Cheating/Academic Integrity
We are all forced to make ethical decisions every day.
Ideally, we should weigh out our options, think about the pros and cons, and ultimately make a morally right choice. Through experiences, we can confidently say that wrong judgment only leads to serious consequences. However, at desperate times, we tend not to think about the consequences but only about getting ahead in any possible way—even if it means having to cheat. Society emphasizes the mutual trust we should have between others and ourselves by being honest. High school teachers, more specifically, continuously stress the importance of academic integrity and using your own thoughts. So what happens if you are caught taking credit for work that is not your own? What happens if you are seen looking off of another kid’s test? High school teaches us the answer to these questions by not tolerating any form of cheating.
Research shows that over the past few years, more and more high school students are cheating. A simple search on Google gives an ample amount of statistics about the problems of cheating within the classroom. Millions of websites, like www.topics-mag.com/edition13/cheating-page.htm , are dedicated to academic dishonesty. Unfortunately, many people feel it is necessary to cheat in order to climb up the ladder of life and become one step closer to success. But who wants to be around cheaters? I am sure none of us would want to go to a doctor who cheated his way through school rather than actually taking the time out to learn the material. Cheating is, and always will be, going on all around us, but it is ultimately up to our high schools to teach us what is morally right while we are still young.
I cannot say that cheating was equivalent to committing a crime in my high school, but teachers nonetheless took the issue rather seriously. Plagiarism was the main form of cheating that was not tolerated at all. “Everything has to be cited,” I remember my 9th grade English teacher saying, “or else you’ll get a 0 on the term paper.” Little did I know that she was actually being serious—until I got my paper back and got an F on it. After setting up countless interviews between the teacher and my parents in attempt to bump up my grade, I finally realized the importance of citing my work. The National Honor Society was an organization that was based on four ideals-- academic integrity being one of them. As president of the NHS, I saw countless students getting kicked out of the club for plagiarism, having answers out during a test, etc. High school prepared us for college, where cheating is not the littlest bit tolerated. In other words, high school was more of a “three strikes you’re out” type of setting—which greatly prepares students for college, where no strikes are given. High school thus teaches us that cheating is not only wrong, but that it will not get you anywhere in life because ultimately you are cheating yourself.
Unfortunately, high school students do not realize the magnitude of their cheating actions until they finally get caught. On a regular basis, high school students are copying information from websites and pasting it somewhere in their research papers. Faculty think students might even cheat on the SATs, which is why we are not allowed water bottles in the room—since students may dedicate some time towards writing 482034824289 vocabulary words and the definitions on the label. I feel that a majority of the time, students are either too lazy or they waited till the last minute to complete assignments. Rushed for time, they resort to other people’s work and think it is okay to use it. Little do they know that we call that PLAGIARIZING. Yes, high school teaches us a lot of academic integrity, but it is not only till you get caught and punished for your actions that you finally begin to understand the importance of it.
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