Universities, schools and many other educational institutions, many times have to struggle different immoral situations that are hard to control. Trying to manage a better place of honor includes the wanting their entire students to fulfill their studies in an integer way. All institutions are willing to teach the student not only the importance of mathematical, philosophical and other studies, but the importance of values as well. During the process of education, many institutions have to struggle with some impediments that can make some students follow wrong paths of life. There are many of these wrong situations that surround the educational environment, but one of the main dishonest activities that some students practice without even knowing that they are only harming themselves, is cheating.
Cheating is finding a creative way of lying that students use in tests, or any activity, were they are supposed to show their skills and all that they have learned during a certain time without any help. Many students are unable to accomplish such exams in an honest way since they are lazy, irresponsible or just didn’t get the chance to study the day before. All this pushes the student to reach for desperate solutions which are cheating. Sadly cheating has been practiced since the early days of educational history. In most of the places, not only in Nicaragua, but all around the world, cheating is compared to lying and stealing. Another bad habit students have that can be compared to cheating is Plagiarism. Each and every one is a bad example on many things a student can do, in a negative way, to achieve what they want.
Nowadays, children, teenagers and even young adults have found multiple ways of cheating. It is sometimes consider an art in view of the fact that one has to learn how to do it in order to actually perform it; since the main goal of this wrong activity is, mainly, to not get caught by any person who might sentence this action. These persons are mainly known as teachers or people who are in high ranges in the educational buildings. Their job is to help the institution maintain a clear quality on every aspect. For this, they have to learn all the tricks and hidden ways of cheating any of their students might bring up at the testing time. By knowing all, or at least most of them, they achieve more knowledge on how to catch or suspect on any of their unethical students.
The form and imaginative way a student can cheat may vary depending on how inspired or desperate the student is at the time. No matter how much a teacher has studied on their early years, if they don’t know the many ways a student can cheat, they won’t be able to catch one as easy as the one who knows. First of all, pieces of paper play an important role on cheating. Students write the valuable information, small quotes or words that will remind them of the actual information. Then, they look for a number of ways to hide that little paper in order to be able to check on it at the time of the exam. Cheating can come in the form of a pen. As interesting as it sounds, it is true. After the student has prepared the tiny piece of paper then they summit it to wrap around the inside of the pen, or sometimes mechanical pencil, where the ink part is; making sure that the pen has a transparent cover for them to be able to see such paper. Another form cheating can take is sometimes called the “magic mirror”. This mostly consists on pasting the small paper under the desk, then taping a small mirror on ones foot. That way the information on the paper can be seen from under and the student just has to do a small backward motion , or move their foot in order to make the mirror focus on the paper under the desk and transmit it to the eyes of the student. Also, cheating can take the form of cell phones or calculators. Students type in information or simply paste little paper at the back of it trying to make it less noticeable for others. Like these, there are many other ways cheating can be done in very secrete ways and this ways can take very interesting forms. Teachers have to investigate and sometimes use their imaginations in order to try to understand the youth mind and try to figure out ways that their tests can be “vandalized” in order to protect them, not taking out of consideration the fact that they also can warn their students of the consequences this bad behavior brings to their personal life.
Teachers should mention to their students that cheating is very bad. If they do so, they are saving many students from actually thinking on cheating since it would bring some fear to them. Many institutions make students recompense their mistake in many different ways. Clearly warning the student will help them understand that cheating is not something an honest person will do and probably a percentage of students will scratch cheating from their “ to do” list. It will also help the students understand that the only person they are harming is themselves. Making belief that they know the answers of the test when they really don’t, is not a satisfactory thing to do. It is better to try in an honest way than fool oneself with something that will not take anyone far towards their actual goal.
All in all, cheating is a dishonest thing to do when taking a test or trying to show someone of one’s skills. Many students decide to practice this bad habit in order to fool everyone else that they really know what they are suppose to know at their certain age or a certain moment. These ignorant people find out many interesting ways to cheat without being caught by anyone else believing they are only fooling everyone, but for what is even worse, they are not fooling themselves but actually damaging themselves. Therefore, teachers must be aware that most of the time there is at least someone with the intention of cheating running around their heads and ready to make a move when the teacher is unaware. In addition, teachers should learn or try to figure out the many forms cheating can take at the time of the exam, because that way they will be able to think like their students and catch anyone who is trying to disrespect their teachers and ,worst of all, themselves.
