What I Learned In Ethics Class: Week 20: Cheater!

Last week I wanted to try to find some examples of proof that honor codes at school were either working or a waste of time. From what I could find, most statistics claimed that the Honor Code hinders cheating. However, there aren't any clear-cut statistics out there that show exactly how efficient it is in cutting back the amount of cheaters in schools. In my opinion, being forced to write the Honor Code on assignments makes it more difficult for me to want to cheat on them, however, students that have low enough morals to cheat have low enough morals to lie about it. The most effective aspect of the Honor Code is the fact that the idea of punishment is implied for any violation. With no punishment, it would most likely be zero percent effective. This article does a nice job at going more in depth into what seems to work at what doesn't.

So this week we focused mainly on cheating, the different forms of cheating, and why it's wrong. One of the main topics we looked at was cheating in sports using performance enhancing drugs. Should an athlete be able to get away with using drugs to m

ake themselves better than the competition? After all, it is their job and they're just trying to keep up with the Joneses. No. An athlete cannot use the excuse that they were just "keeping pace with their competition," when caught with illegal drugs. When someone earns a trophy or medal, they should do exactly that; EARN it. Rankings are all about someone's natural skill level along with the amount of time they put into practice and working out. When someone deviates from this to unnaturally enhance their body, their cheating the system, their coworkers, and themselves. If I were to have a cheat sheet for a test, and the only one in the class who had one, it would give me an unfair advantage over all the students in the class, including the naturally smart ones and the ones who spent hours studying. The same goes for performance enhancing drugs. It's not leveling the playing field, it's manipulating it for personal gain.

Another discussion we delved into was about the case studies we looked over in chapter 2. It looked into various scenarios students might experience in college and provided a dilemma for each situation. Every scenario gave the reader in decisions that couldn't really result in the greatest good, because someone was always left unhappy, no matter what the decision was. The scenarios were more opinionated like who was right and who was wrong in the situation, and didn't have a clear answer.

Lastly, we started looking at the internet and how it's had a major role in the lives of kids these days. When our parents were growing up, private lives were actually private, and nobody knew what everyone else was doing every second of every day. However, with technology continuously changing at an alarming rate, society is forced to keep up. Now, kids can talk to their friends any time and anywhere, and even scarier, people can change their ident

ities online. The video we watched interviewed one girl who hid herself behind lingerie and make-up online as to not expose who she really was. She looked like a 20-year-old at age 14. With increasing technological advances, social aspects of life have become less personal as people prefer to interact through technology rather than in person. Information can also be accessed at the snap of a finger, which also intertwines with the aforementioned topic of Honor Code violations.