I had a US History class where I never did the homework, which was always lame worksheets. I'd sit down at my desk and copy off my friend before class. She sat right by the door, and sometimes the teacher would walk in, look down, see what we were up to, and walk right on by without missing a beat. It wasn't usually just me copying, either... sometimes I think she was the only one in the class who actually did the homework. This was an AP class. It was the only AP subject in which I got a 5 on the test, so obviously there was no harm.
In Trig/Pre-calc, I used to store formulas in the programming area of my graphing calculator. And then I'd almost never use them, because the very process of keying them into the calculator cemented them in my memory.
So.... there's cheating, and then there's cheating.
I do find it instructive that we're sending children to these pressure-packed environments, where they learn to discard their ethics entirely, and that this path is the fast-track to Harvard and Yale, which are the fast-track to political leadership and CEO positions. Yet, we wonder why we are where we are as a society.
