News talk 2014-01-20: Massive school cheating

Some of us are old enough to notice the changes in moral values over the past four decades. And I’m not talking about sex, which really has nothing to do with morality. For me, nothing stands out as much as attitudes toward cheating in school. It doesn’t seem to be the dark blotch on one’s character it once was.

Many college kids think cheating on exams is the moral equivalent of double parking. They just don’t seem to see the horror of the crime — stealing chances at a better future from those who rightly deserve it. Same with cheating at poker. I think a poker partnership, as an example, is about a low as you can sink on the scummy scale. Everyone who sits honestly at a poker table is making an unspoken promise to play in his or her selfish interests, without favoring anyone else. Everyone realizes, by having a secret partner, you can break that simple promise and invisibly steal the money from those who are keeping their word. The honest players are defenseless. And lives are destroyed. Homes lost. And it’s all because some people think cheating at poker isn’t totally terrible.

Similarly, this is a news story about educators who attempted to ruin children’s lives by cheating. But, of course, they’re too self-absorbed to see that. They’ll contend that they were under pressure to have students perform, so they improved grades. But when you elevate one student, you diminish another who didn’t fare as well by comparison. There’s no difference between the cruelty of adults doctoring scores to make deserving kids fail and doctoring scores to make undeserving kids excel. It’s the same crime. But the perpetrators are unlikely to see it. — MC