“What is the situation with regard to cheating on this campus,” I asked some of my undergraduate students in class this morning.  I was trying to decide how to handle a makeup test and find that students are surprisingly willing to give genuine answers to hard questions if you just ask. The first response was not at all what I was expecting.

“Well how do you define cheating?”

How do I define cheating? I was ready to hear that cheating was rampant or that it wasn’t – or anything in between – but how do I define cheating?  As I pondered my response the same young woman, who could see my hesitation, elaborated.

“I mean, do you think it’s cheating if someone buys a paper online?” she said with a you-can’t really-expect-me-to-believe-that-you-think-buying-a-paper-is-really-cheating tone in her voice. I responded with interested silence, hoping that she and her classmates would allow me to take their temperature on the topic by filling it.  And they did.

“It depends whether you mean papers or tests.”

“More people cheat on papers.”

“I was in out of class with an emergency once and my mother wrote my paper for me.”

This one stopped me in my tracks. “Your mother wrote your paper for you?” I couldn’t hide my surprise as I asked, “Do you think that is cheating?”   

These are second and third year college students. The conversation that followed saddened and amazed me. Since the professor had not been understanding about the emergency (it was a hospitalization) and the student would have gotten an F on the paper, the class agreed that this student had no choice but to have her mother write the paper – which meant it was not cheating.

Said another way, the student’s need to perform not only led her to cheat, it justified the cheating. And her mom was on board. We went on to discuss the perils of cheating and dishonesty before I finally pulled up my Power Point presentation and we went on with the scheduled mid-term exam review.

I left the exchange wondering – has cheating really become relative to outcomes and personal needs? And what does it mean when parents, in their desire to help their children to succeed, actively participate?  

Would love to hear your thoughts.