Students lie, cheat, steal, but say they're good

[CptSternn]

http://tinyurl.com/6s7r5u

NEW YORK – 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 too apathetic about ethical standards.

Educators reacting to the findings questioned any suggestion that today's young people are less honest than previous generations, but several agreed that intensified pressures are prompting many students to cut corners.

"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."

The Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey in class; their anonymity was assured.

Michael Josephson, the institute's founder and president, said he was most dismayed by the findings about theft. The survey found that 35 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls — 30 percent overall — acknowledged stealing from a store within the past year. One-fifth said they stole something from a friend; 23 percent said they stole something from a parent or other relative.

"What is the social cost of that — not to mention the implication for the next generation of mortgage brokers?" Josephson remarked in an interview. "In a society drenched with cynicism, young people can look at it and say 'Why shouldn't we? Everyone else does it.'"

Other findings from the survey:

_Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse. Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and 38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent in a 2006 survey.

_Thirty-six percent said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent in 2004.

_Forty-two percent said they sometimes lie to save money — 49 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the girls.

Despite such responses, 93 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know."

Nijmie Dzurinko, executive director of the Philadelphia Student Union, said the findings were not at all reflective of the inner-city students she works with as an advocate for better curriculum and school funding.

"A lot of people like to blame society's problems on young people, without recognizing that young people aren't making the decisions about what's happening in society," said Dzurinko, 32. "They're very easy to scapegoat."

Peter Anderson, principal of Andover High School in Andover, Mass., said he and his colleagues had detected very little cheating on tests or Internet-based plagiarism. He has, however, noticed an uptick in students sharing homework in unauthorized ways.

"This generation is leading incredibly busy lives — involved in athletics, clubs, so many with part-time jobs, and — for seniors — an incredibly demanding and anxiety-producing college search," he offered as an explanation.

Riddle, who for four decades was a high school teacher and principal in northern Virginia, agreed that more pressure could lead to more cheating, yet spoke in defense of today's students.

"I would take these students over other generations," he said. "I found them to be more responsive, more rewarding to work with, more appreciative of support that adults give them.

"We have to create situations where it's easy for kids to do the right things," he added. "We need to create classrooms where learning takes on more importance than having the right answer."

On Long Island, an alliance of school superintendents and college presidents recently embarked on a campaign to draw attention to academic integrity problems and to crack down on plagiarism and cheating.

Roberta Gerold, superintendent of the Middle Country School District and a leader of the campaign, said parents and school officials need to be more diligent — for example, emphasizing to students the distinctions between original and borrowed work.

"You can reinforce the character trait of integrity," she said. "We overload kids these days, and they look for ways to survive. ... It's a flaw in our system that whatever we are doing as educators allows this to continue."

Josephson contended that most Americans are too blase about ethical shortcomings among young people and in society at large.

"Adults are not taking this very seriously," he said. "The schools are not doing even the most moderate thing. ... They don't want to know. There's a pervasive apathy."

Josephson also addressed the argument that today's youth are no less honest than their predecessors.

"In the end, the question is not whether things are worse, but whether they are bad enough to mobilize concern and concerted action," he said.

"What we need to learn from these survey results is that our moral infrastructure is unsound and in serious need of repair. This is not a time to lament and whine but to take thoughtful, positive actions."

[CptSternn]

I said this in dozens of threads here and elsewhere - kids will pick up what adults are doing and it will effect them.

So by watching the bailouts of companies who ran their business into the ground only to see the government save it will effect them.

Like Enron - when a handful of president bushs friends bilked people for billions - and took the life savings of all of its employees and the people involved walked away with hundreds of millions in personal profits, the youth saw that.

The war, when the people were lied to and the government intentionally misled the public to make personal financial gains, the youth saw that too.

The next generation is full of kids who watched the previous generation screw anyone and everyone to make a buck in the capitalism game.

[Drake Dun]

Ethics and good will are fragile. Inject just a little fear, distrust, etc. into the system, and people will revert to basic evolutionary instinct - look out for #1. When moral behavior is systematically punished and success is defined relative to those around you, as in a capitalist society, you can't blame people for feeling like they would be suckers if they clung to ideals while everyone else raced ahead.

[CptSternn]

Thats an excellent post and very well put.

[Despanan]

A couple of young kids shoplifted and cheated on a test. That shit happens, it's human nature.

This is an example of what irritates me about your posts Sterrn. You take any story you find and try to directly relate it back to America/and or the Bush administration. Some police officers accidentley raid the wrong apartment because of a faulty tip? It's not just an example of those officers being morons it's A SIGN OF THE DECAY OF THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM! OMG! A couple of kids cheat on a test? IT'S CAPITALISM'S FAULT!

Stuff like this makes you seem massively paranoid.

[tekajo]

Des, that's just Sternn, man. He's been making these types of posts on GNet since '03 when i joined and i can only assume since '99 when GNet first hit the web. Yeah he's been here almost ten years save for that one time he was banned.

Sometimes his points are good. Other times maybe not so much so. i simply view his threads/posts as how the rest of the world views the United States' policies.

Carry on.

[Tralis]

I'm suprised those numbers are so low, especially for cheating on a test. Its the sort of thing that everyone's done at least once, in my experience.

[Maggoty Anne]

Only 30 percent, including parents?

Bullshit.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by Despanan

A couple of young kids shoplifted and cheated on a test. That shit happens, it's human nature.

This is an example of what irritates me about your posts Sterrn. You take any story you find and try to directly relate it back to America/and or the Bush administration. Some police officers accidentley raid the wrong apartment because of a faulty tip? It's not just an example of those officers being morons it's A SIGN OF THE DECAY OF THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM! OMG! A couple of kids cheat on a test? IT'S CAPITALISM'S FAULT!

Stuff like this makes you seem massively paranoid.

So do you think that the next generation of children are in no way effected by the actions taken by the powers that be in the current administration? Do you not think childrens actions and morals are shaped by the environment in which they live?

[Saya]

Man, in French class no one really wrote their papers, we all tried to do our best, sure, but the night before it was due, damn straight it went through a free online translator, and then edited so it reflected French Canadian grammar instead of French French grammar.

And math homework we all copied from each other.

So see? Its a Canadian problem too

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

And I'm sure it's a European problem, too.

Yeah, in my math class we worked together on the really tough problems. It was great. We all got them done, and we did them right. I don't think we were supposed to work together, but we learned what we were supposed to anyway.

I'm sure that at least some of those shoplifting thefts were accidental.

I don't know about the Enron and financial things. It might subconsciously affect them, but screwing people out of money and getting rewarded for it is a little different than cheating to try not to fail. The money thing is just greed, the cheating thing is (or at least could very well be) trying to keep one's future afloat.

[Despanan]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

So do you think that the next generation of children are in no way effected by the actions taken by the powers that be in the current administration? Do you not think childrens actions and morals are shaped by the environment in which they live?

Of course I do, but I'm certain you vastly over-estimate the degree to which their actions are shaped by the current administration. To draw the kind of conclusion you have is massively intellectually irresponsible, and frankly sounds paranoid to me.

The behavior of politicians and corporations have a relatively negligable effect on children compared to that of their individual teachers, peers, and immediate family members.

Jimmy McNormalkid is not going to cheat on a test because "Bush cheated the American people" He's going to cheat because he didn't study and his mom will kill him if he gets lower than a "B".

[KontanKarite]

Exactly what percentage of high school and under students give a damn about politics and current events?

When I was in high school, what was on the news was very rarely if at all discussed amongst our peers. We were more interested in who was fucking who and who beat up who and whos party we were going to next.

The actions of the Bush administration forming the behavior of our children? Did you ever think that those youngsters are more than likely NOT paying a damn bit of attention to that kind of stuff?

[Solumina]

I graduated with a 3.4, took five AP classes, three extra years of math, was in three school clubs (officer of one for two years), founded a youth violence prevention organization that within two years had established an annual concert as well as an annual fashion show to promote awareness as well as raise funds (I was part of a teem of 7 so at least I wasn't on my own), an annual statewide conference (held by teen groups for similar causes), as well as peer education programs that visited the various area schools.

I wasn't an exceptional student, in fact I was below average. I know that my school was not the norm but it is not the only school like it. The students who went to schools like mine are generally speaking the type of student who would not have been likely to cheat in the past (after all intelligence was highly valued and people did look down on you for not being able to pass on your own) but now the pressure is so high that students feel as though perfect isn't good enough.

[MegearaErotica]

I study a lot for tests, so I never felt the need to cheat.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

Originally Posted by Solumina

but now the pressure is so high that students feel as though perfect isn't good enough.

I think this is a large part of the problem. Parents want to be proud of their kids (or maybe just not ashamed), and so they're putting huge amounts of pressure on their kids to be smart and perfect and all such stuff. It's like it's a big game of oneupmanship, and kids are the social accessories in question.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by LaBelleDameSansMerci

I think this is a large part of the problem. Parents want to be proud of their kids (or maybe just not ashamed), and so they're putting huge amounts of pressure on their kids to be smart and perfect and all such stuff. It's like it's a big game of oneupmanship, and kids are the social accessories in question.

But thats not new at all, I doubt that the reason for the increase of the rate. And I've heard a lot of people say that they are lowering the standards of their schools, not rising them.

[Solumina]

Some school districts are lowering their standards but many are also raising them, it is very dependent on the school system.

There has always been pressure to do well but I am not exaggerating when I say that students are no longer striving for excellence but are trying to surpass perfection. A 4.0 is considered to be a perfect GPA but the top 25% of my graduating class had above 4.0s

[tekajo]

Wait a second...Sternn has a point. Now i understand why all my friends were and still are whores. Our formative years were during the Clinton administration.

So many things make sense now.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Solumina

Some school districts are lowering their standards but many are also raising them, it is very dependent on the school system.

There has always been pressure to do well but I am not exaggerating when I say that students are no longer striving for excellence but are trying to surpass perfection. A 4.0 is considered to be a perfect GPA but the top 25% of my graduating class had above 4.0s

I did very well in school but I had a bad worth ethic, which I really think is what the problem is. In my experience, some people were really concerned with getting good grades beause they really thought getting good grades would give them some sort of status, and in my school I think they were the least likely to cheat, because that would rob them of that sense of perfection and goodness. A lot of the people I did know who cheated were plently smart, but like me were lazy XD It just wasn't a big deal to copy homework or take a glimpse at your neighbour's test, or write notes and hide them. Apathy would also explain why they don't have a problem with stealing or lying either.

I'd like to see a survey that asked about the degree of cheating (taking a peep or full blown copying?), and their reasoning for it.

[Drake Dun]

I never cheated in school (really), but I did flaunt a grevious lack of regard for the seriousness of scholastic endeavor. One of my most fondly remembered moments was when I wrote an essay on Uncle Tom's Cabin in an English Lit class at U.C. Berkeley entitled "Bean and Cheese Burrito, no Sauce, no Onions" - and got an A.

[gothicusmaximus]

Originally Posted by Solumina

There has always been pressure to do well but I am not exaggerating when I say that students are no longer striving for excellence but are trying to surpass perfection. A 4.0 is considered to be a perfect GPA but the top 25% of my graduating class had above 4.0s

Your school might have had a slightly different grading system. By the conventional standard, to have an unweighted average above a 4.0 is impossible, but several institutions deviate from it now.

[Solumina]

Students receive a .3 boost to their GPA in AP courses, which is standard in school systems offering AP courses.

[Solumina]

To add to my previous post (since I missed the edit time): I have heard a lot of people say that this is considered a weighted GPA and that it is not what colleges will look at but all of the colleges that I applied to accepted this boost (I know because I called and ask their admissions offices to make sure that I was providing an accurate GPA). Other school systems use a 5 point GPA scale but colleges will convert that over to a 4 point scale when processing applications.

[CptSternn]

Moral decay starts at the top. A nations leaders start the decline, which then brings with it the workers and their families. Everyone is effected when there is corruption at the top.

To think children are not effected because they don't follow the news is very short sighted. Kids are clued in much more than many people give them credit for. They see the big issues, and see their outcomes.

Families are directly effected as well, which also means children in those families are effected.

How many families have lost loved ones in the current war(s)? How many people have family members who have lost their jobs or are going to lose their jobs? Do you not think the children in those families know a bit more than ye would give them credit for?

If you fail to realise what effect your actions today have on the youth of tomorrow, then you have already doomed the next generation to failure.