Cheating has always been looked down upon in society, but it still thrives in the classrooms of schools and universities. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is right or wrong, just as long as it gets you that A you were looking for. Cheating has grown over the past few years and the question is why? Who's to blame? I know cheating occurs in Bacon Academy. I'll even be so honest to admit that I have participated in cheating once or twice in my high school career. Even so, I know it's not okay; and there are serious punishments if you are caught: there will be a zero on the assignment, and a suspension if you plagiarize. Ouch, cheating definitely doesn't sound worth the risk. So why do we do it? Cheating is done for multiple reasons. Sometimes it's done just to help out a friend. Your neighbor asks about a question during a test and you reply with the answer just to be courteous, nothing more than that. There's no deeper reason, other than maybe one day your neighbor will be able to return the favor. Another form of cheating is the "!%#&, I forgot to study for this test, but the smartest person in the room is sitting right next to me" reason. Some people figure there's no harm because they're going to do poorly anyway. But some people cheat because they're lazy or just don't care. All of these reasons don't make it okay to cheat, and its recurrence in school is an issue. Bacon has all types of cheating, and it can be blamed individually on the teachers, the students themselves, or even on cheating punishments being poorly reinforced within the school. Reinforcement would surely decrease the number of times it occurs per school day, but it can't be stopped completely. However, I don't believe cheating is a major problem at Bacon; but at some schools it's growing like a virus. Such as Harvard, where researchers say it's becoming a serious problem. But why are