A tribute.. to INTEGRITY

sallyawp
Wed, 17 May 2006 09:27:20 +0000

Kudos for a terrific post!

Back in high school, when I was surrounded by students who would cheat on exams, copy homework assignments and generally let others do their work while taking credit, I used to tell myself that what goes around, comes around. I waited impatiently for the day when it would all catch up with the cheaters.

Years later, after much disappointment, I can only hope that something inside all of these folks is just eating away at them, because unfortunately, not one of them has every suffered any repercussions for their actions. One particular student from high school comes to mind. He was a really bright student. For whatever reason, though, he decided to cheat on honors classes exams with regularity, to copy homework from whatever student would let him and to sponge off of other hardworking students, like me (we were once working together on a significant feature-length article for the school newspaper, which he managed to get a byline on, despite the fact that he did absolutely no work – the teacher acquiesced despite my protests). He want to an Ivy league school, and is now a very successful investment banker, living large in NYC. I’m not surprised, I guess, because he is a very bright guy, but where is the justice? He is probably just as shady today as he was back in high school.

I also know of several instances where students in college and law school were caught red-handed and brought up on charges of plagarism. In every case, the students were bright and had good grades, and in every case, they escaped expulsion for one wishy-washy reason after another (though at least a few have notations that were placed on their transcripts). I think that schools are loathe to expel an otherwise bright student with good grades because the schools “don’t want to ruin someone’s life”. I have also seen these very students go on to tremendous success getting into graduate schools and in their careers.

It’s frustrating. Until society takes the punishment of integrity violations in school seriously, the problems will continue. You only have to look as far as Enron, Tyco and WorldCom to see where these types of attitudes lead.