Kiersten Clark

English 120-F

Dr. Morris

As a teenager, you are faced with multiple stress factors and continuous pressures in everyday life. Everyone’s trying to find their rightful place in their surroundings, and to be accepted by their peers without shamelessly falling to the ground, losing their shot at acceptance. Getting good grades is exceptionally high on the list of strains, and for numerous kids, a necessity. So, what is to happen if an exam is on the horizon and failing is far from acceptable? In many cases, the student will consider cheating as the only hope for success.

Cheating in school has hit an all-time high and the chances of it declining are slim to none. According to the information in Randy L. Genereux’s journal Research in Higher Education, 302 students out of 365 (83%) admit that they fall under the category of a “cheater”. All students are aware of the consequences they will face if their secret cheating scandals become revealed to authorities. Getting caught in the act is feared by all. The thought of having cheat-cheats abducted can chill them to the bone, yet as much as it terrifies them, they still seem to think it is worth the hazardous risk.  In majority, teachers confiscate the assignment, punish the scandalous rebel, and leave the “cheat” with nothing more than a permanent gap in the grade book. Some teachers may be convinced that tough-love is the only medicine that can remedy this contagious act. I feel somewhere along the line teachers have become lenient and have taken the role as a naïve observer, rather than a figure in authority.

Students are becoming wiser and more sophisticated with their methods of cheating. Surprising tactics make me question the abilities and intelligence of countless slackers. They’re smarter than they seem. An hour’s worth of memorizing and cramming dull information into the brain is not the defined definition Webster gives for a good time. Instant gratification is a high priority in all humans living today. Case in point; it’s dinner time and you want macaroni and cheese. Preparing a meal that will take 15 minutes infuriates you. Not only do you have to slave over a boiling pot of elbow noodles, you have to take the additional 30 seconds of your precious time to read the complex instructions of combining cooked pasta, cheddar cheese, milk, and butter! When fixing macaroni for dinner becomes such a tedious task, you no longer have a choice but to turn to Easy Mac. There’s no way in denying we need instant gratification. Schooling is no exception. Students will go to the ends of the world just so they have an excuse to refrain from their studies.

Cheating will come in many different forms. What you think are just colorful beads of a bracelet, innocently resting on the wrist of a cheerleader, may actually represent the correct sequence of As, Bs, and Cs on a multiple choice test. Or a Juicy Fruit wrapper left on the test taker’s desk may reveal the answers to a biology question. If there’s a way they can get a night off from brain cramps, or being completely unproductive, these procrastinators are determined to find it.

So, how exactly does this affect the cheater, as a person, in the long run? This is the question many avoid. They refuse to look into the future. They only choose to focus on the present, this is what will come back to haunt them. Once schooling is over and they have their beautiful, undeserving, diploma mounted on their office wall, they are worth nothing. They no longer have the answers placed before them or the luxuries of a cheat-sheet. What is going to happen at that moment? They are inexperienced and have never been left to fend for themselves. To be direct, they are going to receive nothing more than remorse, guilt, and persistent regret. No sympathetic classmate, no compassionate instructor, just an insignificant degree leading them nowhere but down a path of lies.

Cheating is a large predicament in today’s society, whether anyone is welling to acknowledge that as a fact or not. Who’s going to be the one to step up and demand an alteration? Maybe the modernized world should be shaken up a little and transformation in order? The extreme has not been pushed, but once the cheaters are released into the real world, are they going to be disappointed in the way things turn out? Sure, it gives them a night away from work, but it also takes away from their potential. Why not shoot for being the very best you can be?