Is using a thesaurus cheating?

I remember taking mild offense when my middle school language arts teacher&#xA;introduced our class to the thesaurus. I thought, if I let the thesaurus choose&#xA;my words for me, then is it even my writing anymore? This seems like a flaw in&#xA;my temperament: I always regard technology with suspicion when it threatens to&#xA;supplant human creativity. &#xA; Inevitably, as I progressed through…