As we start פרשת משפטים, we we are first exposed to the civil laws that govern our personal interactions. That, as well as all of the headlines about A-Rod cheating, got me thinking about honesty and the messages we give you guys. Though I have only limited personal experience with it, every article or study I've seen says that there is probably some cheating in Maayanot. I've also heard that some students (not necessarily in our school) consider themselves perfectly honest, but think it's OK to cheat if they feel the test is unfair or stupid. (Interestingly, I recently heard of a psak - I don't remember from who - that said that if you cheat which helps your GPA which helps you get into college which helps you get a job, then a sliver of every dollar you earn forever is tainted.)
I wonder if we teachers may be inadvertently contributing to this problem. Many of my students know that a long-standing pet peeve of mine is the policy of not deducting points when I make mistakes when grading tests in the student's favor. My understanding is that most teachers don't deduct the points, presumably because we don't want to punish the student for her honesty bringing the error to our attention. Yet, until recently I always did because I'm afraid that we send the opposite message - that it's OK to only be honest when you don't have to pay a price for it. The guy at the cash register who gives you an extra $10 won't tell you to keep it when you tell him about his mistake.
I've recently changed my policy to conform with the norm, but I usually follow it up with this mussar schmooze to try to mitigate the message. What do you all think?
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