Too Much Pressure By Colleen Wenke

Decent Essays
There is so much pressure put on students today to get good grades in high school in order to get into a good college. Many students feel the need to cheat. I read an article titled “Too Much Pressure” by Colleen Wenke, published in the 1998 edition of Fresh Ink, a collection of work by Boston College’s first-year writing course students. Wenke feels we are creating a society where many students think that cheating is acceptable because everybody does it. In the article, she writes that cheaters today aren’t the people you would normally expect. You might expect cheaters to be the ones who are lazy and don’t do their work or who are not passing a class. Instead, Wenke states “there is a new “class” of cheaters today.” The new cheaters

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In her freshman year at Boston College, Colleen Wenke wrote "Too Much Pressure," on the subject of why students cheat in school. This was later publish in the 1998 edition of Fresh Ink, which is a compilation of work done by students enrolled in Boston College's first-year writing course. The story is told from the perspective of the author and her experiences through school. This essay is a memory of Wenke's high school student life and an observation of how cheating has increased. She argues that over that past decade there has been a rise in cheating in both college and high school, because of the stresses put on students to get good grades, so that they can be enrolled into a competitive college and acquire a high paying job as an adult.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    True citizens must go beyond the "right" expectations of a society by sometimes doing the wrong expectations in order to have the right outcome. Cheating is a wrong expectation in a society, and even though a society thinks cheating is never the right answer, there are a few cases where it may be a good thing. From the article, "What do school teachers and sip wrestlers have in common", by author Steven J. Dubner, he explains how cheating is a part of every citizens life, and how it may not always be a bad thing in a society because it is naturally a part of many people's lives and there may be some cases where cheating can be used as a slight benefit for some people. "It is the third grader who, worried about not making it to the fourth grade, copies test answers from the kid sitting next to him" (Steven J. Dubner 1). This example of how cheating may be a benefit might not be clear for some people because most people probably view cheating on a test, (whether it's just to pass a grade or not), as a meaningless act because the person who is cheating is not using the mind of there own.…

    • 1466 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I personally loved this book, All We Have Is Now by Lisa Schroeder, because of the characters personalities. Another reason is because of the adventure and surviving. there was a lot of adventure, trying to survive and romance. For example, Vince is a teen who won’t give up.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In his book, Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder, tells readers the true story of Deogratias, a young African man who has escaped death during a genocide. Deo is a young African from Burundi, who fled from Africa to New York. In Africa, Deo is caught in an age old feud between the Tutsi and Hutu. The tension between the two have always been high, but the strained peace is broken with the assassination of the Hutu President. All hell breaks loose and both sides engage in genocide.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Student surveys taken in earlier years indicated 80 percent of those students admitted to cheating at least once. But the college students were not the only ones; followed up by high school students at 80 percent as well (Pg. 199). Joe Krouse, associate publisher of Who’s Who among American High School Students, linked poor ethics of both parents and kids to be the leading cause. In surveys conducted in 1997-98, 66 percent of the parents of these top students said cheating was “no big deal” (Pg. 199). Clayton goes on to explain how technology has also contributed by making things like plagiarism easier than in the past.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tell Me By Joan Bauer

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the marvelous world of literature “Tell Me” is a wonderful heartfelt story. “Tell Me” by Joan Bauer is about a girl and her yellow scrunchie with the ambition and bravery to find a little girl. “Tell Me” is written in a third person point of view, so hint by hint you figure out the mystery. This book is fiction, but it’s very suspenseful and sorrowful a real page turner. This is a 300 page book.…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the past few decades the american dream now requires whoever wants to participate to achieve academic excellence within the school system. This study focuses on a way that students are using to help maintain high grades. By ditching the moral integrity students cheat to help achieve higher grades. The toxic concept of having to do well, has coerced these kids into taking a step down the path into academic dishonesty. The problem is a small step away from dishonesty will eventually lead to bigger problems, but in the minds of the cheaters, they have rationalized that it’s fine, as long as they focus upon the things that they will be doing later in life.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Honor Code Dbq

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cheating is an important issue today because resources of education are increasing and some students want to be successful without giving the effort. Therefore, students are willing to do whatever it takes to get the “best” education and grade. Even if it involves cheating. The honor code should not be used because of its ineffectiveness to impact students who rely on their tempted conscience and the absence of trust that runs throughout; however, the honor code could work if schools can uniquely adjust to their students and the environment they put students in.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    When somebody cheats at school it’s claimed to be only an ethical and moral wrong. When people use plagiarism they don’t usually do not have a victim because the author may never know about these situations that may have happened. The moral impoliteness of cheating wear down in social reality. Something that colleges sometimes have to deal with. Have you ever wonder how can the academic environment mandate students to be independent and have originality?…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The greater part of undergrads surveyed admit to no less than one occasion of genuine cheating in the previous year (McCabe and Pavela, 2004). Data is unimaginably simple to access on the Internet, and gadgets, for example, iPhones put that power, truly, into the palms of students' hands. Numerous students entering colleges today confront exceptional measures of weight for comes about scholastically, persuading that deceiving is important to succeed. This attitude is additionally established by cases in broad communications, from professional athletes to CEOs cheating with a specific end goal to…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cheating seems like a task that students would be afraid and ashamed of, especially at the college level. Getting caught and punished and being too scared of the consequences along with the fact that it is immoral are all reasons I do not even consider cheating. The fact that all it takes is a few copied sentences in a paper to ruin your gpa and future is insane, but that is how it should be. It is not only the slackers cheating anymore, but rather highly intelligent, yet lowly motivated students. With modern technology along side to help, cheating rates are escalating to an all new high.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Essay On Honor Codes

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cheating and plagiarizing hurts the student more than it helps, but with a lack of interest and desire to do well, the student may disregard that possibility. Some students may do even better in an environment where cheating is less common because of an honor code, as represented in Alyssa Vangelli’s article. It makes sense that she has criticisms about a new honor code because not everyone will agree, but once it gets revised and makes students want to prevent cheating, students will end up doing better in school. A less excessive amount of writing a code and consequences and more focused on increasing the moral values of maintaining integrity will aid the success rate of students. Additionally, an increased moral value against cheating and a belief in themselves, students will be more encouraged to reduce the amount of cheating that occurs in school.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beat The Cheat Analysis

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages

    After reading Beat the Cheat I realized that the older the student becomes the more there is a possibility that they will cheat on their exams. The statistics were surprising to me and a lot higher than what I assumed from a college student. The reason that the statics were alarming to me was because I always felt the older someone’s age was the wiser they were. Some reasons that students cheat is because they either do not want to fail in their academics or also because so many other students cheat it almost seems normal therefore, making students more susceptible to cheating. I feel that it is also wrong for a student to buy an essay for a class assignment as opposed to writing it themselves.…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cheating is a big problem in schools. Sometimes students forget to study for a test or just flat out don't want to. Their way of “passing” school is to cheat. Most of the time if students cheat they don't really care about their education or what they do to get an acceptable grade. The other times students forget they had a test or feel like they are not learning anything or not getting it.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the pressure to succeed in a classroom setting has become so intense that some students have begun cheating for a variety of reasons. Although I have never cheated myself, I can honestly see the appeal in taking shortcuts when deadlines pile up with no end in sight. Critics of those who cheat can easily point at a cheating student and discuss how poor of a student they are, but the critics never stop to consider the amount of pressure a student truly is under. Cheating has always been considered a terrible act that shows poor character, however, what acts are considered cheating and are not are often fuzzy to students.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays