Harsher Punishments for Cheating?

Here are some reasons why it is a good idea to add more harsh punishments to cheating. First off, the consequences for a student caught cheating is that "most teachers just give them a zero on the work and contact the student's parents" (Abdulla, Sun Sentinel, 1998). However, two schools, which are Pine Crest and Westminster, have more serious punishments than the typical punishments. "Both schools refer offenders to a committee that administers the punishment. Both schools [then] contact parents, award give zeros on the work and put students on probation" (Abdulla, Sun Sentinel, 1998). Those are some reasons why it is a good idea to add more harsh punishments to cheating.

Now here are some reasons why making punishments harder to cheating is a bad idea. First of all, "Eric Anderman, a professor of educational psychology at Ohio State University, says less cheating occurs 'when teachers emphasize that the learning is what's really important”' (Anderman, Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 2008). Basically, the more time the teacher teaches the material as well as give students some time to study the material before the test day, the students will know the material and score well on the test without cheating. Finally, unless it is an emergency, the teacher will never leave the classroom during test days, which therefore makes it impossible to cheat because we are each monitored. In conclusion, those are some reasons why it is a bad idea to make punishment tougher if a student get caught cheating in school.

Here is where I stand with adding harsher punishments on students caught cheating. I do not think it is necessary to make punishments harsher for students caught cheating. Teachers rarely leave the room while students are taking tests, meaning that it would be tough for students to cheat because they are frequently being monitored by their teachers. Plus, I feel most teachers do a good job of teaching their content, meaning each student should know the material well enough before test days to prevent cheating. Overall, those are some reasons why I feel making punishments harder for cheating is not necessary.