An incident involving cheating is taking the attention of several teachers and parents alike. Before you jump to condemn the students, it is important to understand the pressure-cooker that is American high school. With college acceptance rates going down to 6% and valedictorians with 4.0 GPAs, students are being forced to perform at higher levels than ever before. Passing AP exams, excelling in extracurricular activities, and training perfectionist tendencies are no longer hoped for, but required. Although cheating is immoral and dishonest, pressure from society is pressing students to make unethical choices.
When sitting down to make class schedules, students are encouraged, if not forced, to take as many AP classes as possible. These …show more content…
With the suggested number of extracurricular at 5 or 6, with a 2 hour a week minimum on each, it is easy to see where student’s limited free time goes. Dancers, baseball players, equestrians, ect. all devote large amounts of time a week to hobby/future career. Arriving home after 10pm at night does not leave very much time for homework before it gets to be the middle of the morning. While these overworked students sit, falling asleep at their desks, it seems to be the only option for them to cheat to minimize the workload.
Lastly, acting as sort of cherry on top of it all, high-achieving students are likely to be perfectionists. These students push themselves to go to overachieving places, striving for flawlessness, and not being satisfied until they achieve it. These are the students like color-coded planners, and rainbow highlighted books, and labeled folders for every class. Students also have their parents demanding perfection at every turn. The want for high grades All of this can be very exhausting and may break students down mentally until they feel they have no other option but to …show more content…
Students are required to produce precision, no matter the cost, and to them; this included cheating. Adolescents know that cheating is wrong but within the high-pressure, last minute situations, cheating seems like their only option. It is because of the compression from society that anxiety-filled students are turning to their last resort
When sitting down to make class schedules, students are encouraged, if not forced, to take as many AP classes as possible. These …show more content…
With the suggested number of extracurricular at 5 or 6, with a 2 hour a week minimum on each, it is easy to see where student’s limited free time goes. Dancers, baseball players, equestrians, ect. all devote large amounts of time a week to hobby/future career. Arriving home after 10pm at night does not leave very much time for homework before it gets to be the middle of the morning. While these overworked students sit, falling asleep at their desks, it seems to be the only option for them to cheat to minimize the workload.
Lastly, acting as sort of cherry on top of it all, high-achieving students are likely to be perfectionists. These students push themselves to go to overachieving places, striving for flawlessness, and not being satisfied until they achieve it. These are the students like color-coded planners, and rainbow highlighted books, and labeled folders for every class. Students also have their parents demanding perfection at every turn. The want for high grades All of this can be very exhausting and may break students down mentally until they feel they have no other option but to …show more content…
Students are required to produce precision, no matter the cost, and to them; this included cheating. Adolescents know that cheating is wrong but within the high-pressure, last minute situations, cheating seems like their only option. It is because of the compression from society that anxiety-filled students are turning to their last resort