Cheating is cheating, but if everybody is stealing a glance at another persons paper, can it really be that bad? One of the most common reasons why students cheat is because cheating seemingly becomes a necessity to keep up with the pace of fellow students.

In a high school where everyone is competing for scholarships, or becoming valedictorian or being the best, the anxiety of making good grades looms over all. This pressure may pressure may be so disabling that any student could feel as if cheating is the only option.

Cheating might not even seem like a bad thing. What is wrong with cheating anyway? To most people, cheating does not appear to hurt anyone, so it should not be punishable. An article from the Office of the Dean of Carnegie Mellon University says that a negative effect of cheating for a student who does not get caught is that they will not learn the material. Students will be held accountable for this information but will not maintain it. If students do not gather the basics of high school knowledge, then they will be pressured to cheat more often and on larger assignments.

Some say that cheating is always wrong because it is dishonest and unfair to those who do not cheat. Cheaters get to make good grades without any work. When a few students start cheating, then other students feel that they are being cheated out of a grade that they earned and begin cheating to compensate and even the score.

Once the honor council gets put into place, cheating will decrease greatly. The main idea of this group is accountability. If the cheaters make other people cheat, then could another group inspire people to maintain their integrity? If everyone is keeping everyone else honest, then the pressure to conform to a low moral standard but higher grades standard will dissipate.

Even if a student chooses not to cheat, they are still affected if someone else does. Cheating punishes both the cheater and the honest worker. However, everyone can choose to be honest in their work and inspire others to do the same.