In a culture full of so much academic dishonesty and cheating, I constantly question whose fault it is? I notice the kid next to me in physics peering over at their partner’s paper, or the kid in math who will write a list of formulas under the sleeve of their jacket to reveal when taking the test. Are the teachers failing to cover enough information during lectures and teach sufficiently? Are students being lazy and not paying attention? Do the teachers really notice all the cheating and just choose to ignore it? Or is another outside factor causing so much corruption when taking tests and even doing the smaller easy assignments?
As a student who works really hard to understand as much as possible in school and do all the necessary work, I am infuriated when I see another student taking the “easy” way out and cheating their way through school. While I completely understand the personal desire for good grades and the pressure that may come from parents to obtain straight A’s, there is really never a point at which Westmont students lack the resources to get an A without cheating. At Westmont we are blessed with a 25 minute study period everyday where students can attend any of their teachers’ classrooms to ask questions and better understand concepts they are learning. Most students however, do not use study hall efficiently and end up attending the same class every day to use it as time to hang out with friends. In a digital age, we are also able to email our teachers any questions we may have about coursework or upcoming tests. Therefore, there is truly no excuse besides laziness to be cheating in school.
Furthermore, teachers have all made it very clear what is to happen when a student uses chat gpt or plagiarizes another student’s work in class, however students still often decide it’s worth the risk to get a good grade on one small assignment. Even when teachers assign short worksheets in class, or a few problems for homework, students will get one kid to do it and send around all of their answers to copy. You would think by now teachers would catch onto these patterns and give all plagiarized work a 0 in the gradebook. Sadly though, most teachers are knee deep in other grading that they score the simpler assignments based off of completion and don’t check the answers. In the end though, it is the smaller assignments which build up a greater understanding of overarching class concepts. So, if students are cheating their way through smaller assignments they will get nowhere when it really matters. The best way to encourage students to get better grades and study habits is to give students full credit for attempting a homework problem and showing proof that they put in effort.