The value of values

The value of values

June 2014

Seated in one corner of the canteen, I overheard a conversation between two young people. Girl: “I only copied one answer from your work. It’s such a small thing. Everybody cheats! What is the big deal? Why are you making such a big issue about it?” Boy: “Cheating is cheating! Whether you copy one word or you copy a whole paragraph does not matter.” Girl: “Which world do you live in, man? Everybody copies from each other. Guys use chits of paper, their cell phones, hand signals – anything – to get the right answer. You see what is important is doing well, not how you do it!”

This conversation brought to my mind a dilemma another young person had to face way back in the 1880s. Young Mohan was a very shy, introverted, 12-year-old boy, afraid of other stronger boys in his class One day, Mr. Giles, the Inspector of Schools for the Rajkot area, came to Mohan’s school. He entered Mohan’s class, and gave them a five-word spelling test, to assess the children’s level. Mohan wrote four of the words correctly, but was foxed by the fifth word, ‘kettle.’ When his teacher noticed that Mohan had misspelt the word, he surreptitiously indicated with his foot that Mohan should cheat and copy the correct spelling from his neighbour; but Mohan did not.

When the answers were checked, it was found that Mohan was the only boy in the whole class who had got one spelling wrong. Everyone else had spelt all five words correctly. “I told you to copy the correct spelling from your neighbour. Why didn’t you do it? You have disgraced the class!” scolded his irate teacher, annoyed at the blot on his teaching and the skills of his class. Everyone laughed; and poor Mohan felt ridiculed and embarrassed. “I am sorry to have disappointed you, sir, but I cannot go against my conscience,” replied Mohan humbly, unhappy that he had displeased his teacher, but sure that what he had done was right. Young Mohan was none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of our Nation. And he was successful. He succeeded in getting India the long coveted Independence we sought from British rule. Yet, all throughout his life, the means mattered to him more than the result. As I was pondering over this, my ears were again drawn to the conversation.

Boy “Well, if this is how you feel, I can’t make you change your mind but I repeat cheating is cheating! You cannot take someone else’s work and pass it off as your own! You cannot do anything without considering whether it is right or wrong! Does your conscience allow you to plagiarise someone’s work as your own? Will you make and deliver goods of an inferior standard and pass it off as excellent if it makes you money? Will you destroy the environment just to make a success of your factory?” Girl: “Of course not! Stop lecturing, man!” Boy: “Then don’t say – “You see what is important is doing well, not how you do it!” I felt all was not lost.