Cheating consumes the classrooms of many schools. Some NAHS students depend on ChatGPT to manage their copious amounts of homework or on Google to get an A on a quiz. While others rely on their friends in earlier periods to report the answers to the test back to them, essentially playing “Telephone” all day. No matter how students cheat, it has become more and more common. Creativity continues to escalate when it comes to cheating, making it harder for teachers to catch.
Different students draw different lines when it comes to cheating. To some, using any work that isn’t your own is cheating, while others think that collaboration is fine, and sometimes ChatGPT can come in handy. Some students will do anything for their grades, while others just don‘t care enough.“AI is definitely cheating, if you didn’t come up with it, it’s cheating,” one freshman said. “I think collaborating with other people during a test is cheating,” said a sophomore.
Cheating is hard to catch because there are many ways to do it. As technology has developed, there have been more opportunities to cheat. It is known that some students would cheat by using signals to share the answers with their friends across the room. Yet, others think outside the box, such as putting the answers on the inside of a water bottle wrapper. Another student admitted that they “put the study guide on [their] Apple Watch and cheated off of that”. How students get the answers is a little more complicated, but according to one student, one way is simple: “some teachers leave the test on their desk”. From there, all students do is take a picture of it.
As cheating becomes increasingly common, the atmosphere of the classroom is impacted. According to one sophomore student, “most teachers are aware of it, but they can’t stop it.” Though some teachers are better at catching cheating than others, it’s still very impactful. Curlese Benson, Literature and Journalism teacher, has been impacted by cheating and realizes the difference in the classroom. “It really shifts the integrity of the classroom, and it creates an uncomfortable teaching and learning experience,” she said.
Some Dubs have been working hard to avoid doing their work. However, through creative thinking, it has become harder for teachers to catch every single attempt at cheating. Creativity is usually encouraged in school, but when it comes to cheating, it can be an issue. Cheating has been around for a while, but what has changed is how people cheat and how often they do it. With increased technology, cheating has become easier and more common. One student said, “In every class there is at least one student who is trying to cheat.”
