Ethical Test Cheating. Would you cheat or not?

[bsharpe269]

Like juilletmercredi said, in grad school I've even had a professor put material from his own research that was posted as a recommended reading on the exam. He didn't mention it would be on the exam and it wasn't on the sylabus but it's still fair to ask about. He wanted to deeper ate the 'above and Beyond' students from the 'required reading only' students. It is in no way unethical for a professor do that.

[the_sheath]

First: yeah, it was unethical and uncool of Kirk to cheat on the Kobayashi Maru. He failed to learn the lesson the test was designed to impart. Further, failing the test was required to "pass" the test. Fact of the matter is that no win situations do happen in battle and it's better for someone to learn to fail, and live with the trauma of that failure, in a safe environment where no one gets hurt, than to try to learn to live with failure. Not that the Kobayashi Maru would do what it was supposed to do. Seriously, Spock? It's not like there's a vaccine for PTSD!

 

Okay, so personally, I thought the cheat on the Kobayashi Maru was actually really cool.

 

And while Kirk failed to learn the lesson the test was designed to impart, I think it was still a pretty good learning experience for everyone else. There are plenty or seemingly no-win situations that have a solution, and ignoring those solutions or going through the test in the same exact way that everyone else does seems to be the weaker choice. And if I wanted someone on my team, I'd take the guy who dared to think outside of the box.

 

I mean, yeah, within the framework of the test, cheating is unethical, and he very clearly "failed" the test. And it is absolutely important to know how to deal with failure. But I'd still commend him on his solution.