The students were all seated. The test papers were all distributed. Everyone sat in silent anticipation as the teacher walked carefully back to his desk.
He placed the remaining test scripts on his table and then checked his watch.

"Before you start, let me first warn you," his voice became slightly sterner at this point as he paused for effect, "I do not want to see anyone cheating in this test."

A final look at the watch. A concluding gesture. "All right, you may begin."

Instead of the tense silence and subsequent scribbling that the teacher expected, the moment he had sat himself down in the chair beside the table, the entire class had rosed from their seats and started to gather in groups, discussing how the questions should be answered.

It took a moment for him to recover, before he could exclaim, "Hey, I had just said I do not want to see anyone cheating in this test!"

Another teacher who was also in the classroom had burst into laughter at the scene. He smiled towards his fellow teacher, "When you say you do not want anyone to 'cheat', they take it that you mean they should not withhold what is good from anyone else. They would be cheating another person of something if they were to keep something to themselves alone."


This is actually a true story that was recounted to me by a lecturer who teaches cross-cultural missionary preparation. It happened in India, to a teacher who was attached at a school there for a short duration. On the surface, it is a good example to illustrate how it is necessary to be sensitive to the differences in cultures. Our actions and practices, though extended out of universally desired principles, may not and need not be the perfect model that suits a people. In appreciating a culture, it's important to balance between being too imposing or being blindly assimilated into it.

But on a deeper level, the more specific dimension that is addressed by the example is how 'cheating' is defined. While it may seem to be a unique way to think about 'cheating', I realise that if you take a step back to look at how we phrase what 'cheating' to mean, it can be stranger than how the students in the class had understood its meaning.

With the rigor and quality of the Singapore education system, 'cheating in a test' is an easily understood notion for Singaporeans. To break the term down, you are cheating in a test if you copy the answers off a friends' with/without his knowledge, if you make any form of communication with another test-taker with content relating to the test, if you refer to something like a piece of paper etc. Essentially, it's when you do not do it by yourself in that duration of the test.

What the term ultimately entails is individualism and a mihi solum (myself alone) attitude. Singapore's meritocratic system has no apologies about this, but if you look at the original definition of how 'cheating' is understood, its usually explained in the context of cheating a person. Relationships a key element in cheating. You cheat when you lie to a person. You cheat when you deprive a person of a right. When you cheat, you can go to the extent of breaking a person's trust, heart, soul and leave a scar which might only be eased after resentment or healed by grace.

The Singaporean understanding of "cheating" focuses on the individual's status in his community - "I do not want others to cheat me of what I am doing.", on the other hand, the students in India understood 'cheating' with a focus on the individual's contribution to the community - "I not going to deprive others of the knowledge that I have on this."

I know, it can be argued that if one cheats on a test, principally speaking, he is making others lose out too. But that is part of the point- its always "principally speaking", but never the principles themselves.


Another way of saying it is that there are very different ways of saying "It's not fair!"



"There is ony one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every othe sin is a variation of theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a life, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."
-- Baba, The Kite Runner

Labels: muse

---

_Past

June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009

---