Our Cheating Hearts

On Monday, I will discipline two students in my beginning ESL class for cheating on their midterms. Misspelled word for misspelled word, their answers match.

I'm sadistic when dealing with students who cheat. I leave them shaking and scared and sometimes crying. These two will receive zeros and firm warnings that I will turn them over to Academic Affairs for expulsion, if they do it again in the future. These losers have no business being educated, if they are going to take the easy way out. An education is a privledge, one that must be respected.

Why do students cheat? Laziness, fear of failing, some say. The problem goes deeper than that, though. It's our whole culture. We want everything and we want it now, especially with this spoiled generation I'm teaching, with its short attention spans and lack of common sense. Hard work sounds like a disease to these people. Once these misguided students grow up and find jobs and start families, they will realize that life is always a struggle, that nothing comes easily.

Not a passing grade in my class, it doesn't.