|
|
|||||||||||
|
Making a permanent impression since 1994 |
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
|
X Trials | Teen suicide | Teen pregnancy | School violence | Travel | Journals | Daily Sketch | Awards | Contact us |
|||||||||||
September 19, 2005
I almost cheated
By Smadar Sapir
I
am a procrastinator. That is just who I am. For some unknown reason, I always
end up leaving things for the last minute, especially school work. Umm...
deciding to read the three 40-page chapters for my A.P. European test the night
before the exam and falling asleep in the middle... nah, I never did that. Me?
Never!
You
can imagine how hard it is to resist the temptation to cheat while I am sitting
in my room with a rather large cup, really a jug, of coffee at two in the
morning trying to somehow come up with an essay for my English class, which
is due the next day.
Well,
this was the situation about three months ago, when at around one in the morning
I was just beginning to write a 10-page essay about the book To
Kill A Mockingbird.
Why
was I starting it now, the night before its due? Well, that's a whole other
discussion.
For
those of who have pulled all-nighters in the past, you know how difficult it is
to actually think clearly after drinking two cups of coffee in the middle of the
night. But yes, this was all my fault.
I
do not know why, maybe it was because I was tired or because I did not want to
think, I decided to go to gradesaver.com and look up the free essays that it
had on To Kill A Mockingbird. And
voila! In a few minutes, I actually found well-written essays, ready to be
printed out. I knew that this was the only thing that could save me.
But
then I thought about how my mother would react if she knew that I had cheated,
how my teacher would fail me, and how I might get expelled from school. You see,
I attend a private, all-girls high school and we have a very strict honor code.
I really think that my school is the only school that makes all the students
take out any cellular phones, iPods, and any other device and hand it over to
the teachers before tests, in addition to leaving our backpacks outside the
classroom all to avoid any form of cheating.
Breaking
this honor code would mean destroying everything that I have worked for all
these years. So, with some good old caffeine and the feeling that I was doing
the right thing, I managed to write an 11-page essay by 6 a.m.
I
have to admit, though, when I handed in that paper, I was tired, but also very
proud of myself.
Three
weeks later, my English teacher called the class for a serious meeting. It
seemed like not one of us had a clue
of what was going on. I came into the classroom and sat down.
I
will probably never forget the look on my teacher's face when she walked through
the door that morning. She looked at all of us with such anger and
disappointment that I felt like I had committed a crime I knew nothing
about.
Girls,
I graded your pieces on To Kill A
Mockingbird, and I have to say that I was absolutely shocked and
disappointed with several of you. Did you honestly think that you could copy
paragraphs from gradesaver.com and get away with it? Plagiarism, girls, is
cheating. You have cheated me, the school, and you have cheated yourselves.
It
is hard to explain the thoughts that were running through my mind as she was
speaking. My friends were being punished for the same thing that I nearly did myself! I later found out that there were about
six out of the 13 girls in
my class who copied what was written on gradesaver.com word for word.
Those
girls thought they had the "easy way out," but boy, were they in for a
surprise!
After
many meetings with the school principal, who was furious and later spoke with
the whole grade, warning us that if such a thing happens again, she will expel
students, the teacher gave us all our papers back.
I
was extremely happy with my grade, and although it was done at the last minute,
I knew that I deserved it and worked hard for it.
As
for the girls who cheated, their grades were lowered by about 30 points, their
parents were called in, and they were placed on academic probation. Worst of
all, they lost the teacher's trust, which I think, is the worst punishment of
all.
It
is not worth it to cheat. Cheating is hurting yourself, and why would you want
to do that? You know, it takes a lifetime to gain someone's trust, and only a
second to lose it.
So
guys, make the right decisions. And as for my procrastination problem... well,
that will go away before I start college, I hope!
To read all of The Tattoo's Insider's Guide to High School, click here
|
Help The Tattoo thrive! Your donation can help us continue to provide the world's premier teen journalism. |
|||
 |
|||
|
|
© 2005 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|||
