It's a routine by now. Clear off the desk, take off the baseball cap, turn off the iPod and put away the note cards that you've been attempting to cram between your ears. It's test time, and the culture of the educational system has established more rules for test takers than the IRS has for taxpayers.

With these rules of thumb, which we find as rote as zipping up our flies, one would figure students should have a strong idea of what cheating looks like. However, in what The New York Times describes as the most widespread episode of cheating Duke University has ever seen, 34 MBA students from the same class cheated on a take-home final.

After the business school's judicial board started a full-on investigation, one would think most students would realize what they did was actually wrong, but the classic response is rarely repentance. "You want to talk rationalizations? I could give you thousands of them: everybody else does it, it's the teachers' fault, you have to do it to get ahead," Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University, said.

McCabe oversaw a national survey that asked students if they'd cheated. At least 56 of all the business students admitted to cheating, in comparison to 48 percent in education and only 45 percent in law. McCabe told the Times that because it's a self-reported survey, the actual numbers are probably much higher. That means over half of America's best and brightest are conscious liars, including people in education. I hope my doctor wasn't among them.

Carl Bernstein, one of two journalists who unveiled the Watergate scandal, plans to publish a 640-page biography of Hillary Clinton in June. Although Bernstein does everything short of calling Clinton a liar, he discovered many "discrepancies" in her autobiography.

The book renews the sentiments of David Geffen, a former Clinton donor and Hollywood producer who said, "The Clintons lie with such ease, it's troubling." Somehow, the media was shocked that anyone from the left would call the Clintons habitual liars, which most conservatives took as a joke. In short, Bill wasn't impeached for his affinity for interns.

We expect politicians to lie as much as we expect commercials to lie. However, if a woman whom much of America idolizes lies so much it seems she can't keep her own biography straight, then one cannot help feel that America's supposed love of honesty is nothing more than a faint idealistic dream some old men with stockings and wigs had some two hundred years ago.

MIT's dean of admissions, Marilee Jones, admitted to lying on her resume and resigned from her prestigious position in late April. However, she is only one of millions of Americans who have lied on their resumes. According to Forbes magazine, studies show that upward of one-third of all resumes are either "padded" or flat-out lies.

In 2004 the Government Accountability Office released a report that discovered 463 government employees had lied on their resumes, 28 of whom held senior positions at organizations such as the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

UW history professor Tracy McKenzie said he often inquires of his class why they don't cheat. They draw up a list; usually the first reason is that they'll get caught, followed by several other minor reasons of punishment and fear of disappointment. However, McKenzie said that the last thing students usually mention, if they mention it at all, is that cheating is simply wrong and therefore shouldn't be done.

Large corporations such as Boeing have resorted to putting their employees through extensive ethics courses. Although this is good, the basic value of honesty should be incorporated into our educational system like inequality and freedom are.

If I ask, "Should we judge people by the color of their skin?" The response would be, "No, because it's wrong." Should our First Amendment rights be suspended by the government? No, because it's wrong. Should we allow ourselves and others to cheat and lie? No, because I might get caught? Wrong answer.

Honesty needs to be a question we ask when we vote in the 2008 elections. It needs to be a factor we consider when we choose our schools and professors. Employers should routinely ask their applicants how they handle liars. It should be punished more harshly and confronted more readily. Cheating should simply be wrong.

Reach reporter Celeste Flint at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.