The Importance of Academic Honesty

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Honesty and integrity are two major core Catholic and humanist values that many students in modern times seem to lack. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, honesty is defined as "the quality of being fair and truthful." Honesty plays a huge role in our society and daily lives. Honesty is a key characteristic that makes up a person, and defines who they truly are. Usually, if a person is very honest, which according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary means, “the quality of being honest and fair.” As you can see, the definition of honesty and integrity go hand in hand. Just as Spencer Johnson tells us, “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” Without honesty, there is absolutely no integrity. In the past few years, many major corporations conducted tests to determine how much of the world’s population was considered, “honest.” WalletTest.com conducted an experiment in which one hundred wallets were left on the streets on purpose, filled with a good amount of cash, and a picture identification card to explicitly show who the wallet belonged to. Of those one hundred wallets, seventy four of them were returned and twenty six were not. The sample of people they used were of mixed gender, age, and race, giving a good testing sample. The results were good, showing that most people were honest, and the honest people outnumbered the dishonest people nearly three to one. Honesty and integrity does not only play a large role in daily life situations, however. Honesty and integrity play a large role in academics in different levels of expertise: Elementary, High School, and College. During elementary school, children are not only developing their physical bodies, but there minds as well. They a... ... middle of paper ... ...s, but it is morally wrong. If it feels like the world is about to end, that the pressure and stress is getting onto you in academics, and your responsibilities start to stack up, just simply relax and ask for someone's advice, maybe a friend. Life is not worth living when you know that you have gone far in life because of someone else. We must not give into the temptation of making things easier for us because many things in life are hard. When you accomplish things by yourself and work hard to achieve things on your own, you will realize how good it feels to know that what you have done was your best. Without academic integrity, learning can never be assured. Honesty is not fixated, and changes by situation. Everyone should strive for academic honesty or integrity. By trying your hardest and receiving what you deserve, you will go farther than anyone else in life.

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