Academic Dishonesty: A Short Story

Academic Dishonesty
“Lying is a basic human reaction, and this is the class where we study it.” Dr. Renholds pauses. “We lie to keep people safe from nasty truths; just like when your Daddy told you that Fifi went to live on a farm upstate. We call these lies White Lies, and for the most part they are harmless. We use them to maintain the status quo of our lives and emotions.”
He turns away from his podium, and reaches up to the old dusty chalkboard. The remnants of past lectures remain smeared across the grey-green slab of slate. Renholds is a man that is made to work in academia. He is on the shorter side of five foot six and with a wide frame. His face is round, and his sunken eyes hid behind his glasses, fixed into a slight squint from years of intense reading. His mouth is thin and is flanked by deep wrinkles that meet his mouth with a slight smile. His silver hair is slowly falling off the top of his head, and seemingly collecting on his eyebrows, chin, and jaw. His brown tweed suit jacket fell around his protruding belly. Reaching high above his head, he writes a bullet point followed by “White Lie.” He slowly turned to face the crowd of students while simultaneously inhaling. …show more content…
For example, when you told your little brother than trading his full sized Snickers for your red vines is a good trade. This lie is known as a Malicious Lie” There is another brief pause when he turns back to the board and repeats the same process as before, and that pause allowed students to scribble down a few messy