I Cheated in Sixth Grade Science

The door finally opened and sixth graders exploded from the classroom. One of them held up traffic just for a moment. He stopped just long enough to say this to the kid in front of me. He said, “The answers are D-A, D-A, D-A all the way down.” And he was swept away by the crowd.

My heart raced. Pupils dilated. The disappearing ink that was recording my day was replaced by chisel and stone. I now had unlawful information. What would I do?

I walked in and sat down, dazed and alert. Tests were handed out. Multiple choice. A through D. I looked at the first question. Ah, that’s obviously…D. I looked at the second question. My heart sank and my hands went clammy. A. Do I even need to read the rest?

I tried to be honest. I tried to put down what I would have put down without that information. But it wasn’t like I hadn’t studied. I knew the material pretty well. And it was multiple choice. And on a multiple choice if you don’t know you make an educated guess.

And that day my guesses were very educated. In the end I went with D-A, D-A, D-A all the way down.

The papers were graded, and only two kids got a perfect score; me and that kid in front of me. And the teacher explained that he was inspired by his toddler who kept saying “Dadadadadada” when he was making the test.

I cheated.

I didn’t want to cheat. I wasn’t prone to cheat. I was not a cheater. My front door was secure against the temptation of cheating. But it came in the back door, and I wasn’t ready for it. I hadn’t even thought about such a thing. Before I knew it, the temptation to cheat was already inside and setting a table of A+ cuisine. And I do mean A+.

So I ate it.

Now let me ask you, what should I have done? I find the answer in Ephesians 5:11. It says, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” What I did when I walked into that classroom is make a choice. I could look at my situation with the light on or with the light off. I tried both. I looked at it with the light on and it just made me nervous. Too much hassle. And probably trouble.

And I looked at it with the light off. Ah, much better. Just cover it up. That’s what I did, but is that what I should have done?

First Thessalonians 5:5 says we are “sons of the light.”

{sidebar id=1}John 3:21 says, “…whoever lives by the truth comes into the light…”

By contrast, verse 20 says that everyone who does evil “will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

Yes, temptation came in uninvited. But what I should have done was shine a light on it. What does that mean in practical terms?

First of all it means I should have acknowledged it as evil. Cheating may not seem so evil in this dark old world, but when you drag it into the light its nature is clear. So I should have acknowledged it as evil, and decided to have nothing to do with it.

I sort of tried to do that on my own, but I couldn’t. I was almost certain of all the answers anyway, so the cheating was not a big leap. It was just a tiny little step, and on my own I couldn’t resist.

So in this case, after seeing it in the light and acknowledging it as evil, I should have exposed it to the teacher. I think the best thing I could have done was to go to the teacher and say, “In the hallway I heard someone say that all the answers were D-A, D-A, D-A.”

Then I could let the teacher take it from there. I don’t know what he would have done, but I think I would have done the best thing I could do at that point.

Temptation has a way of sneaking in the back door, doesn’t it? We don’t have to let it in for it to get in.

But when you suddenly look up and see temptation setting a table for you, don’t pull the shades. Remember, no matter how good it looks, the deeds of darkness are fruitless. Instead, expose it. Shine a light on it. Acknowledge it as evil. And to really turn on the light, tell a responsible person about it.

After all, nothing runs temptation off faster than turning on the light.

Comments?

E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.

This article originally published on December 3, 2008.

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