Cheating Pep Rally in Phoenix

January 27, 2004

"Gimme an A! Gimme an A! I said gimme an A!" Why? Not because I earned the A, but because I'm skilled at cheating! "Hooray!"

While no such words were ever uttered at a pep rally (we hope), the story of an auditorium full of juniors and seniors at a Phoenix, Arizona high school finds us in high dudgeon. Number 2 Pencil has a report of Marianne Jennings, who was asked to give a talk to the high school on the malignance of cheating.

There was less noise and more order in "Braveheart" battles...I explained that 75% of high school students cheat. Most of the student body found that stat funny, with some in the crowd cheering "Yes!"... There was growing insurrection as I outlined the consequences of cheating. They booed, and then they laughed hysterically.

There are two separate issues here. First, why are upperclassmen permitted to behave like zoo animals for a guest speaker? Secondly, why do students have such apathy towards cheating?

The answer is the same for both questions.

The adults in charge of the school have cultivated the environment for both, and they, not the children, are responsible for the fruits of their efforts.

While it may seem that we're letting the students off the hook, we instead are stating that their actions are perfectly logical given the boundaries (or lack thereof) which the adults in the school have set. We've said previously that the message is clear: "We, the adults of the school, have effectively lost control of you kids."

Our take on the riotous auditorium behavior for a guest speaker? It seems to be perfectly acceptable at that school, because the adults have given their tacit approval. But if it were our school, during the first assembly of the year (and every one afterwards), any misconduct would be met with severe consequences. We don't care if some doddering old codger was reading the elegiac verse of Ovid, in the original Latin, our students would be expected to show a modicum of respect.

It's only right.

Our take on the what-me-worry attitude towards cheating? Same thing, the adults have broadcast loud and clear that cheating is perfectly acceptable.

"Wait a minute," you protest, "didn't that school hire Professor Jennings to speak to the students about how cheating is wrong? Doesn't that mean that the administration doesn't approve of cheating?"

Ahh, Grasshopper, you have much to learn. Students don't learn by being told, they learn by what they see with their own eyes. Actions speak louder. Witness this, from the good Professor's story:

Last year several students at this school cheated on a math final. When the instructor proposed a penalty, the parents protested mightily. No action was taken against the students.

What is interesting is that the school not only caved in the face of parent protest, they capitulated to unreasonable demands! Let's say the parents raised a stink, and went to the media, or the school board, or to whomever would listen. What exactly could they say, in defense of Johnny not getting an F for Falsehood?

[cue sound of crickets chirping]

Exactly. But schools don't like parent complaints, and rarely stop to think if there's any weight to them. All parent complaints are baaaad, so capitulation is seen as the best course of action.

And the students don't miss a beat.

Please notice that in the above story of the math final, the lackadaisical attitudes toward cheating can so easily be blamed on the parents, but only if you don't consider the school's duplicity. Cheating is fully within the school's boundaries, it can either be excised or tolerated, regardless of what Johnny's parents say.

William F. Buckley recently noted that time was when cheating was treated as the cancer it is. At Princeton University, students who were caught cheating did not simply receive an F for the course, they were expelled from the university. And expulsion was followed by a Carthaginian delisting--the offending party had his name struck from the rolls as if he'd never been a Princeton student at all.

It's only right.

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Update: Marianne Jennings' column can be found here at the Jewish World Review (thanks, Joanne).