Post by saraho112 on Dec 4, 2012 23:37:25 GMT -5
Cheating for the Perfect Score
Harvard University, founded by the Puritans in the seventeenth century, should be filled to the brim with honest people who exemplify the Puritan values and ideologies. Not quite, as the recent cheating scandal of over one hundred students cheating on a take-home final shows. These students collaborated with one another, which was considered cheating, on the short answer questions on the final, producing similar responses on questions. This caused the teacher to look further into the issue and found about half of the class to have these responses. This scandal shows a departure from the ideologies the institution was founded upon, a move from sacred to secular and the tyranny of consensus that is cheating.
Harvard was once a college where Puritan ministers were trained, but now rising pressures to get the perfect score to then live a successful life has turned hardworking students into cheaters. The focus is no longer on the integrity of the work and is now on what work will get the highest grade. It is similar to The Crucible when Abigail begins to accuse people of witchcraft to better herself in society. In both occasions the offender is lying to get to a higher place in the consensus. To Abigail, this meant that people would respect her in society more. To the Harvard student, cheating got them a better grade and therefore a chance at a more successful life. The shift to the secular in society has made cheating a logical way in getting ahead in life.
Cheating is a tyranny of consensus. It is the change from the hardworking student being in the center of the consensus and the lazier one on the outside to the opposite. The lazy student then becomes the more powerful student, getting the better grades. Others start to join in on the cheating, looking for ways to enhance their position in society by being the better student and getting better grades. Similar to this, Betty and the others who follow Abigail into accusing others of witchcraft from The Crucible are using the tyranny to better their place in society. The only way to end the cheating tyranny is when those students who had cheated get caught. The cheaters are thrown into a negative light, like Danforth and Abigail while the student who didn’t cheat are put back into the positive light much like Proctor and Rebecca Nurse were after they were hanged.
The Harvard cheating scandal has shown the change in the ideologies of today. Cheating is everywhere in society, from the elementary schools to colleges. Like the Harvard cheating scandal, the Long Island cheating scandal is based upon the same strand of thought: better test scores and grade means that a person will have a more successful life. The pressure to get the “perfect” score is becoming larger and only increases the occurrence of cheating. There must be a shift in the ideologies of today in order to decrease cheating.
Word Count: 492
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/harvard-cheating-scandal-not-just-sports_n_1885597.html
cognoscenti.wbur.org/2012/10/02/harvards-cheating-scandal-as-a-play-in-four-acts
Harvard University, founded by the Puritans in the seventeenth century, should be filled to the brim with honest people who exemplify the Puritan values and ideologies. Not quite, as the recent cheating scandal of over one hundred students cheating on a take-home final shows. These students collaborated with one another, which was considered cheating, on the short answer questions on the final, producing similar responses on questions. This caused the teacher to look further into the issue and found about half of the class to have these responses. This scandal shows a departure from the ideologies the institution was founded upon, a move from sacred to secular and the tyranny of consensus that is cheating.
Harvard was once a college where Puritan ministers were trained, but now rising pressures to get the perfect score to then live a successful life has turned hardworking students into cheaters. The focus is no longer on the integrity of the work and is now on what work will get the highest grade. It is similar to The Crucible when Abigail begins to accuse people of witchcraft to better herself in society. In both occasions the offender is lying to get to a higher place in the consensus. To Abigail, this meant that people would respect her in society more. To the Harvard student, cheating got them a better grade and therefore a chance at a more successful life. The shift to the secular in society has made cheating a logical way in getting ahead in life.
Cheating is a tyranny of consensus. It is the change from the hardworking student being in the center of the consensus and the lazier one on the outside to the opposite. The lazy student then becomes the more powerful student, getting the better grades. Others start to join in on the cheating, looking for ways to enhance their position in society by being the better student and getting better grades. Similar to this, Betty and the others who follow Abigail into accusing others of witchcraft from The Crucible are using the tyranny to better their place in society. The only way to end the cheating tyranny is when those students who had cheated get caught. The cheaters are thrown into a negative light, like Danforth and Abigail while the student who didn’t cheat are put back into the positive light much like Proctor and Rebecca Nurse were after they were hanged.
The Harvard cheating scandal has shown the change in the ideologies of today. Cheating is everywhere in society, from the elementary schools to colleges. Like the Harvard cheating scandal, the Long Island cheating scandal is based upon the same strand of thought: better test scores and grade means that a person will have a more successful life. The pressure to get the “perfect” score is becoming larger and only increases the occurrence of cheating. There must be a shift in the ideologies of today in order to decrease cheating.
Word Count: 492
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/harvard-cheating-scandal-not-just-sports_n_1885597.html
cognoscenti.wbur.org/2012/10/02/harvards-cheating-scandal-as-a-play-in-four-acts