Some Teachers are Also Cheaters

We all know that cheating is an action typical only of students, but to say that some teachers too cheat is contrary to popular belief. My latest conclusion that teachers too cheat dates back to my university days when some of my ex-classmates, now teachers, had recourse to cheating all the time. Though they were students at the time, I would deem them teachers who are also cheaters. It is because they are ready at any time to cheat again in their teaching career in case they are offered the opportunity to. What makes me even more spellbound is to hear that these teachers closely invigilate the students they teach. Here, no one can deny that it is so hypocritical of them to do so.

I still vividly remember the manner in which my ex-classmates cheated. Some used to ask their fellow students they sat next to ; some begged me for responses to the questions posed ; some, mainly girls, turned into creepers on the day of the exam ; some brought the essays they wrote at ease at home to class ; and some cheat by bringing with them the prompts they need to get an essay started, and strangely the latter think that this is not part of cheating. It is a pity that some of these people are now teachers. And sooner or later they are going to invigilate their students and turn their back on their past cheating experiences. They are real schizophrenics.

Actually, I am not broaching on cheating for its sake. I am rather hinting at the implications of these teachers’ past cheating experiences on their academic life and teaching career. When I was a teacher trainee, some of my fellow trainees too cheated so as to graduate. And when I became a teacher, I found that some teachers feel compelled to cheat at some exams which will entitle them to be promoted. Strangely enough, every time I discuss the matter with one of the teachers concerned, he or she would intervene to say that their case is different from that of their students. ‘Our students still have to prepare for their future ; they need to be tested and invigilated again and again, while for us, we have attained our goal,’ one of them said.

Thus far, I am still at a daze whenever I remember this teacher’s viewpoint. I believe that he forgets that his goal is not only confined to teaching, but also to serving as a model and to preparing himself too for the future where he should contribute something to their students’ lives and to the community at large. How can an ex-cheater become an active contributor and how can an ex-cheater teach something he himself did not learn, but rather used a means to an end ? Certainly, none of them can. Recently, one teacher told me that he had to cheat at pedagogy, for he was not taught or trained in that field. If this was a real excuse, he should also allow the students who were absent from his class to cheat.

No matter what sorts of excuses and pretexts they give to defend themselves, I will always attribute this inveterate addiction to cheating to their experiences at university. I swear to God that had I been in their shoes, I would have allowed my students to cheat too simply because if I do not, it would be hypocritical of me. Most importantly, these teachers do not often master their subject matter as it should be. If my memory serves me rightly, one of my fellow ex­-trainee once told me that she seldom cheated as a university student, except at grammar.

At first, I pretended not to pay attention to her previous cheating at grammar. After a certain period of time at the center, she showed me an essay that she wrote and which I began to read from start to finish. I really enjoyed her ideas and the arguments expressed in the essay, but I did not feel any cohesion as far as the sentences are concerned. I that instant discovered that she was not that adept at grammar simply because she had already cheated at it many times before. Also, towards the end of semester one, we sat for a grammar quiz, and surprisingly she did not do as well as she did at other language skills. I did not find it queer when I saw her one day having recourse to cheating at the center another time.

Sometimes, I wonder how they are going to treat their students, whether to turn their backs on their past experiences and turn over a new leaf, or to let students too indulge themselves in the pursuit. When I was a student, I used to stand in awe of all teachers, for I did not know that amongst them were those who had already gone through different cheating experiences at the faculty. However, since I became a teacher, I have fortunately come to know the ins and outs of this profession.