This morning in church our pastor was making a point that, according to St. Paul, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” To illustrate his point he told of a violation of trust that he was a part of in high school regarding his grade in one of his classes. That triggered this memory for me.
I certainly, like everyone else, often fall short of the glory of God. I have a friend who says he likely sins several times before his feet hit the floor in the morning. That is probably a good description of me as well. That said, I generally hold truth and trustworthyness in very high esteem. Having been an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, I know that the first point of the Scout Law is this…”A Scout is Trustworthy.”
Through high school and the first year of college I never cheated on any exam. It is no secret that if I said I were a mediocre student in college that would be the understatement of the year. Still, I didn’t cheat, plagerize, or lie to a professor; until I did. During the spring semester of my second year in college I found myself taking a trigonometry class. Our teacher was Dr. Bedgood. If he is still alive and should hear of this story, I hope he knows I appreciate him. Dr. Bedgood had just published a math text and our class had the benefit of using it. Though I had taken trig in high school, the concepts in this newly published text were completely foreign to me. I struggled from day one in this class. Close to the end of the semester, it was pretty clear that I would fail the course. Not that I was a stranger to failing in college courses, because I was not what you might call a model student and had problems with some of my chemistry and certainly math courses. This is not the story to try to justify any of that, let’s just say that I struggled, never quit, and managed to graduate with nearly a B average. Anyway, we were nearing the end of the semester and I had not passed a test all semester. There was no question, I would be taking this class over. One morning I reported to class knowing we were having a test. I worried and fretted it because I was embarrassed to be this big a failure in this class. During the exam, I found myself getting more and more frustrated until I noticed that the girl that sat just ahead of me in the classroom was not guarding her test paper and I could see what she had written. I managed to copy a couple of her answers, finished the test and turned it in to Dr. Bedgood. I left feeling guilty. See, like I said, I had never cheated on an exam before, and, I never cheated on another one since.
I spent a rough night in the dorm with my conscience beating me up all night. By the next morning my mind was made up. I reported to my job washing pots and pans in the school cafeteria at 5:00 AM and left in time to meet Dr. Bedgood arriving at his office around 8:00. I asked if I could have a moment of his time and he agreed, probably wondering what this failing student might have to say at the end of the semester. I am pretty sure he was totally surprised when I turned myself in for cheating. Sitting in his office that morning I explained that in my frustration, I had taken advantage of a fellow student and copied the answers to 3 of the problems on the test. I also explained that afterward, I didn’t sleep and knew I had to come clean. His approach was to ask what questions I had copied. I did recall those. He pulled out my test paper and marked those three wrong. Then he graded the rest of my paper while I sat there and sure enough, I missed most of the others as well. He looked at my paper, then he looked at me and asked who I had copied from. I explained that the other student had no idea that I copied the answers and didn’t want to get anyone else in trouble. He promised that no one would be in trouble so I told him who it was. After a good laugh, he explained that I had copied from the only student in class doing more poorly than me. I guess that is what they call Karma.
Now, you might think this is the end of the story, but, wait, there’s more. By the next fall, Dr. Bedgood had been promoted to chair of the math department. I had just finished a summer working on a pipeline construction job and was reporting to school. I had to take trig over and after much research, I found the teacher I was most likely to be able to pass. He taught strictly traditional trigonometry and had a reputation as an easy grader. I managed to register for his class and felt pretty good about that. Then I got the notice to report along with every other student taking that trigonometry class that semester. We all reported to a large classroom in the math building and found seats. The teacher I had registered with and the teacher no one wanted were both in the room along with Dr. Bedgood. Dr. Bedgood explained that some of the students would have to have their class transferred from the “easy” teacher to the “hard” teacher. He asked that all of us that had the easy teacher and also had a free period during one of the other teacher’s classes to stand. I stood. Only a couple of us stood up. Dr. Bedgood advised that they had the records there and could verify so he again challenged any students with an open period to stand. More stood up. Then Dr. Bedgood began to go from student to student to tell them they would be changed. When he got to me, he simply said, “Mr. Grant, sit down.” I did as directed. Took the class under one of the best math teachers I ever knew, and made a B that semester in Trig.
I’m sure there are many lessons to be learned here. 1) Cheating is bad. 2) A guilty conscience can really hurt. 3) When all else fails, fall back on the truth. And, 4) Karma works both ways.
granddaddystories 