Cheating

Cheating. We all know what is is, and that's its wrong. I'm sure that we all have cheated on a big test, or copied someone's homework, at some point in our school lives. There's still people out there, that still cheat today. All the big schools, and colleges have had some problems with this, in past and present-tense. Harvard is one of the big colleges. Just two weeks ago, on Friday, 60 students attending Harvard, were forced to withdraw from the big Ivy League school for a short period of time, for having cheated on a final exam in a Congress class. I know that everyone can relate to this, because we see someone cheating in classrooms all the time, and they seldom get caught. But, when they do, they're punished, but only for a short period of time. In the past, Harvard disciplined more than 125 students just last year, for this cheating scandal. In an e-mail that was sent throughout the campus, Dean Michael D. Smith, in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Sciences, said that "somewhat more than half of the cases involved students that had to be withdrawn from the college for a period of time.". For us high-school and elementary students, were basically suspended for maybe a few days to a week or two at a time, depending on how serious the situation is. Harvard says that the length of a students withdrawal period, is usually two to four terms.

For us kids, the suspension period is not long, so no one really minds it. The parents will be furious, of course, but the suspension period is supposed to be for you to realize that if you do something like this a second time, you'll be suspended again, and for a longer period of time. One parent in particular, whose son is attending Harvard, and who was also a graduate himself from the college, says that "If you challenge the entire faculty at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Law School to come up with a process that took more time, cost more money, embarrassed more innocent students, and vindicated guilty faculty....that could not have outdone the process that took place,". Everyone says that this incident was, and still is unfortunate for the Harvard college. But, the fact that the board of the school is taking action, and sending the students who did the cheating away from their studies, should make the students realize that cheating is wrong. And, now that they know it is, hopefully they will realize, that they shouldn't do it again. Two to four terms, is most DEFINITELY a long period of time to be away from college, especially if it's a business and law school. So, the next time you think about whether or not to copy someone's homework, or steal answers off of someone's test, think about the consequences they'll be, if you are caught. You may think it's a good idea now, but if you keep cheating for the rest of you're school years, by the time you get to college, you may just end up like one of the 60 Harvard students that were withdrawn from campus Friday.


This information is provided from the article "Harvard disciplines dozens of students over exam cheating", from the FOX News website.