The Ohio Independent Baptist, August 1964

,( man brapist l thu gnufq... \ Can a person be a cheate r and Christian at the same time? By Esther Greenwood ( "'hri ti an cheater i it po - ible? Can a per on be a C hris tian and a cheater at the ame time? Our churche are ,producing many pro– fe ing Chri tians who ay they cheat. Replie to the que tionnaire di tri– buted at the Ohio Youth Rally howed that 64% of our GARBC high chool– er cheat on chool clas work or tests. Furthermore 72 % believe that other Chri tian in their chools cheat al o. Recently corre pondence from the dean of four of our GARBC ap– proved school of higher learning re– veal that cheating exists in Ohri tian liberal art college and Bible col– leges. Thi i not something that tud– en t learn in college; it i a ,habit that i deeply embedded before they en– roll . High chool kid cheat in many ways. Probably the mo t common n1eans are looking on someone else te t paper or getting the answers or– al ly from a fellow student. Another imple method i writing information on the palm of the hand card , or ti ue. There are al o tudents who "accidently" spill ink on themselve and must go to the washroom where they conveniently left their note . Some tudent pride themselves on their cheating devices. One student bragged about how he removed the work of a cheap wri t watch and ,put a croll of note in ide that roller when he wound hi watch. Tran i tor tape recorders with ear plugs have also been used succes fully for the teachers think that the student wear hearing aides. In our Christian school s tudent have not only practiced most of the e methods, but they have al o added a few more. Some students habitually ab ent them elve when te ts are ~chedu led , hoping to get inforn1ation about the te t before having to take AUGUST, 1964 PAGE 4 • o,ce o ristian c eaters the make-up te t. Test s tencil and copie of te t have been tolen from the office and home of faculty members. In regard to daily work tudent .. ometime agree to each do one-half of an a ignment, then witch paper o they can copy the other half. Oc– ca ional)y lab s tudents a signed to do an experiment do not ,perform it, but copy the results of another stud– ent's work. The dean of our GARBC ap– proved schools al o tell us that some of their students have paid others to write their reports, themes, or term paper for them. A more frequent method of cheating on written work is copying directly from material with– out giving the proper credit for the source. Occa ionally tudents even go o far a to submit omeone el e paper with a new ,title page or cover. Apparently cheating become a way of life which doesn t stop when a student leaves the cla sroom. Stud– ents have deliberately given fal e in– formation or have omitted informa– tion on college entrance paper . They have also cheated on filling out re– ports on reading a signments, Chri - tian service assignments, church at– tendance, chapel attendance or sign– ing in and out of dorms . Suprvey taken in Boston , ew York, and New J er ey indicate that between 67% and 84% of the high chool populu have cheated at one time or another. Our survey bowed that 72 % of the Ohio young people believe that Chri tian in their chool cheat. This percentage i within the 67% and 84% range. There is then no apparent difference between a Chri tian and a non- hri tian high chooler. Shouldn't ~here be a very definite difference? Why do kids cheat? In an article entitled "Cla roon1 Cheating an I olated Pheno– menon?" appearing in the Oct., 1962 js ue of the Ecli1c·atio11al Rec·orcl. Ann Trabue Ji t the e fot1r thcorie why kid cheat: 1) There are pre urc from the out ide world. The e in– clude the pressure of the importance of a college education, the pressure of being a ucces , and the pressure that parent ,put on kid . Too much em– pha i i put on making high gradec; rather than on the sati faction of learning. 2) The work is too diffi– cult. Becau e too much emphasi j~ placed on high grades, a student will cheat to obtain them and to get in good with hi parents. 3) The work is too easy. There is no challenge to the tudent to learn· therefore, he doesn't study but relie on someone el e during a te t. 4) The work doesn t seem important to the stud– ent. He can't see how it applies to him and the world today. He ha no in– tere t in the ·work and doe n't want to learn, but grades remain import– ant o he cheat to get them. Other factor are: 1) un tableness 2) lack of confidence 3) the desire to obtain merit among their family, teacher and friends 4) impersonal atmo - phere in big chool with large cla ses 5) the exa~ple of their elders. young people hear their parents talking about how they fixed a park~ng ticket or went through a red light. They hear about teacher who are working for higher degree paying ghostwriter to write these and take te t . Parent and teachers are examples. There 1 no more effective way of teaching than by example. These reasons apply to both aved and unsaved tudent . Are they forceful enough to cau e Chri tian to cheat? Cheating i an act di hone tly; it i tealing something that i not rightfully your ; it i lying. What can make a Chri tian young per on re ort to uch an unchri tian act? All teenager long to be accept– ed to have the approval of other ~ they fear failure . Many try to keep up with other tudent and till par– ticipate extensively in ocial ac– tivitie . Yet, ba ically the problem j a piritual one becau e none of the e pre ure hould move the dedi– ca-ted Chri tian to do evil. heating, then , i n d i cat e pi r i tu aI i 111 n1 at ll r i t 1 and a lack of Scriptural teaching. THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST