The politics of cheating

Cheating was a "dirty word" when I was growing up. It was a synonym for dishonesty; an antonym for trustworthiness. Honesty, truth, trust, and playing by the rules was a value taught in most homes. I'm not sure it is anymore, based on what we see in the world around us.

For example, how we achieved something used to be as important as the achievement itself. That's not necessarily true anymore either. Politicians lie to get elected, and then lie some more to get re-elected. CEO's of companies and corporations regularly lie, cheat, and steal to promote their own bottom lines and, for many, their only concern seems to be in getting away with what they're doing. We're in the middle of an athletic steroid scandal where we're learning that a multitude of professional athletes have been taking performance enhancing drugs, in violation of the rules. Husbands and wives "cheat" on their spouses on a regular basis. And students cheat to get better grades, do less work, or both. It is a behavior that has become pandemic.

It's the last example in the above paragraph that I want to focus on in this column. School is about to begin again in public schools, private schools, colleges and universities all over the country. And an issue that is constantly on the minds of teachers and professors is the issue of cheating. Who's doing it and how to stop it.

Recent studies on academic cheating have disclosed some mind-numbing numbers. In a recent survey from Who's Who Among American High School Students, involving a scientifically selected 3,123 students, 80 percent of whom admitted to cheating on an exam or a paper. That's an increase of 15 percent since the question was first asked in 1983. In addition, 50 percent of them didn't believe that cheating was necessarily wrong and 95 percent of those who HAD cheated said they had never been caught. Acc-ording to the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, 75 percent of all college students confess to cheating at least once. This finding confirms earlier studies by Baird, and by Stern and Havlicek, who reported that between 70 percent and 85 percent of American college students engage in some form of cheating (The Journal magazine).

What is the reason or reasons for this significant level of cheating and the significant increase over the past several years? I believe it's obvious to all of us that honesty is no longer seen as the great virtue it was a generation ago. People today are more concerned with themselves than they are with others and they're more concerned about meeting their goals and less concerned about how those goals are met. One of the reasons for that is competition.

Competition is higher for practically every job in the marketplace than it has ever been before. A generation ago, for example, there were more professional jobs available than there were qualified college graduates to fill those jobs. Today, there are ten college graduates available for every single job that requires a college degree. The decision one has to make is clear and obvious. Do I compete honestly and fairly, using only my own skills, intellect, and knowledge or do I cheat? Obviously, according to the numbers, more and more are choosing the latter option.

Technology has contributed significantly to cheating, especially in acad-eme. It is incredibly easy for a student to visit the World Wide Web and find academic papers written on practically every subject there is. Several sites actually sell academically prepared papers and the cost depends on the kind of grade you want (an "A" paper costs considerably more than a "C" paper) and the length of the paper because a fee is charged for each page. This especially presents a formid-able problem for "online" classes, the new educational fad.

In an attempt to compete favorably for students, colleges and universities around the globe have completely embraced the idea of "online" classes. An "online" class is simply a class conducted over the Internet. The student does not have to physically travel to a classroom and interact with the instructor and other students face-to-face. They can work on their assignments and do their "class" anytime of the day or night. This is especially attractive and convenient for the non-traditional student; that is the homemaker or full-time employee who cannot move or take time off from their jobs and responsibilities to attend college classes.

Because of this attractiveness, some colleges and universities are actively in the process of putting every course offered at their institution online.

I'm not sold on this idea for a variety of reasons but that's fodder for another column. This particular column is about cheating and taking a class online is one of the easiest ways to cheat, if a student is inclined to do so. I've already talked about the ease of downloading homework, papers, projects, etc., refining it to meet the requirements of the course you're taking, and submitting it as your own work when you, in fact, did no work at all. What's even worse, however, is the fact that people are literally "hiring" other people to take their online classes for them.

What if you work for an employer who has as one criteria for pay increases and promotions your level of education? We know when people find it in their best economic interests to cheat, they often will. What if you're looking to change jobs and the kind of job you want requires a degree or a particular kind of degree? The options are pretty clear. You can do it yourself or you can hire someone else to do it for you. Many people today are choosing to do the latter rather than the former.

Granted, if someone intends to cheat, it takes eternal vigilance on the part of those in charge to prevent it. There's no doubt that cheating goes on in the traditional classroom as well.

But there's certainly a greater ability to control cheating in a classroom situation than there is online and, because of that, it's my belief that the frequency and the sophistication of online cheating will continue to increase.

Because, in today's world, getting there appears to be much more important than how you get there.