Cheating is so widespread among high school students that it has become almost

as traditional as the prom. Posted honor codes and signed honesty contracts

haven’t put so much as a dent in a problem whose abuses and sophistication

increase every year. I was recently invited to a forum on cheating at a

South County high school. Attending were other educators, Gene Bedley CEO

from the Bureau of Essential Ethics Education along with 15 of the school’s

top senior students, all of whom has admitted to cheating. Laziness is often a

reason why students cheat, but ,clearly these teens didn’t fall into this

Category. Hence. their stories offered a different take on the problem.

No matter what type of cheating these students were involved in, all agreed on

one thing: A large percentage of cheating occurred as a direct result of an

environment that either encouraged it or ignored it. For starters, the

students felt pressure to cheat when they were put in unfair learning

situations. They were asked to complete unreasonable amounts of work. such as

covering 1,000 pages a quarter of outside reading or memorizing hundreds of

terms for a quiz.

Their teachers seemed unaware or unconcerned that they had set expectations

that no student could meet, mistaking huge quantities of work for “rigor.”

Passing such classes meant resorting to dishonest tactics like faking the

reading or splitting up the work with friends. Such desperate measures were

viewed more as a means to survival than as cheating.

The students also described teachers who routinely examined students on

material that the instructors themselves didn’t know or didn’t cover in

class. Rather than create an exam that tests students on what they have been

taught, these teachers handed out someone else’s standardized tests. One girl

reported that she asked the teacher to explain a question on one of these

exams and was told, ” I can t help you, I didn’t write that question” Even

when teachers do create good tests on what has been taught, students feel

strongly that they also need a secure test environment. There are teachers who

sit passively at their desks while the most blatant cheating goes on and some

who leave the room altogether.

Rather t.than showing “trust” in students, such behavior on the part of

instructors was interpreted as simply not caring enough to take testing

seriously. Perhaps the disturbing example of an environment that encourages

dishonesty was, the habit some teachers apparently have of grading essays and

reports without reading them through.

A number of students who had such instructors admitted to having written a

dynamite first page and nonsense from that point on. still receiving a high

grade. As soon as students caught on to the grading system, they took

advantage of it. Why should anyone struggle over a paper no one is going to

read? To turn in a bogus essay is definitely cheating, but the teacher set the

standard.

An easy “out” for administrators is to say that honest students shouldn’t

cheat. no matter what, thus avoiding having to deal with the situation. Even

though they are well aware of what goes on in classrooms, they won’t act

unless forced to. Teachers resent colleagues who give the profession a bad

name but are hesitant to blow the whistle. Parents are reluctant to complain

because they don’t want the teacher in question to retaliate against their

kids.

Students who took part in the forum made clear that they are uncomfortable

with cheating, but they justify it to themselves because it’s directed at

educators they don’t respect. Still, they are not comfortable with having to

compromise their own integrity. In fact, that is the whole reason they had

participated in the forum.

No one likes the situation, yet nothing is done about it, creating a

conspiracy of silence.It seems that schools have cut a deal with everyone

involved “You don’t expose the lousy teaching, and we’ll ignore the cheating.

Caring administrators, responsible teachers and frustrated parents need to

band together have forums such as the one described, complain, write letters,

make phone calls and refuse to tolerate any situation that is clearly lacking

in academic integrity.

The loudest protests ought to come from the students themselves. After all,

it’s their education we’re talking about here Before they complain about

unfair teachers and absurd grading, they need to go on record against them. If

they haven’t truly tried to change classroom situations that they view as

unethical, then they can t really justify cheating; they become simply another

part of the problem. Beyond the immediate fact that students are cheating on

tests and papers is the larger issue: They are being cheated of an education.

– Christine Baron