Post by rebeccaki116 on Dec 5, 2012 6:15:40 GMT -5
Survival of the Savviest
Since hard work is not always giving students the results they want, they are now resorting to less moral avenues to achieve better grades. As high school students it is in our nature to want to succeed, but that desire can take over morals and cause us to commit acts we know are wrong. Before modern humans walked the earth, natural selection determined that the species with the most able characteristics would outlive those inferior in a process called survival of the fittest. Today, self-preservation continues, as recently increasing numbers of students will go to the extreme lengths of cheating to prove themselves superior to their classmates. Reports of overwhelming answer trends in standardized tests have swept major US cities like El Paso, New York and Atlanta. What drives the deviant behavior of these students is the pressure they feel to surpass their classmates and achieve the ultimate goal: getting into the best college. When students feel their poor grades will compromise their future, they may result to cheating on tests to preserve their path in life.
Students cheating now a day are not all immoral people, but are capable of being so when their reputation is threatened. The self-preservation mode these cheaters adopt in order to stay ahead of their classmates mirrors that of a tyranny of consensus. Most people believe cheating is immoral, yet in a 2012 poll of students taken this September, almost every individual admitted to cheating at some point in their high school career. If people in modern society agree that cheating is wrong than why do statistics show students behaving in a way that’s inconsistent with their principles? Parents, peers, and colleges all place pressure on students to achieve success; but when they fall short the student’s morals may not seem as important as that fat A on their report card. Their motivation to go against their beliefs is not because they are immoral people. It does however mean they are hypocritical. “Good” or moral people can commit dishonest actions just as easily as immoral people. Hypocritical students who abandon these ideologies to get ahead mirror characters like Reverend Hale in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Hale let’s go of his ideology when he persuades Proctor to lie confessing to witchcraft, a confession Hale knows to be false. However, by preserving Proctor’s life through his confession, Hale believes his guilt will be lifted. Members of the Puritan community go speak the rhetoric of consensus because it’s easier than opposing act like the cheaters. They also know their actions are wrong but continue cheating because it’s easier than working hard. Both Hale and the cheaters are not depraved, but still act this way because it has a better chance of improving their status than the latter.
Immoral actions like cheating will cause repercussions for these students in the future. Cheating on tests is pressing issues in our society for modern students seem to focus on the letter grades rather than the learning. What students cheating their way through high school may not realize is that they are shortchanging themselves of knowledge and life lessons they will need in the future. Approaching school honestly will make students much smarter people and get into institutions they deserve. If cheating their way through high school is how modern students plan to get into college, it is going to be difficult once they leave school and enter the real world where cheating is not so easy anymore.
Word Count: 577
Works Consulted:
"A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools." ABC News. ABC News Network, 27 Apr. 2012.
Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Kennedy, Robert. "3 Top Reasons Why Students Cheat." About.com Private Schools.
About.com, 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Sainz, Adrian. "Cheating Scandal: Feds Say Teachers Hired Stand-in to Take Their
Certification Tests." U.S. News. NBC News, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.
Since hard work is not always giving students the results they want, they are now resorting to less moral avenues to achieve better grades. As high school students it is in our nature to want to succeed, but that desire can take over morals and cause us to commit acts we know are wrong. Before modern humans walked the earth, natural selection determined that the species with the most able characteristics would outlive those inferior in a process called survival of the fittest. Today, self-preservation continues, as recently increasing numbers of students will go to the extreme lengths of cheating to prove themselves superior to their classmates. Reports of overwhelming answer trends in standardized tests have swept major US cities like El Paso, New York and Atlanta. What drives the deviant behavior of these students is the pressure they feel to surpass their classmates and achieve the ultimate goal: getting into the best college. When students feel their poor grades will compromise their future, they may result to cheating on tests to preserve their path in life.
Students cheating now a day are not all immoral people, but are capable of being so when their reputation is threatened. The self-preservation mode these cheaters adopt in order to stay ahead of their classmates mirrors that of a tyranny of consensus. Most people believe cheating is immoral, yet in a 2012 poll of students taken this September, almost every individual admitted to cheating at some point in their high school career. If people in modern society agree that cheating is wrong than why do statistics show students behaving in a way that’s inconsistent with their principles? Parents, peers, and colleges all place pressure on students to achieve success; but when they fall short the student’s morals may not seem as important as that fat A on their report card. Their motivation to go against their beliefs is not because they are immoral people. It does however mean they are hypocritical. “Good” or moral people can commit dishonest actions just as easily as immoral people. Hypocritical students who abandon these ideologies to get ahead mirror characters like Reverend Hale in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Hale let’s go of his ideology when he persuades Proctor to lie confessing to witchcraft, a confession Hale knows to be false. However, by preserving Proctor’s life through his confession, Hale believes his guilt will be lifted. Members of the Puritan community go speak the rhetoric of consensus because it’s easier than opposing act like the cheaters. They also know their actions are wrong but continue cheating because it’s easier than working hard. Both Hale and the cheaters are not depraved, but still act this way because it has a better chance of improving their status than the latter.
Immoral actions like cheating will cause repercussions for these students in the future. Cheating on tests is pressing issues in our society for modern students seem to focus on the letter grades rather than the learning. What students cheating their way through high school may not realize is that they are shortchanging themselves of knowledge and life lessons they will need in the future. Approaching school honestly will make students much smarter people and get into institutions they deserve. If cheating their way through high school is how modern students plan to get into college, it is going to be difficult once they leave school and enter the real world where cheating is not so easy anymore.
Word Count: 577
Works Consulted:
"A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools." ABC News. ABC News Network, 27 Apr. 2012.
Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Kennedy, Robert. "3 Top Reasons Why Students Cheat." About.com Private Schools.
About.com, 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Sainz, Adrian. "Cheating Scandal: Feds Say Teachers Hired Stand-in to Take Their
Certification Tests." U.S. News. NBC News, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.