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Why
teens cheat
Teens across the
country—and some right here at home—readily admit they
cheat on their homework.
The 2004 Report Card on
the Ethics of American Youth, a
biannual national survey of students in grades 9 through
12, reports that more than 62 percent of teens say they
cheated on exams within the year prior to the survey.
Eighty-three percent had copied another's homework and
35 percent passed off information found on the Internet
as their own at least once.
Teens justify cheating in many ways. Some of their
top explanations include:
Pressure to perform.
As a college education becomes more and more
important for future success, strong and struggling
students alike are getting the message from lots of
sources-family, teachers, college admissions counselors
- that grades do count.
"The pressure to do
well is up. The demand to do good is down, way down,
particularly if it's the kind of do-gooding that doesn't
show up on a college application," said Harvard
University professor Dr. Dan Kindlon in a recent article
in The New York Times. Kindlon is also the author of
Too Much of a Good Thing: Raising Children of Character
in an Indulgent Age.
Lack of motivation.
Teens can fail to see the connection between what they
are learning now and what they'll be doing five years
from now. When the learning doesn't seem relevant, is
repetitive-think memorization of the periodic table of
the elements-or just plain "boring," teens can feel
justified in getting through it in the quickest way
possible. This can mean sharing work with friends and
finding ways to cheat during exams.
"Everybody else is
doing it." During the teen years, peer pressure can be
intense. Wanting to measure up and fit in can often sway
even the most ethical kids to do things they know are
wrong. And honest students who don't cheat might fear
getting lower grades than their peers who do.
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Cheating goes high-tech
Crib notes written on hands and cheat sheets sticking
from the top of binders are so "old school" compared to
the technology many teens now use to cheat at school.
The Internet has made researching topics much easier
for students, and there are many legitimate online study
aids such as SparkNotes and CliffNotes that can give
students a leg up academically.
However, the Internet has also made it faster and
simpler for students to plagiarize (e.g., copy what they
find when researching online into a research paper, and
then pass it off as their own.) Computer-based instant
messaging (IM) and cell phone's text messaging also make
it possible for students to privately "collaborate" with
friends on school work—even tests—that they should be
completing on their own.
Helping stem the cheating trend: What families can do
Despite teens'
admissions about cheating, the majority of the 24,763
students surveyed for the recent Report Card on the
Ethics of American Youth, gave themselves high marks for
character—74 percent said their own ethics were better
than those of their peers. And 98 percent said that
honesty, ethics and good character are very important
personal traits.
Though this
inconsistency might seem puzzling, researchers say that
many kids view cheating as a necessary evil. After all,
many of the successful-and high-paid-giants of sports,
business, politics and entertainment have gotten where
they are by bending the rules (a.k.a. cheating). And
often, kids convince themselves that if they aren't
caught cheating, then it isn't wrong.
So
what can you as a parent do to discourage your teen from
cheating? Here are some ideas:
Talk with your teens about
cheating in a non-confrontational way (e.g., starting
the conversation with a line like "Hey, I just read some
overwhelming statistics about teens and cheating" vs.
"Have you ever cheated with your schoolwork?") Popular
movies and news reports that feature those who cheat can
help spark a conversation. Let teens know you understand
there can be a lot of pressure to perform well at
school, and that the temptation to get through by
cheating might be powerful. But also let them know that
you believe cheating is wrong, that it short-changes
them academically and is not the way you want them to
achieve school success.
Frequently check the
Internet bookmarks/search history on your family
computer. There are hundreds of Web sites that offer
access to term papers and other research papers,
including Cheater.com, CheatHouse.com and Ezwrite.com
among others. If you find that someone in your family
has been visiting these types of sites, determine who it
was and then ask why. This lets kids know that you are
keeping track and that you care about what they see and
do online. For more information on plagiarism and the
Internet, link to
http://www.plagiarized.com/
Familiarize yourself
with the school district's policy on cheating and the
laws regarding plagiarizing and copyright infringement.
Sometimes the threat of being found out, having to pay
fines and possibly even serve jail time are enough to
keep teens on the straight and narrow.
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