The Consequences Of Cheating

Donald Mccabe, who you will hear about later in this essay, did a study about cheating and found some astonishing, and quite frankly disheartening, results. He did a survey of 24,000 high school students over seventy high schools and found that sixty four percent of students admitted to cheating on a test, fifty eight percent admitted to plagiarism, and ninety five percent admitted to cheating in some form, whether copying homework, on a test, or plagiarizing.

Cheating is easier as we make advancement in technology and cheating is more prominent when kids value the grades they get over the education they get. Put those things together and you have a recipe for disaster on your hands. As technology increases it makes it easier and more tempting

Howard Gardner says that the attitude he has found among students at elite colleges is: “We want to be famous and successful, we think our colleagues are cutting corners, we’ll be damned if we’ll lose to them, and some day, when we’ve made it, we’ll be role models. But until then, give us a pass(Gardner).” If one cheating student gets an A on a test and the non cheating student gets an A- the non cheating student is going to feel very discouraged and maybe even cheat on the next test to do better. Cheating is not only prominent in students who are just trying to stay caught up and not fall behind. According to the New York Times large scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nations tops schools, and most recently Harvard(Perez-Pena). There is evidence that cheating has worsened over the years and both great students and below average students are cheating now more than ever. Donald L. McCabe a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, and a leading researcher on cheating says, “I don’t think there’s any question that students have become more competitive, under more pressure, and, as a result tend to excuse more from themselves and other students, and that’s abetted by the adults around them(Maccabe).” Students are being expected to get good grades and do well on their test. When a student is struggling a teacher or parents will say “You better get that grade up or else.” Instead of saying, “You better be learning that information and applying it to your every day life or else.” As a society we value higher grades than higher knowledge. We need to change our thought process around and value the knowledge a student gains not the score they get on a test. Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate school of Education, said that “over the twenty years he has studied professional and academic integrity, the ethical muscles