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Serving Pikes Peak Community College students |
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Angela Sandoval Vigil
In a small room, three college students sit chatting and enjoying each other’s company. “What do you call a Mexican with a rubber toe?” Jimmy Right, a 21-year-old Mexican- American student at UCCS, asks the two females sitting in the room with him. “Roberto.” They all let out a good laugh.
On the left side of Jimmy sits a small, very petite girl. She is 19-years-old Spanish-American with a size 4 shoes and height barely hitting 4ft 11in. “If only I was an inch shorter, I could get money from the government, really I could,” says Lisa Smith a student at CSU Pueblo.
Sitting across from Lisa, Mary Shmoe, also 19 and also a student at UCCS, gives off a small laugh and states that she is hungry and suggests that they grab something to eat afterwards. Mary is about 5ft 5in with gorgeous features and of Asian descent, “I bet you would never know that I can eat like a grown man,” she says looking at Jimmy.
All three of these students are very different, in race, personality, age, and majors. Yet the one thing that ties these three together is the simple fact that they all, at one time or another, have cheated in academics.
“I’m not going to lie, yeah I have cheated. I have a really hard time taking tests. I know that isn’t a good reason to cheat, but sometimes that’s the only time I can get through the test,” Lisa says readjusting her seat to face her newfound friends.
Mary nods her head in agreement, “Well, sometimes you need just a little look to refresh the memory. I mean if someone is giving you the chance to see some of their answers, then what the hell!”
“I don’t know, don’t get me wrong, I was raised to do right, but I don’t feel bad about cheating. I know this sounds corny, but everyone is doing it,” Jimmy chuckles.
“I’ve done it, my parents have, I bet even some of my teachers and professors have.”
“Yeah, and then you have the stereotypes.” Mary says, “Everyone thinks because I am Asian that school comes easy to me and that I wouldn’t cheat, but it doesn’t and, yeah, I’m Asian and I have cheated.”
Cheating is common colleges across the country. A study done by The Center for Academic Integrity found that almost eight out of 10 college students admit to cheating at least once. As far as getting caught, a poll conducted by US News and World Report found that nine out of 10 students believe that cheaters are either never caught or have never been appropriately disciplined.
Not only do students cheat off of each other, recently a report in CNNSB printed that 200 teachers in California were caught cheating.
These teachers would help their students perform better on new standardized tests. The teachers have been erasing incorrect exam answers by students, marking the correct answer and upgrading the individual test results. The main reason for cheating on these tests is to assure their schools get needed funds, which depend on test scores. The higher the overall grade that each school receives on each standardized test, the government will pay the school money for books and new supplies.
Fortunately there have not been any reported incidents of teacher “help” on the Colorado Student Assessment Program or also known as CSAP.
Why cheat? The question was posed to the same three college students.
Breaking the silence, Mary says, “Pressure. Pressure to get good grades, pressure to make it, pressure to be accepted by teachers, parents and peers.”
“I agree," says Lisa, "I don’t cheat for the hell of it, like I said before, there isn’t any good reason to cheat, but sometime it can be the only way to get a good grade.” One thing that the human race has in common, regardless of race, gender, or age, every person that lives on this earth is not perfect. In everyday life people make mistakes, some meaningless like forgetting to feed the cat and some more serious, such as mistakes that can ruin a person’s life. In our society, the pressure is on to succeed and be accepted.
In many cases, a person will do anything to be accepted, even if that means stealing, lying, or, in this case cheating. Students as young as grade school are now surpassing the expectations of the teachers, parents, and peers, working hard to make the grade. For those who are not excelling, however, there are other ways to be a part of that light. Cheating has been known as a downfall, and those that are caught would be punished for their dishonesty. Yet knowing the consequences, students continue cheat.
While cheating is dishonest and frowned upon, it has also become the norm in today’s society. Children as young as pre-school know that cheating is wrong, yet there is still pressure to cheat. With the success of so many students today, it brings the question to mind of how many of those successful student have made their future by the good old fashion way of hard work. US News and World Report also found that, eight out of 10 of the country's best students cheated to get to the top of their class, more than half the students surveyed said that they don't think cheating is a big deal, and more than nine out of 10 cheaters say they were not caught.
“I mean, who stays awake at night worrying about the answer that they “borrowed” from a friend’s paper?” Jimmy says, “I don’t think that people cheat to try and be bad, I don’t think that most people even care.”
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