Wednesday, December 10, 2008
US high school students are cheating more than ever, survey says...
A new survey of 30,000 high school students across the country showed some alarming results. According to the survey, 64 percent of high school students surveyed by the Center for Youth Ethics at the Josephson Institute in Los Angeles said they had cheated on a test at least once in the past year, up from 60 percent in 2004. Thirty-six percent said had used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent two years ago. And 82 percent said they had copied another student's work at least once in the past year. But my favorite part is this: 93 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character. This is troubling, no?
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6 comments:
Troubling yes. Surprising? No. Two trains of thought:
1) Kids in grade school are taught repeatedly to work in groups to solve problems and to share work. In fact, sharing work, especially homework, is encouraged and expected throughout the Ridgewood public school system. Since many teachers do not use tests any longer to evaluate comprehension, the "work sharing" is the chosen way to go. The class unit moves forward and nobody gets left behind. So, is it ant wonder that when students get to high school and/or college they expect to "share" work? What else should we expect? There's never been personal ownership, so why not rely on others to get the work done. Sharing work these days is what used to be called cheating.
2) Americans at the highest levels of our government cheat. Nixon broke the law. He cheated the Democrats out of an election. Clinton broke the law. He cheated on his wife and then lied about it in court. Hillary broke the law and cheated by grabbing land and not paying full retail for it. And she probably had Vince Foster killed. And now we have Messiah-elect Obabma all icked up by the sleazy world of Chicago politics, where people cheat all the time and pay government officials to cheat for them.
I'm not suprised, but I am scared about what we adults have created for our children.
First of all, you crack me up the way you skipped over George W. Bush and the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie! A little selective in our condemnation, aren't we?
As for your "group work = cheating" hypothesis, I don't buy it. They are two different things. Kids need to learn to solve problems and work together. Much of the advancement of knowledge has taken place through what you might call group work. Especially in mathematics (gasp!). Working through, and especially talking through, solutions, bouncing ideas off each other, and explaining your reasoning, has an important place in learning. A good teacher can tell when a student is working as part of the group and when he/she is trying to hide in the background. And cheating, well, that's still wrong and I agree that the prevalence of cheating in society makes it harder (not impossible) to raise honest kids.
Not that it matters to you, but GW came to the same conclusion about WMDs as each of his senior policy advisors, generals and CIA chiefs did--so did Bill Clinton, for that matter. The only person who claimed to be duped was General Powell who apparently has decided that the only good opinion is one that can benefit his political career. I have no problem citing Bush for anything, but let's be fair, huh?
Oh, and as a follow up to your comments about group work. I agree that some group is good, but all group work makes Jack a dull cheater.
Oh, I think I'm being fair. When Bill Clinton lied, nobody died. Clinton lied about hooking up. The actual, concrete consequences of that lie affected the lives of a relatively small circle of people. Bush's lie resulted in thousands of lives being lost and billions of dollars being spent, with very little to show for it. I just thought you should include the massive, world-changing lie along with the others.
Laurie, you're so cool using the term "hooking up." So, I dunno, liberal. Wow. What about your selective amnesia about the Clinton Administration's reign of idiocy? Somalia, Bosnia, Waco, and on and on. Lives and dollars wasted there too, but hey, he gets a pass and Bush doesn't. Anyway, we were talking about cheating. Bill cheated. Bush didn't.
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