Cheating

Description and type: circumvention of memorization processes (mechanistic internalization of class material) through external aids. Digressive/repressive disorder.

Symptoms and signs: gets right answer without demonstrating programmability requisite for graduation. Vide plagiarism.

Etiology: an entirely admirable impulse to get the right answer is misdirected, through intellectual laziness or moral lassitude, into a proscribed form. In fact, what is called "cheating" in the university is perfectly acceptable in the working world, where it is dubbed "looking it up" or, when it involves asking others, "networking" or "collaboration" or "teamwork." It is, however, important to retain the concept of cheating in educational contexts in order to guarantee the student's submission to authoritative programming before entering the work force.

Treatment: mnemotomine solution (Forget-Me-Not).

Prognosis: excellent. Mnemotomine is a wonder drug that, even if cheating were more dangerous than in fact it is, would protect the student against its most harmful effects.

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Copyright 1992 Doug Robinson and Bill Kaul