Academic dishonesty is defined as a student’s use of unauthorized assistance with intent to deceive an instructor or other such person who may be assigned to evaluate the student’s work in meeting course and degree requirements. Over my time at Elkhorn South I see many students trading papers and exchanging answers on busy work assignments but I have also seen blatant cheating on DCA and even finals. Although it is not okay to do why is it that much of the student body is attempting to cheat and often getting away with it. I believe it is because students are always trying to please people such as their parents with the boosted grades that come from cheating. It is like the easy way out but it still comes with risk such as getting put on your high school transcript and that could make it so getting into some colleges will no longer be possible. I have asked a few students if they have ever been academically dishonest and both responded yes.

“I have had to cheat on homework because I just do not have the time to do all the busy work I get in a day,” John Doe said. 

Time is most certainly one of the biggest things that I have seen that leads students to be academically dishonest. Things such as sports and other extracurriculars lead students to not be able to complete an assignment that other students spent an hour on. So the easy way out is taken and students will just spend a few minutes copying down the answers instead of taking that full hour to complete the assignment. Homework is necessary in math classes everyday in order for students to adequately be prepared to take the test. So cheating on math homework will always lead to lower test scores. 

Another form of academic dishonesty is skipping class so that a test or project will not be taken or turned in. I talked to a student who has done this a few times.

“I just go to the bathroom the whole period because I know if I go to class I’m going to fail the test,” Jane Doe said. 

This is a more rare version of academic dishonesty but it still happens some days at Elkhorn South. Cheating nowadays is more common than actually completing the assignments 80% of students surveyed at an anonymous college have reported that they cheated in order to obtain a higher grade in high school. Cheating in high school is rarely reported due to kids scared of the repercussions of “snitching” or “ratting out” the cheater. I believe the stigma of cheating has also become normalized due to students focusing on their grades, rather than their education. It has not been seen as a bad thing just a loophole to get a higher grade than what would have been received if no cheating occurred. Cheating to students is now just seen as a profitable end to their needs and if it is not executed the repercussions of a bad grade are worse than the risk of getting caught cheating. 

I do not condone academic dishonesty in anyway and I believe that it is better to just take the bad grade and try to better next time. Better study skills and good time management will make completing your homework honestly a breeze and it will be much more gratifying to do it the right way. Although I can definitely see why students cheat on test quizzes and homework I just don’t believe good grades are as important as actually learning things so from now on, try to do your homework and if someone asks you for the answers just come up with an excuse because it really isn’t worth getting caught if you are peer pressured into giving out the answers.