Cheating Epidemic in Education - Part 1
There have been several studies released lately, documenting the rates of admitted cheating in schools to vary between 60% to 90%, for everything from test-taking to homework, even attendance. What is most chilling about these statistics is that cheating is not seen as a problem in the majority of cases, rather as a ‘fact’ of education. And the highest percentages of admitted cheating seems to be coming from some of our most prestigious schools, where the pressure to excel is even higher than the norm.
Ruthless competition may be one of the causes of this cheating behavior, but something even more sinister also seems to be at work. A startling 90% of students surveyed admitted to cheating on their homework, yet verbalized NO guilt. Cheating, including everything from copying the work of fellow students, plagiarizing from books or the internet, to paying someone else to do the work, is seen as the “smart, practical” solution to increasing demands for performance.
Although most students don’t want their parents to know they are cheating, most don’t see it as a moral issue, or a matter of integrity. It’s simply a means to an end to the majority. Good work and study habits are being bypassed for technological shortcuts, like answers carried into a test on a camera phone, or crib sheets concealed on the body.
Any answer you’re not certain of can be neatly stored on an iPod or camera phone.
Carrying cheat sheets, or crib notes, into a room by smuggling them in clothing has been around for years and is pretty low-tech.
Cheating has become such an expected part of the education environs that BIC Pens includes notes scribbled on the palm of a hand in one of their advertising campaigns, stating that BIC pens can help you cheat!
What is more sad, is that this decaying educational studying and testing style is being carried out from the earliest to the highest grades. In addition to the moral erosion this engenders, the quality of education in the USA is deteriorating more rapidly than ever before.
This is a sad state of affairs and does not bode well for the future of this country.
NEXT: Results of major studies, and more.
Brennan
Filed under: Education News
This is a joke, right?
Brenna-
That picture says it all.
Hi,
I’m a grad student at UCLA in the chemistry department, and I wanted to let you know that cheating here is very well accepted among the students and some lecturers, who are unwilling to put in the time deal with it. This is especially a problem with pre-med students, who are often in frats and sororities that keep lab reports for many years and openly let everyone copy off of the people that came before. Sadly enough, these “students” make me trust doctors less than I already do.
I never cheat, but then again, I score in the top 2% in every standardized test I’ve ever taken. Smart people will probably never cheat because they don’t have to, stupid people will cheat whenever possible and that’s fine, social pressure to succeed is so intense in this country, why the fuck wouldn’t you cheat if you were too inept to succeed otherwise? Who is being hurt anyways, its not like the guy who cheated his way through his math exams is going to be designing bridges, they will probably end up as accountants at H&R block or something.
Oh yeah, and the way college is run in this country, where math majors have to take english classes and vice versa, and you have to do well in all your subjects to get into a good graduate school or a good job or a good whatever, they are kind of asking for it, don’t you think?
Hello Brennan, I am shocked to read this discovery. I doubt this is pervalent here from Singapore. Still, it is important that I teach the right values and morals to my kids.
Thanks for sharing,
Evelyn
more sad -> sadder
Take that.
Learn to cheat well and you’ll never have to learn anything again
I certainly wouldn’t want a doctor treating me who had cheated his way through medical school.
This cheating epidemic is pointing to a lack of integrity in our young people. It ties in with stealing prescription drugs from their parents and grandparents. Kids are being raised with no moral compass, and it’s scary to envision our future. I’m old enough to remember when they took prayer out of public schools. This was when this downhill moral slide started. Over the past 45 years, it’s become an avalanche. I don’t know what the answer is now.
The doctor example scares me. I always feel like they have no idea what they’re doing half the time anyway. Maybe this is why! I did cheat a few times in school, but it wasn’t a regular thing. Until being smart and doing your homework becomes “cool” this is going to continue.
Well, I first want you to know I appreciate all your comments.
@ Kate . . . No, this is definitely NOT a joke! It’s sad, but true.
@ Clara . . . The picture does show it, doesn’t it? When I was in school, no one would have gotten away with this blatant behavior.
@ Alex . . . OOOh! That IS scary! I knew this behavior would lead to bad repercussions for our society, but I hadn’t even thought about soon-to-be-doctors who cheated on tests! Yikes!
@ Ross . . . I know where you’re coming from. I’ve always graduated first in my class and did it the honorable way. Even when I went back for graduate work, I couldn’t imagine that people could be so cavalier about cheating. But you bring up an excellent point . . . with the way things are now set up, with programs like No Child Left Behind, everything is based on ROI. Seems most don’t want to put forth the necessary effort to succeed honestly, or they feel incapable of winning fairly. SAD!
@ Evelyn . . . I have no idea what the situation is in Singapore, but cheating is widespread here in the USA. (That’s where the studies were done.) You really hit on the whole point of my postings: values and morals are not being taught to our youth. Most now see getting ahead by any means as the practical approach to life. It’s the old “ends justifying the means” all over again.
@ Firi . . . Yes, it’s sad!
Thank you for your responses!
In response to more comments about the cheating epidemic:
@ vonzeppelin . . . Ironic, isn’t it? But I still believe in my heart that nothing can replace a sense of true accomplishment. It must be frightening to know that everything is built on a web of deceit. Or, I could just be fooling myself.
@ Darlene . . . It looks like we old timers are the only ones who remember a better way. Integrity is obsolete according to the studies. More than that, it’s considered foolish. Yep, doctors who cheated their way through medical school is just one example of what our society has to look forward to if we don’t make changes. What’s that old out-dated saying? something about “reaping what we sow”?
@ Buck . . . Yes, I think the med students’ cheating has probably scared all of us. But it is just the tip of the iceburg. You bring up a valid point about studying not being “cool”. That’s one of the problems Don addresses in his book. He had students who came to him with that attitude, because they hadn’t been taught to see a bigger vision and a better way. I know this is a problem that can be changed in our schools, because I talk to his former students who are grateful that he showed them how to succeed. If Don could do it, other teachers can also. If his students could win big “fair and square”, then other students could too.
We have to show, and prove, a better way. And that is sadly lacking in our society at present.
Thank you for your insights,
Brennan
I am shocked and appalled!
are you really that completely moronic and ignorant to think that college in this nation has anything to do with actual education?? you probably graduated from a four year university, am i right? you think that because you worked hard that anyone who doesn’t get a degree the same way you did is somehow less than you. that would explain why you think cheating is a problem that could ruin the nation, because if its the system’s (ie university system) fault then your education is no longer a viable means of proving your higher status. let me tell you what this airman says, get over yourself you inflated boob.
I appreciate each and every comment.
@ Marko S. . .Yes, I was shocked and appalled too! What amazed me was the blatant and unapologetic attitudes.
@ Superglue_Shooter. . .I’m sorry, but I seem to have given you the wrong impression. I would love for you to take some time and read my posts so you can understand that this entire blog is devoted to showing that our schools (including our university system) are failing our country miserably. I do not, and have never felt, that a college degree was an indicator of status or worth. But I would very much like to see our schools actually doing what our tax dollars are allocated for them to do, educating American students.
On a Personal Note: Dear Super, I was already a grandmother before I went back to school and actually got a college degree. The lack of a degree had never stopped me from being a productive member of society, a successful businesswoman, and a loving mother. I went back to school to learn to be a Coronary nurse after my husband’s first heart attack. 25 years later, I’m grateful I’ve had that nursing experience to help us get through 5 more heart attacks, open-heart surgery and now a much healthier lifestyle. I shudder to think what I might not have known to help him if I had cheated my way through nursing school.
Be happy, Airman.
Cheating is cheating. Cheating happens. But seriously. Next time you choose pictures for an article on cheating, try to find ones that aren’t inherently hilarious. Such as that cheating note in the shirt one, and also the top image. Those images are joke images. And are found frequently on humour pages.
Therefore I thought you were joking? Anyway. Peace.
Thanks for your input, Kate,
I selected those pictures because they are so representative of what is happening in our schools. I’m sure they could be very appropriate on a humor page as well, for anyone who thinks cheating is funny, like many of the students interviewed in the reports I was speaking of.
Actually, the information I am sharing is very serious and indicative of major problems in our education system and our society.
Since it is EXTREMELY difficult to get people to sit still for a photo when they are cheating, I am forced to use stock photos. Although those stock photos may look funny, they are true representations of the 60%-90% of students who freely admit to cheating and are, therefore, sad!
Thank you for your comment!