Cheating is omnipresent in schools across the globe. The pressure of being successful in school is leading a lot of students down this cheating path. Students see it as a way to get through their classes without considering the long term effects it can have. Cheating is extremely detrimental to students and prevents teachers from helping students with what they need.
How Are Kids Cheating?
In today’s world, technology is literally at kids’ fingertips. Children are becoming increasingly adept at hiding their cell phones in class and can easily look up answers and send them to other kids. Many students are also frequently working on laptops or tablets, and the internet is just a quick click away.
When it comes to submitting papers, it’s becoming increasingly easy for students to find papers already written online that they can simply copy and paste. Some students find ways around the plagiarism checkers by simply changing enough words around to not set it off. There are also some websites where you can buy papers for a nominal fee.
Why Are Kids Cheating?
Simply put, pressure. Kids are under an immense amount of pressure to be successful. They are perceived as weak or stupid if they do not succeed at a certain level. The push for all students to attend college forces some kids to do questionable things to get their grades to a point where they can get into certain colleges. Ultimately, cheating will hurt them once they get to college.
Consequences of Cheating
- Makes children comfortable with lying
- Lowers self-confidence
- Has a snowball effect on learning
- Can lead to kids getting suspended or expelled
- Potential effects on future jobs
Makes Children Comfortable With Lying
Cheating is a form of lying, and the more often a student cheats, the more comfortable they will become with it. This can then translate to lying in other areas of their lives, which leads students down a dangerous path.
Lowers Self-Confidence
Typically, the reason a child will cheat is that they do not believe they can complete the task. While cheating once may initially make the child feel better that they avoided failing, not figuring out the task will hurt them in the long run.
Students who cheat once are more likely to cheat again. The more students cheat, the more they will feel stupid and incapable of doing well. This will lead to their self-confidence plummeting.
Snowball Effect on Learning
When a student cheats to do well, their teacher will assume the child understands the material. The teacher will then not work on the topic with the student.
Much of learning builds on material previously learned. If a student does not know the base material, they will get farther and farther behind in school. This will inevitably lead to more cheating to keep up, and the cycle will continue.
Suspension/Expulsions
Cheating is a serious offense and can result in a student being suspended or expelled. Being out of school for an extended period will have detrimental effects on a child, as they are not learning during that time. If a student begins cheating in high school and continues into college, they could be looking at getting kicked out of college if they are caught cheating.
Effects on Future Jobs
If someone gets a job based on how they performed in school, it is likely to lead to disaster if they earned their grades through cheating. Students who cheat are likely not to have developed problem-solving skills and will therefore struggle in the workforce.
Learn More About the Effects of High School Cheating
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