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Are We Raising a Generation of Cheaters?

Sometimes learning at the college level can be more challenging than solving a murder mystery on CSI: Miami. As students, we spend all day taking notes on a variety of subjects in class, studying those subjects in our spare time, and forming opinions about our knowledge through papers and discussion sections. It’s a wonder we aren’t dreaming about school when we fall asleep at night (or maybe some of us are). However, some students are starting to crumble under the pressure – and it’s not just university students. From spelling tests in grade school to final exams in college, cheating in students is on the rise, according to a recent study by the Josephon Institute of Ethics.

Reports from the study are alarming – like, four alarm alarming. According to the Josephon Institute of Ethics, “Teenagers 17 and younger are five times more likely than those older than 50 to hold the cynical belief that lying and cheating are necessary to succeed.” That’s a pretty hefty indicator of the direction of our generation, given that the study goes on to find that “The belief that lying and cheating are a necessary part of success is the most reliable predictor of adult dishonesty.”

We hear about cheating everywhere. Every school has an academic dishonesty policy, which teachers copy and paste onto their syllabus and read to us on the first day of class. But studies like this one continue to imply that cheating is on the rise. So I have to wonder, why? We are taught that cheating is wrong – we examine it from all angles, our teachers and parents demonstrate appropriate honest behavior. What gives?

Students are not ashamed to speak out about cheating because they equate it with success. In Brigid Schulte’s “The Case of the Purloined Paper” from Acting Out Culture, she quotes students who say, “You do what it takes to succeed in life. Cheating is part of high school.” And what is part of high school ultimately becomes part of college, since believing cheating is necessary results in adult dishonesty, and these  students are passing their way through classes and heading into the university system. The answer to why these kids cheat feels like it is drowned in a strong desire to be successful.

This drive to cheat is coming straight from a drive to succeed. Perhaps the issue of cheating isn’t cheating so much as defining what success is, and suggesting to students (and their parents and teachers) that success does not have to come in the form of perfect answers, well articulate thoughts, and straight A’s; in other words, success is not doing what adults think is right for us. Why not define success for ourselves?

There is another issue involved with cheating, and that is the lack of consequence. While commenting on the Josephson report, Sally Morgan of UNR said, “It appears that many celebrities, like Martha Stewart and Michael Vick, have not had their careers derailed by jail sentences. So we live in a society where these issues are complex.” Just like the rich and (so-called) famous, students are often not punished to the full extent of the cheating law, nor are they set back by their dishonesty. Rather than being expelled or flunked, students are often given second and third chances.

I understand this drive to succeed, but I don’t define success the way my parents might like me to; I do not think money is the answer. Nor do I dare compromise my moral code to get a grade that will please someone else. My education is what I make of it and I get out what I put in – so if I actually learn something, even if only at the C level, I’m more proud of myself than if I take an A unfairly.