor, Kenneth Mirkin,” (Talbot 5). The plaintiff in the case sued for millions of dollars, over a mere .055 GPA points that were ruled inadequate as she had an academic advantage (private tutoring due to an illness). Competition is a great thing and catalyzes progress, but unhealthy competition like this just sets us all back. Nobody wins in the

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