Striving for perfection is an endeavor that many students embark on in the modern academic culture. For some, they may put in the hours and work hard toward crafting the greatest transcript they can. For others, they may take an alternate method and instead cheat their way to the top of the class. The value of cheating has always evaded me. The effort required to commit such an offense against my classmates, my teachers, and the broader educational environment is simply incomparable to the more honorable route of studying and preparing for upcoming tests.
From the perspective of a teacher who is hard on cheating, the action is most similar to that of students robbing themselves of the opportunity to learn and grow. To AP Language and Composition teacher Laurie Fay, the importance of academic integrity spans far beyond what is inside our walls. Instead, it defines the effort that students are willing to put into all facets of their lives and how they will approach obstacles in their lives as they age. A good grade is only temporary, while the definition of one’s character spills over into the rest of their lives.
“In life, you are not always going to be able to take an easy way out to handle a difficult situation. Here at school, where you have certain support to help you along the way, is where you should be building that lifelong lesson of not cheating your way, not taking the easy way out,” Fay said. “Instead, actually learning how to process, how to learn, how to get through things that are difficult is what should be prioritized.”
Learning lessons is the entire purpose of school, whether that be through taking classes and absorbing new knowledge or learning how to properly succeed in a way that applies to you. Both are made entirely irrelevant due to cheating, as students aren’t learning the material, nor are they making any meaningful revelations regarding their ability to overcome difficulties. It’s especially abhorrent in the modern era, where answers are constantly just a click away, making it infinitely easier to cheat. Whether it’s from AI, Google, or a text message sent to a friend asking for answers, phones and technology have deinstitutionalized the old methods of prevention against cheating. Educational reform has occurred this year in order to aid the cause. The statewide phone ban effectively ended the usage entirely during school hours. However, this is not applicable to the possibilities present at home, given that there is no supervision governing homework and how it is completed.
For a straight-A student, like junior Hannah Figura, cheating is a nuisance and belittles the hard work that she puts in because the effort required to maintain such perfection is much greater than that of academic dishonesty. Furthermore, the effort that she puts in isn’t only minimized, but rather, the work feels as if it were meaningless since people can skate by without any of the grit.
“[Cheating] takes away from academics because you’re no longer being an academic,” said Figura. “Cheating creates even more cheating, like a domino effect.”
Being in the classrooms justifies Figura’s claim, as I have witnessed numerous times where one student will do an assignment and pass it around. For the student that does the assignment, I can only wonder why they feel the need to compromise their own integrity. Be that it is peer pressure or some other external factor, we as students need to stand up for ourselves. In doing so, less academically inclined students may follow suit and learn how to succeed without leaning on one another.
Students aren’t the only ones who feel the negative impacts of cheating, as teachers who take the time to create engaging lesson plans and tests have their work demeaned as a result. Algebra II and AP Calculus AB teacher Dena Dauve is one such teacher who spends, at times, years to develop test questions that work for her students and have a fair, yet challenging, testing experience. She looks at cheating rather sadly, feeling pity for those who feel as though they must resort to sacrificing their integrity for a grade. Instead of this destination that many arrive at, she wishes that students would communicate their needs to their teacher and be honest, providing that many teachers would be accommodating to the students’ needs.
Honesty and character are far more important than a letter grade, as these traits define who you turn out to be in any future career path. Through my 4 years of high school, I’ve tried at every opportunity to invest myself in the culture of learning, taking advantage of as many AP courses as I could handle. In every one of them, there has been at least one instance of cheating, which created a distrustful and noncohesive environment for both students and staff. I feel similarly to Dauve in this case, as I wish my peers would act with greater discipline during these formative years, which provide complimentary educational opportunities.
“This is the only time of your life that you get free education, and we have so many amazing teachers and opportunities at this school that it’s unfortunate to throw that away,” said Dauve. “You never know when you’re gonna tap into what your potential is or tap into what your interests are going to be.”
For the future of the academic environment, as it pertains to high school, I believe that cheating should call for more severe punishments, as there are universities that outright expel students for such dishonesty and jobs that will fire employees who plagiarize their work. Fay calls for students to take all aspects of learning seriously. Of course, I don’t mean to expel a student who simply cheated on a 10-point homework assignment; rather, they deserve a 0, and they learn to do the work themselves and move on. Students who cheat on more involved works and long-term projects do deserve more severe punishment, however, as they are taking more serious assignments for granted. Learning, at every level, should be more prioritized than attaining high grades; it doesn’t matter how good your transcript looks if you have nothing else to show for it.
