As a consequence of a changing era of guidelines, rules and punishments students of today have been reduced to cheating, forgeries and out blatant plagiarism. Many students take advantage of copying fellow classmates work whenever the opportunity presents. Other times, students will simply have someone else complete their work and present it as their own, not realizing the ramifications and consequences of their action. This fosters a lack of creativity; no sense of responsibility and the students then block the opportunity of new experiences and knowledge. This practice of cheating, copying and forgery by students are unethical and should be brought to the surface whenever possible. Students aren't the only ones who haven't cheated. Politicians, athletes, and even those who are close to you. Cheating, for the most part, is wrong. There are a few small examples where cheating can be good, but nonetheless it is something you shouldn't be doing. I will explain why it's not a good idea, especially for students.
First, everybody cheats. Some may justify it, others proudly proclaim it, and others will deny their cheating vigorously. Their creativity level drops every time they copy or have someone else do their work. After a while of copying and forging, the student's ability to think creatively and successfully becomes next to nothing. Unfortunately, today's school system has become a playground where students have developed more and more ways of cheating. The internet is a huge blame. Other way is having students who have taken the class prior to another student, pass along the completed work to the new students. As a result these students become adults who are ill prepared for the professional working environment. Cutting corners have become the norm for students of today, if students put more of an effort to complete their own work, this is will produce a higher level of interest in school while creating further intellectual stimulation and development. It has become too easy for students to purchase a fellow classmates paper who may have had the same class the semester before, rephrase it, and present it as their own. Students are no longer able to write a fictional story on their own because of modern technology or having someone else do it for them.
Overtime students begin to lose interest and a sense of personal responsibility through this process. They no longer feel as though they have to do anything to pass a class, only that as long as they turn in a paper, their thoughts or not, they will receive credit for the assignment along with a passing grade. This produces a false sense of accomplishment fostering an idea that life will always be handed to them on a silver platter. This type of thinking is an example of what is going into the working environment when said students leave the educational system. Employers do not want employees that cannot pull their own weight, and that is all they are going to get from these people that think cutting corners is an acceptable way of doing things. Even worse is when these people that "cut the corners" hold management positions. These "crooked managers" infringe on the ethical workers by asking them to do unethical practices on the job, such as asking their factory workers to pretend they did not see the failing scores from the health and safety inspections. Thanks to "ethical resisters" some of these unethical practices are being brought to the surface, exposed and corrected. Along with declining creativity, the students who copy fellow classmate assignments never get to experience a true sense of accomplishment which comes along with completing your own work. They do not experience that uplifting feeling once they receive that "A". This feeling cannot be realized since the effort and work is not their own. Since motivation is a since comes from a sense of accomplishment, these students tend to be less and less motivated with each passing semester. Yet, there may be one thing that is the worst of all when people pass off someone else's work as their own. That would be that the forger doesn't gain any knowledge. People can only learn from the things they do, and if someone else is doing their work, they are never going to learn anything. Making mistakes and learning from them may be one of the most effective methods of learning. For instance, if a student performs extremely poorly on a very important paper, chances are that student will always remember what they did wrong and what would have been better, whereas the same student won't even remember the lecture that was taught for an entire week straight. If people don't do the work themselves, they can never learn from their mistakes. Students who cheat will go through life expecting someone else to always be there to do their work. When the time comes that they will actually have to do the work themselves, they aren't going to have a clue on where to start. They will not know how to take responsibility for the things they do and will never be able to develop a creative idea on their own. They will be so used to simply grabbing someone else's work that they will fail at anything they try to accomplish themselves.
These people need to be stopped not only for their sake but because it is not fair to the people whose work they are always stealing. People work hard and should receive credit for the things they do, the people that do not work hard, should not receive credit. We must reward the "ethical resisters" that are brave enough to speak up when they notice these unethical practices taking place. Athletes and politicians cheat to get the "competitive edge". Some athletes take Human Growth Hormones (HGH) to become more competitive, even though they are banned. Some get caught and pay the consequences. Politicians can tell a lie about statistics in order to swing voted their way. They may cheat to gain more power.
In conclusion, cheating is morally wrong. Cheating doesn't help you in the long run. It doesn't make you a better person. Cheating is especially wrong in the academic environment, in sports, and in politics. If you cheat, you don't have any integrity.