This story has been contributed by a student from Granger Middle School.
In some cases, especially recently, “asking for help” has departed from its original definition and instead become something that works to the detriment of whole learning communities, not just a few students.
Talk of large-scale cheating scandals has become increasingly common, even among those people would not expect. My sister often gives my parents and me reports of recent cheating scandals involving students we know in excruciating detail. On top of that, I encounter people who engage in this sort of behavior at school every day.
The main reason many people choose to cheat or present work that is not their own is to reduce their workload. However, if the student is discovered to have been practicing such behavior, it actually increases the amount of work they will have to do to fix their grade. Students will also likely see repercussions like an irreparable blow to their GPA or a note on their record- all of which are available for high school teachers to see.
Seventh-grade teacher Carol Near reports her frustrations on cheating. She sees examples of cheating every day, and with the recent integration of Chromebooks into our school materials, she finds that illicit behaviors have become a lot more widespread. She and her colleagues openly do not condone such behavior in their students.
“You’re cheating yourself, really,” Near said. “Some kinds of cheating are easier to find with Chromebooks, but some are just more difficult,” she adds.
Another example of an instance where one might resort to cheap misconduct can be found in the home. Some students may have immense pressure from their parents or guardians to excel academically and participate in as many extracurriculars as possible. Maintaining a facade of perfection will lead students to experience debilitating stress and a predisposition to be overly detail-oriented when completing work.
All this strain eventually leads to the student succumbing to the desire to just knock a few items off of their to-do list. Unfortunately for them, when students face environments where they are unable to continue cheating, such as a standardized test, they fail to produce the same quality of work that dishonest tendencies would have done for them.
It’s very easy to fall into the habit of having other people do your work for you. People may argue that asking AI or copying your friend’s answers on one assignment can’t possibly lead to this; however, Psychology Today disagrees.
“Habits are built to make things happen without us having to think much about them,” Psychology Today reports.
It is almost a thoughtless process. Once there’s always someone or something there to prevent people from working hard, students get lulled into a sense of complacency. Thus, we begin to think it’s acceptable to take this shortcut once, and once again, and before we know it, we are dependent on AI or friends for answers.
If we all continue to masquerade the intelligence of others as that of our own, it will only get harder for us. Our brains are very powerful computers, and we need to nourish them and build good habits going forward.
Academic honesty is not a suggestion, but an expectation set to better our lives as students and to help us succeed as future professionals.
