The “American Dream” is one of individual achievement, personal fulfillment and monetary success. Previous generations have gleamed with pride over their ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and put in good, old-fashioned hard work to reach their goals. Often hard work and a little luck is what it takes to achieve major success, but what if it were easier than that to get results? Say that you could cheat a little now, never get caught and end up rich later, hopefully redeeming yourself in the end. You aren’t a bad person, just taking a shortcut. Is it fair to others, or yourself, to cut corners to reach your ultimate goals? Do the ends justify the means?
Recently at Harvard University, arguably the most prestigious school in the nation, an unprecedented cheating scandal came to light. In the “Introduction to Congress” course with 279 students, 125 of them are being accused of plagiarizing and collaborating on the final exam, with the possible consequence of a year-long suspension or losing their awarded degrees. The final was a take-home exam where they were allowed to use their notes and the Internet, but the instruction sheet read, “students may not discuss the exam with others”.
An interesting part of this scandal is the fact that many of the accused admit to the actions they are under fire for, but most deny that they have done anything wrong or deserve punishment.
According to the New York Times the accused use reasoning like, “Everyone shared notes, of course there would be many similar answers,” to rationalize their behavior.
Many students argue that the classes in previous semesters have behaved the same way and collaboration was ignored or considered acceptable. More debate arrose about the contradiction in allowing students to consult the Internet but not each other. And it is almost certainly universal that the people involved in the scandal don’t think their actions deserve severe punishment as the revocation of their degrees, which could result in lost jobs and damaged career paths. But are these students worthy of the same accolades as a student who followed the rules and did all the work for the exam themselves? And if a student takes a short cut to achieve success here, is it fair to assume they do so in other areas?
The attitudes Harvard students hold about cheating have many foundations. The pressure to achieve at any cost and a strong sense of competition are the biggest factors. Harvard professor Howard Gardner has interviewed 100 students about life and work. While everyone says they want to be generally good people, success serves a higher priority and they feel they must manipulate to reach it.
“They feared that their peers were cutting corners and that if they themselves behaved ethically, they would be bested,” said Gardner in an article from the Washington Post.
These young adults see their “shortcuts” as necessary to make it financially. It seems many students don’t attend Harvard for their integrity, but they go for the accomplishments it will bring them afterward.
To bring this closer to home, we can examine our attitudes here at KSU. Often we are tempted to take the easy way out in our classes and work, but cheating can deprive the learning experience that can be received. In the words of Gardner, these actions ultimately amount to “hollowness at the core.” The world might not always be fair and respectful, but if you try your best to act ethically and earn your accomplishments with merit, then it can become a little more so and you’ll feel better about it in the end.
