From an AP article courtesy of the Washington Post:
In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are apathetic about ethical standards. …”The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically,” said Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “They have opportunities their predecessors didn’t have [to cheat]. The temptation is greater.”
Competition, temptation, and technology are excuses, not reasons why kids cheat. You know why kids cheat? Kids are rotten little creatures that lack awareness of their penchant for evil. More than that, schools fail to enforce rules about cheating, particularly plagiarism, and parents fail to respect those rules, as well.
Of course, leave it to a public school teacher/principal to observe, “We need to create classrooms where learning takes on more importance than having the right answer.” Is it any wonder kids lack ethical standards when teachers and principals insist that the “right answer” should not matter?
