A Pandemic of the Mind

A disease is sweeping the nation. No, it does not involve fevers and running noses, but instead of a disease of the body, it is a disease of the mind: academic cheating. There are several different forms of academic cheating; from a student simply glancing at her seatmate’s paper to absolute plagiarism. There are various reasons which include such as desperation, ignorance and indolence. Cheating in any form is detrimental not only to the student, but to the entire education system, the student’s family, and the student’s future. Academic cheating is a pandemic in today’s society, assisted by today’s growing technology and it must be stopped.

There are different forms of cheating; cheating in a mathematics class is extremely different than cheating in English class. A full four page essay cannot be written on a student’s arm, where as multiple choice answers a test can. However, the equivalent of scrawling a list of letters on one’s arm is plagiarism. This can be done simply with only a basic knowledge of the internet. Plagiarism can range from stealing a person’s basic idea all the way to copying his or her entire paper and turning it in as one’s own. Some students even dive into the deep realms of hiring somebody to write their paper for them, paper-writing businesses are prevalent, for ten dollars a page a student can hire someone to write a paper for them and the writers guarantee A’s (Villarreal and Missel).

Possibly the most common reason for cheating is desperation; it is not only a student’s fear of failing her classes, but also of failing her family, losing face with her friends and failing herself. Another common reason is ignorance, the students do not consider it to be cheating, and they grew up with it being the norm...

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... they need to know if need be and help them in not be so worried about admitting guilt that they continue on their treacherous path, they feel more guilt than most realize and the probability is that the majority of them would come clean and do the work necessary to return honestly to their current grade, if given a safe opportunity to do so.

It is an ambitious goal to eradicate academic cheating and it will most likely continue for all of time as there are always going to be dishonest and lazy people out there. But perhaps America can help reduce those numbers in American schools and colleges, possibly the following generation will see the foolishness of academic cheating and use the new technology for the better. It is not only the teachers or parents or students’ fault, it is when all three do not work together in unison and that is what America needs to change.