When Cheating Means Getting Ahead at School and Work

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A reader pointed us to the recent article in the L.A. Times that looks at why kids cheat.

Cheating is nothing new, the article points out, but an arsenal of high-tech tools and the Internet has made it easier. For example, YouTube videos offer strategies such as designing a T-shirt with a cheat sheet printed on the front that looks like a logo, or how to remove a wrapper from a drink bottle and create a duplicate carrying test answers.

Motivating students to cheat, educators said, are factors such as the pursuit of admission to the ‘best’ colleges and the fear that not cheating will put them at a disadvantage. “And add to that the stories in the news — dishonest athletes, politicians and even parents ready to behave unethically, for example, to obtain Hannah Montana tickets,” it says.

The number of self-admitted cheaters has steadily risen over the years, the piece says. It peaked during a survey in 2004 at 72%, before falling to 61% in 2006, with students attending parochial and private schools, as well as varsity athletes, cheating at a slightly higher rate, according to the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics, a nonprofit consulting and training firm. There is anecdotal evidence that top-achieving students also cheat at higher rates, the institute says.

The article suggests that schools may be part of the problem. There is an increasing body of opinion among educators that cheating may be an expression of the way schools approach teaching and learning.” And as teachers face more high-stakes standardized testing, the worse it will become, said Gary J. Niels, who has studied cheating behavior and wrote a 2003 paper on honor codes.

Readers, have you broached the issue of cheating — either at school in the business world — with your kids? If your kids see cheaters getting ahead in school, how do you counter such messages? Do you see parents anxious for their kids’ success who implicitly condone getting ahead by any means — and look the other way when it comes to cheating?