Cheating Begins Early in American Schools
Developing Strict Guidelines to Combat Cheating
Mar 10, 2009
Cheating used to be easy to define. Today, however, teachers and administrators wrestle with the question of what constitutes cheating? The use of technology, text messaging, and even the educational gambit promoting cooperative learning techniques have redefined the definition of cheating or created sub-definitions detailing different levels of academic miscreance. Learning communities must grapple with precise language in honor codes and policies regarding cheating in order to set an acceptable standard and provide punitive actions.
What Really Constitutes Cheating?
Most students in both high school and college do not view sharing homework assignments, cooperative projects, or labs that require one or more partners as cheating. Yet in every case, students share their own work with other students that may not have completed the reading or the written preparation. In May 2007, the Raleigh News & Observer reported on 34 students at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business convicted of cheating.
In an age of advanced technology, students often view such technologies as adjuncts to learning and seldom equate this with cheating. In a 1980’s Family Ties episode, Alex Keaton tells a psychiatrist that he paid another student in elementary school for his art work, which was then displayed on the kitchen refrigerator at his home. “Nothing is too good for my mother,” he says in his defense. This is the mentality of twenty-first century students. Whether it represents gaining admission to the best schools or keeping up the GPA, “nothing is too good” and the end justifies the means.
In a February 20, 2009 article in The Chronicle of High Education, Chris Bates gives numerous examples of cheating: “When the instructor stepped out to make a phone call [during a test], I was shocked to see a group of five or so students shift their papers among one another.” All recent studies on classroom and student integrity highlight an increase in cheating.
Developing Strict Guidelines Starting in High School
Cheating is a trait long developed before college. It may even begin in elementary and middle school. It often starts as something seemingly innocuous, such as copying another student’s homework answers. Too often, the root cause is a profound lack of individual ethics and integrity. In many cases, students that cheat are at the top of the class, fearful that low scores will imperil their academic upward mobility. Confronting cheating in this group is often very difficult as these students are supported by powerful parents that have already plotted the academic destinies of their children. These are usually the same parents that write, rather than correct or edit, student papers and essays in high school.
School systems that are serious about eliminating cheating should develop very precise definitions of cheating and incorporate such definitions into honor codes or plagiarism policies. The most important aspect of this, however, is following through on stated punitive responses. If the honor code or cheating policy is merely for public relations or school image, it serves no useful purpose. Students will become aware of this immediately; faculty will realize that they have no support in combating cheating.
The Culture of Cheating in a Post Modern World
Students that cheat in high school and college will cheat in their chosen professions. The Machiavellian adage holds true in every situation: the end justifies the means. As potential leaders, these students will defraud and fall prey to self-serving schemes, the Bernard Madoffs who live by no inclinations of integrity.
Pundits of the recent economic recession pillory the corporate leaders that helped pave the way to economic ruin for so many. How many of these professionals began their lives copying a homework assignment from another student, learning the art of cheating in the first years of formal education? It is a thought worth considering.
Sources:
Bates, Chris.“A Student’s View: Why Cheating Matters,” The Chronicle of High Education “Commentary,” February 20, 2009.
“College Cheating in the News,” The Boston Globe Online, May 1, 2007.
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