People love to judge a cheater. Some students at our local high school were caught cheating.  They stole copies of a test.  These weren’t the kind of kids who usually get into trouble.  They were honor students, in gifted classes.  They were competing in the high stakes game of top 20 college admissions, where every grade counts.  So they found a way to win. My state, Georgia, has also been embroiled in a high profile teacher cheating scandal that made national news.  Teachers and administrators are accused of giving elementary school kids advance answers to standardized tests.  With their performance ratings and school funding dependent on test scores, several teachers and administrators, allegedly, fed the kids the answers in advance to improve their scores. In both instances, I hear people, including the media, asking the same questions: Who are the cheaters?  How did they get caught?  What’s their punishment? These questions totally miss the point.  The bigger, better, question is why? Why did honor students feel that they needed to steal a test to succeed?  Why did teachers believe that giving kids the answers was the best way to keep their jobs? When someone violates the rules, it’s a human tendency to want to individualize their crimes.  We tell ourselves that it’s an isolated incident.  The offenders were people of low character or morals.  They were lazy. They were looking for the easy way out. Placing blame on the moral failings of individuals makes us feel better, but it’s a cheap out.  It does nothing to solve the root problems and avoids our own culpability. While we’re vilifying the offenders — Fire the teachers!  Expel the students! — we’re completely missing the point.  How is http://www.mcleodandmore.com/2014/06/04/why-were-asking-the-wrong-questions-about-cheating/