According to a survey of seventy high schools by Rutgers University, 95% of students admitted to cheating, whether in tests, plagiarism, or copying homework. The "95%" is no longer a surprising number. Academic cheating has become a trend among many students, especially with cheating tactics being spread on social media. Shielded by our online setting, many of us are now enabled to disregard academic integrity under our webcam's sight. Despite the temptation and the feeling of invincibility by our situation, cheating will only undermine our success in countless ways.
Many may have the misconception that the purpose of education is to acquire grades to curate college resumes. Yes, grades are a crucial aspect of our college admissions, but focusing solely on grades turns a blind eye to education's underlying goal. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Character plus intelligence - that is the objective of true education." Character development is as fundamental as intellectual development in students. Integrity is a critical trait in every aspect of our lives, no matter the role we choose to take. The loss of integrity may result in the loss of accountability and reliability in people. Underestimating the worth of integrity, especially in the early stages of life, will bring severe consequences to how students perform societal roles in the future.
The fear of failure also plays a significant part in why students cheat. In Filipino-Chinese culture, failure is the epitome of disappointment, especially to our family and peers. The pressure to excel in academics may drive students to loosen their moral ground to satisfy the expectations we are pressured to achieve. Nevertheless, like every other reason, the fear of failure should not be a justification for cheating. Justifying the habit of cheating is like putting a bandaid on an infected wound; it will get worse over time without proper intervention. Failure is a necessary process in developing resilience and is better experienced in our privileged setting rather than life-changing scenarios. By avoiding failure through cheating, we are undermining not only our character but also our chance to develop the skills we will need in facing the real world. If failure is still the worst-case scenario, then we as students have the responsibility to prevent it by asking for help from our teachers and guardians or simply giving more effort in our requirements - cheating should never be an option.
Despite its repercussions, the drive to succeed over others and satisfy expectations will make cheating an inevitable phenomenon in the current online setting. However, we must challenge ourselves to become an exception beyond the 95%. We have to maximize the cost of our education by using this opportunity to develop not only stellar grades but also character and integrity. In the end, our failures and struggles to maintain integrity, even when no one is watching, will be worth it, as we can truly claim that it is our efforts and our hardships that brought us our accomplishments. We can openly say that our grades and our success really belong to us, and with our acquired knowledge and character, use that to succeed in the ensuing stages of our lives.
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