cheating

i was sitting next to this teenager in the bus, who was apparently studying hard. he was working on an essay and was going through all the motions. i was impressed, cos we'd been in the bus all of 10 minutes and the topic (education) was apparently inspiring - he was writing away. or so it seemed. after a while, i noticed he kept looking at a photocopy of the same thing, and i realised that he was reading and paraphrasing it. and i just wondered, what's the point? i mean, yes, i see that he's 'saving time', but it's just so meaningless. it's not about getting good grades, but about learning how to do things. that said, i know my parents were disappointed if i didn't bring home good grades, and i guess it can be a burden on some.