Re: Education Philosophy-T o Cheat or Not to Cheat

["Steven G. Brant" <trimtab@sprynet.com>]

Thank you, Frank, for the excellent post.  The compulsion to cheat is driven
by the need to win, which continues to pervade society today.  How I wish we
could move beyond "winning" to "learning" (as in learning from each other).

I met yesterday with a foreign policy expert, as part of my effort to
broaden the awareness and applicability of quality management to the field
of international development.  At one point we discussed the current WTO
meeting in Seattle.  It is sad to see so many well-intentioned people (all
the demonstrators) who think the only thing they can do is "win" (destroy
the WTO).  If only they could see the value in dialogue (learning from each
other).  Similar groups did not fall into this trap during the UN's
conference in Cairo on population.  Perhaps that was because population
control is a specialized subject.  "World trade" attracts people with many
more diverse concerns.  By the leaders of the NGO's in Cairo knew to work
constructively, in dialogue with the governmental representatives there,
rather than destructively as those in Seattle are doing now.

I continue to think that our cultural need to win (to be "right") is at the
root of many of our problems.  As to where that need comes from, perhaps
that's best left for a future post.
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Steven G. Brant, Founder and Principal
Trimtab Management Systems
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