Ethics class (Photo credit: aditza121)
Students cheating in school is not a new thing, but it has become an epidemic in recent years. The Internet has made cheating easier, with thousands of term papers students buy and pass off as their own work. Cell phones are now used by students to get answers from their classmates or to look them up on a website. What is most surprising is how many students see no moral problem with cheating. Sometimes irate parents will visit a high school principle or college dean and complain that their child did not cheat, even when the evidence is overwhelmingly against the student. Is it any surprise that there are so many scandals in business and in government? Children are emulating the values of their parents, who reflect the terrible trend in American culture to want something for nothing.
The rampant relativism to which students are exposed on television, by celebrities, by the media, in the K-12 school system, and in colleges and universities makes it easy for students to become subjectivists on ethics. “Whatever floats your boat” or “Whatever I think is right is right for me and whatever you think is right for you” becomes the mantra of many students today. The most dogmatic relativists are as closed-minded as any religious fundamentalist. The fact that they become angry and try to cut a professor off when he argues against subjectivism reveals that they only want their views to be heard. Apparently the position held by the professor and by other students that everyone, including the professor, has the right to speak his mind has not sunk into these students.
I am at a loss to determine how to get beyond the impasse of relativistic propaganda in society. When the United States accepted a traditional Judeo-Christian ethic, as it did from the Second Great Awakening in the late eighteenth century through around 1963, one could argue from a common morality held by the vast majority of Americans. With the decline of Christianity and the proliferation of different religions and cultures, one could try to find common values between them–and between deeply devout people of all major religions much commonality in moral beliefs is present. Radical secularism, agnosticism, and atheism can try to develop a non-relativistic deontological or utilitarian system, but other secularists who desire to do what they want without restraint could say, “Okay, there’s a common morality needed for the good of society, but I don’t care about the good of society. There’s no God to stop me from being a self-centered ass. So that’s what I’ll be.” Without transcendent meaning, how strong is the force of the “ought” in ethics (I am borrowing this point from George Mavrodes). Students may intellectually believe in some kind of deity, but the secular relativism they have been taught from kindergarten onward has already sunk into their psyche. This fact, along with the inherent immaturity and selfishness of youth, make for a combination that will inevitably result in rampant cheating. I have had students of all grades brag to me about how they successfully cheated in school. It is a matter of pride to them. It is a matter of shame to American society that its cultural rot since 1964 has destroyed any notion of transcendent meaning (beyond trying to find it through pleasure), has promoted self-centeredness, has promoted “success” by any means necessary, and has lied to people by telling them they should be proud of their accomplishments even if they did not earn them. With churches catering to the relativist, postmodern young person without trying to correct their relativism, all that results is high recidivism and young people who leave church with the same twisted values they previously had accepted. Without a large-scale religious revival, which I do not see coming in the United States, growing irreligiosity will cause societal destruction in the U.S.–Europe had enough residual tradition to withstand falling into chaos when Europeans gave up on Christianity, but how long will that last? I expect more cheating in the future by students. Some will get caught, most will not care unless they are caught (and even then for selfish reasons), and the shred of integrity left in the American educational system will be threatened.
Jul 01, 2012 @ 23:01:53
Here is something to consider. Fifty years ago one went off to a university to obtain an education and become a part of the American adult society and a part of Western Civilization. It was a socially approved action. But was it a rational decision?
After two world wars and much that was evil and hidden success at university would probably mean becoming a factor in the future of the nation, a nation that was creating a good deal of suffering in the world under the aegis of spreading democracy. A really intelligent and informed look at the world would have told one that he was joining with a group of mad people to create even more destruction. He was not much different in his decision to get an education than a few years later a guy joining the military to fight in Vietnam. In both cases the seemingly good mature decision was actually an act of insanity . . . even if he was not personally insane. As for morality that had been scuttled a long time before. No really successful person could be bogged down with that stuff. It was fine for the wife and kids on Sunday. But real life required realistic behavior!
So now fifty years later this perhaps cynical consciousness has trickled down into the minds of the young–perhaps they have taken in a video or so between porn sites that points out the gaps in their history or social science courses. And like the fading out of Santa Klaus and the tooth fairy they watch the leaders of the USA dimming into malefic characters in a bad movie.
Of course the university has also changed. It has become like a factory with the important people, the administrators, dong their political money thing for parents . . . For example at Stanford my political science professor now old and emeritus has spoken out against the Stanford involvement with un-indicted war criminals like Condi Rice and before her like George Schultz. But these types bring in the money. And status. Stanford even has a philosophy professor in the administration who wrote to me explaining why it was just the natural and right thing for Rice to return. Nice touch.
Some change here as in the ’60′s the philosophy department was anti the Vietnam War and protested. But those days are gone.
So why not cheat? The nation is a cheat. Everyone cheats. Lies are the lingua franca.
And we have to keep in mind that persons like Wilson and Truman were Christians. George W. says he is a Christian. So does Obama. Cheney. The whole criminal class is Christian. When a Mafia member died they had a decent Catholic funeral. Nothing new.
As Spinoza correctly wrote: virtue is its own reward. And so is vice. But these people are below that degree or level of sensitivity. Stick your hand in fire–how many times would it take a Congressman to learn it hurts? And to formulate a plan to avoid burnt fingers? We are about at that point.
Aug 19, 2012 @ 18:24:58
“How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-The-American-Universit-by-Debra-Leigh-Scott-120819-373.html
Having long been out of the university by the time this change took place, sometimes referred to as the “corporatization of universities”, I certainly noticed the transformation. I believe this new attitude towards what universities should be then effects the student who can no longer take the process as seriously as it needs to be. And all sorts of things then happen like cheating.
Aug 19, 2012 @ 18:55:24
Since I attended Stanford University from 1962 until 1966 (and then my younger son did in the early part of this century) I like to use it as an example. The difference between when I attended and my son was enormous. For one thing the amount of alcohol on campus went from none to a great deal. I had some official tell me that dealing with alcohol, by which he meant knowing when to stop, was essential to being a student there. When I was there alcohol could not be sold within a mile of the campus. And really there was very little consumption during my time partly because it was expensive and partly because we were pretty serious about getting an education.
When I was asking about vaccinations for my son’s entrance requirements I had a woman at their health center go on and on about naive freshman girls getting pregnant in their freshman year at school! She was very upset.
The atmosphere was more like a large high school with everyone on drugs–which of course if we were meaning psychiatric medication would not be far off. People had huge anxiety attacks in class and fainted at times. Fortunately my son is serious and worked hard and did extremely well. Though he excelled in mathematics which was his major he went on to Harvard where he learned to dislike economics while getting a PhD in that area. He now has his own successful business. But he is one of the lucky ones. People over the years had trouble understanding why I was not very enthusiastic about universities. Even when I went I was rather disappointed. But now they have become mostly bad places where people acquire the most insane ideas. And lose what sanity they had. And everywhere most think alike. And are burdened with debt. I would say that the prestige universities are the worst as they really do not care about the truth as becomes especially obvious in the social sciences. So that leaves mathematics more or less and science with some reservations. Oh, and the classical languages. For a safe major Greek is probably a good idea. Have they found a way to ruin that subject yet? I suppose computerizing the language could be a hazard. I wonder how much your university resembles what is presented in the article above.
Aug 20, 2012 @ 17:15:18
I read the article; I had no idea that one million of one and a half million professors were adjuncts. That is a horrid statistic. There is pressure on adjuncts, especially in evening colleges, to get good student evaluations. As a result, they often make their courses easier to give them a better chance of keeping their jobs.
I don’t care for the leftist stance of the author, but I do agree with his concerns about the management class in academia. In addition, especially in the last three years, the federal government has been regulating the hell out of colleges and universities. If profs don’t turn their textbook list in by a certain date before classes start, the government can fine them. The government requires that profs use the school e-mail address to communicate with students.
It’s really an unholy alliance of government, corporations, and accrediting agencies that are causing many of today’s problems in the universities. The trend is going to be even more corporatist in the future.