TAKE TOUGH STAND AGAINST CHEATING
College bribery scandal that led to arrests of celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman hurts privileged and underprivileged students.
It is no surprise that 33 affluent parents, nine college coaches and a dozen others are involved in a cheating scheme to get affluent students into prestigious colleges and universities.
Many of us assumed such shenanigans were going on behind the scenes in the competitive whirlwind of admissions to top-ranked colleges and universities.
The story made headlines across the country because the perpetrators were caught, indicted and hauled to court. Some are even famous. The spotlight has focused on these publicly humiliated parents and officials. But let’s be clear: Their shameful activity is commonplace for wealthy people who place more value on status than they do on positive life lessons for their offspring.
Privileged and underprivileged hurt by rich parents’ selfishness
Many people who cheat, whether in small everyday ways or big episodes such as this one, view common unethical acts as harmless. After all, fudging the numbers on your income tax return doesn’t really hurt anyone, does it? Cheating on a school test or lying on your resume is not harming another person, is it?
The parents who paid money to have their teens’ SAT and ACT scores raised or for impostors to actually take the test didn’t feel or care that they were hurting others. They didn’t care that falsifying their teen’s ethnicity for an affirmative action advantage would be harmful to a true minority student.
In their minds they simply were helping their offspring get yet another advantage in life. From their narrow, selfish perspectives, it was all about helping their own and feeding their status-craving egos.
But when people cheat to get into an elite school, it comes at the cost of another student being harmed.
For every unqualified applicant who gets accepted to a top-ranked school, another student is turned down, regardless of his or her impeccable scores, sterling academic background and impressive extracurricular activities. That teen is hurt at the cost of an affluent student’s cheating.
At the same time, the underachieving student with the deceitful parents is hurt as well. He or she has learned, or perhaps only reminded, that hard work and diligence are not necessary for success and a meaningful life. Scheming, cheating and money can get you ahead despite lack of personal accomplishments. It is a lesson
that may determine his take on life and relationships.
Cheating is so much more common than we think
The rich have always had a cozy relationship with elite schools and colleges. Money generates access, and such schools maintain special admissions lists for offspring of big donors and others with whom the school has a special relationship.
But seldom has it been blasted in the media that parents paid $500,000 in bribes to get two daughters into a school. That is what indicted actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying. Other parents indicted include real estate and securities investors, the chairman of a global law firm, heads of public and private companies and a fashion designer. Also implicated in the scheme (for accepting bribes) are “admissions consultants,” ACT and SAT exam administrators, coaches, an exam proctor and a college administrator.
Over the years we’ve heard and read about numerous academic schemes. There are high school principals who have raised standardized test scores to make their schools appear to be performing better than they actually are.
There are numerous cases of students plagiarizing high school and college papers. In fact, a Kansas teacher resigned after backlash from parents when she failed 28 students (20 percent of class) for plagiarizing their semester projects.
The parents complained to the school board, which asked the teacher to “go easy” on the students despite the fact they were warned of the consequences of copying material from the internet. The teacher resigned in protest.
A physician recalls that while in college he casually asked his classmates how unusual it was that the class averaged 92 percent on a particular test. He was told that most of the students had copies of the test from previous semesters. The physician, who is Africanamerican, said he was shocked, for he had aced the test by studying, not by cheating.
In addition to cheating in academia, Americans find many ways to cheat. People of all incomes cheat on income tax filings, though it seems to be more advantageous for the rich.
In an insider trading scandal, Martha Stewart sold stock the day before the price plunged. She spent five months in prison, in addition to paying fines that surpassed her gain from the stock sale. Respected authors have been accused of plagiarizing, journalists have been caught embellishing their stories, and athletes have taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Cheating has many harmful consequences
Politicians cheat to win office, and cheating is among the many issues Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating. Political parties continue to gerrymander or reshape districts to their advantage. Yes, it is cheating when a president mandates security clearance for family members who don’t qualify. And in addition to being racist, it is outright cheating when politicians suppress voting rights of minorities.
We must recognize the harm that is done to others when we cheat. Cheating is not a victim-less act. It is self-serving, of course, but also harmful to others.
The negative side of cheating may be difficult for some young people to understand on their own, especially if their parents or teachers have not discussed the subject and emphasized that cheating is not acceptable. Unfortunately, too many parents set bad examples and have taught their offspring that cheating is OK.
David Callahan, author of “The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead,” said cheating has a corrosive effect on society, and that cheating in one part of your life may lead to cheating in other parts as well. People who cut corners early in life, such as cheating in school, may take that habit to the workplace. He said that cheating forces people to lie to themselves as they try to rationalize why they cheated.
There are other negative consequences of cheating as well:
❚ Continuously plagiarizing content from the internet and other sources leads to loss of critical thinking.
❚ Cheating lowers confidence and self-esteem; if caught, it also results in the loss of trust and respect from others.
❚ Cheating, when discovered, can result in failing a class and possibly being kicked out of school.
❚ If you are a chronic cheater, you likely will cheat on your job. That could have severe consequences.
❚ Cheating leads to a life of dishonesty.
Cheating comes at a cost. Your peace of mind is just one price you pay. Do the right thing and take a stand against cheating despite what others are doing around you. With certainty, you will feel better about yourself.
Lynn Norment is a Memphis journalist who was an editor and senior writer for Ebony magazine. She can be reached at normentmedia@gmail.com.