Cheating
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