We had a really interesting discussion yesterday at the water cooler about cheating. No, not the kind that involves yelling women and men who are ashamed because they got caught. The kind where someone else answers the questions but you take credit for it. The conversation even branched out to include morality and where we stand as individuals and as a society.
As a teacher and having been in the classroom for over seven years, I found that everyone was looking to me for a solid answer. The question was: if Mel and Mark were both in my class, but in different sections, Mel in the morning and Mark in the afternoon, and they 
decided to cheat, what would be the response? Interestingly enough, I said if they were good enough to get away with it, then they were smart enough to have passed on their own without cheating. However, if I caught them at it, the penalty would be severe. Both of them would fail the test.
So where do we stand on the issue of cheating? Too many people say the right things, but when it comes down to it, in the situation, they would do it too. Are we really so morally bankrupt that we can turn off our consciences that easily, or is it always a difficult decision, even if you eventually do give in to temptation?
I asked 10 people what they would do if they were in line at the grocery store and the person in front of them dropped a $20 bill without realizing it. Would they 1) give it back or 2) tuck it into their pocket and pretend it never happened? I was shocked to find out that exactly half the people o asked would have kept the money and not even felt bad about it. Now, I don’t think that makes those people morally bankrupt, but there are definite issues when we don’t even feel bad about taking from someone else.
That’s not to say that I haven’t taken advantage of situations similar to this one in the past, but I felt so badly after the fact that I had to give the money away to the poor. It didn’t make it right, but it made me feel better not to keep ill-gotten gains. That makes us morally deficient, but at least we still have morals. And try to stay away from those who have lost sight of their morals. Who knows what they would do to you, or behind your back someday.
Sam
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