Cheating in the Heartland
Cheating in the Heartland is an online article that is based on teacher Christine Pelton, a teacher who ended her career as a result of her moral principle concerning the fight against academic cheating. The teacher resigned from her teaching career as a result of the school board overruling her decisions. This finally initiated various outcomes from the neighboring town.
Christine Pelton’s decision is more desirable and of great significance to the student’s education in general. I support Christine Pelton’s decision since it forms a foundation for effective implementation of rules and regulations that aims at fighting cheating in education institutions. According to the article, it is evident that there exist sufficient rules and regulations to curb cheating in schools. To achieve maximum benefits from these rules, learning institutions should adopt and implement the rules and regulations as performed by teacher Christine Pelton through her actions. The actions exhibit a strong belief in the set regulations which finally help the students in understanding what is required from them.
It is very unfortunate that a section of parents is in support of their children cheating actions when doing assignments. A parent’s sentiment of his or her child not intending to cheat being an example is very worrying. This implies that both the students and parents are not aware of the long-term dangers that are associated with cheating. The above argument from the parent presenting his or her child not having an intention of cheating but rather of higher marks in the final exam rating. This may be true since most of the students possess a poor understanding of what is referred to as cheating. It is, therefore, necessary for the teachers to explain to both students and parents of what is really meant by cheating in their studies while not exhibiting cheating or wrong use of someone’s literature and work.
The sentiment from a student claiming that there exists no wrong in cheating but a means of excellence presents a student who has never been informed or counseled about the long-term risks of engaging in unethical education practices such as cheating. Learning institutions should occasionally inform students about future professional problems that are normally associated with cheating during the early stages of learning. These problems relate to students lacking the necessary skills in solving problems and providing solutions to any emerging challenging concern during their career practice. Nevertheless, cheating provides false impressions about a student’s capabilities and efforts thereby limiting the chances of correcting the student.
Academic dishonesty possesses a lot of risks not only to the student practicing the unethical act but to the entire population at large. This is because the entire public depends on services from academic beneficiaries in the form of doctors, pilots, and leaders. With the prevailing preference for academic dishonesty possessed by a section of students, the students would expose the public to unprofessional practices such as poor decisions and services which originates from the inadequate educational background due to academic cheating.
In conclusion, the story in this article is very essential since it identifies the existing weaknesses in our education system. Through the article, it is evident that academic cheating is common malpractice among the students. Nevertheless, the article identifies school administration as one of the contributing factors to this malpractice. This is through the poor implementation of existing rules and regulations concerning cheating in schools. Additionally, the article also presents insufficient information from both parents and students as another reason behind cheating. The majority of parents and students possess insufficient information relating to the dangers associated with academic cheating.