Acidemic Integrity

Okay everyone, I know I've written about school before, and I know everyone thinks it's the most boring topic ever, but I need to write again. I need to vent and I need to introduce some ideas to everyone who reads. (which very well may be like three people...but that's okay.)

Cheating.

This particular type of cheating may not go on as often as other types. But, really, what IS cheating? Does taking a friend's worksheet and writing down the answers as your own count as cheating? Is it bad to do? Does it really matter? Maybe it doesn't matter for that specific class...maybe it's not a big deal. But if you do it in one class, what's to say you won't try to do it in other classes as well? What's to say you won't cheat in higher places like med-school or try to take a short cut in surgery. Maybe you didn't pay attention in your English class on how to properly write an essay and you just had someone else write it for you. Then when you're applying to college you write some crap essay that gets you no where-- if anywhere farther away from where you WANT to be. Maybe you didn't pay attention in that math class and you copy the answer from a friend. Accidentally, you leave the negative sign off the answer. Meh...no big deal. Well, imagine a few years later, you're an engineer and you have a similar type of promlem. You do everything right on the problem except put that little insignificant negative sign on. There is no partial credit this time. You're not just risking your grade. You actually send in your calculations and they begin to build the bridge you did the calculation for. About two weeks after they build the bridge you turn on the news only to find that your bridge has fallen down. ONE LITTLE negavite sign made your entire bridge fall down. (As much as that may seem like a made up scenario, it's not. I know a guy who actually had this happen.) So what's the big deal? I'm just in highschool, it's not like I'm building bridges or anything. Does that mean it doesn't matter? Cheating happens WWWWWAAAAYYYY to frequently at East High School, and I'm sure other schools as well. We need to take a stand as students and say NO to cheating. WE are the future leaders of America. WE are the future surgons and doctors who will be cutting into real people whos lives depend on us! WE are the future lawyers. We are the future teachers. WE are the future of America. If all we do is cheat right now, who's to say we won't just cheat later.

Teachers

Not only do WE, as students, need to have integrity and do our own work, but we also need teachers who care and WANT to teach us. People often overlook the importance of good teachers in the highschool environment because...well I don't know exactly why. Maybe because it's just highschool and it really doesn't matter THAT much. Maybe it's because people don't realize just how bad some of the teachers are. Maybe they just don't really care. I'm not exactly sure. A teacher is one of the single most important people in an adolecant's life. Not only do they teach us, but when we walk in to that class room we hand over a part of our educational future to the one who operates that classroom. OBVIOUSLY we have to do the work they give us. OBVIOUSLY we need to try hard in the class. But we CANNOT do it alone!!!! We need the help of the teachers! We need to get the information needed to perform well on tests and other measurements of logic. We should not be expected to learn things by ourself from the book ALL of the time. I know learning from the book is an important skill, but it should NOT be expected all the time. Teachers should be in the teaching environment to teach. Not to earn money. Not to simply get by. If you expect us students to spend more than half our lives with you then you better be willing to teach us what we need to know to pass AP tests, pass classes, and just be an overall intelligent person. Teachers need to make rules and enforce them. Make them AAAANNNDDDDD enforce them.

Students

Students!! We have just as much responsibility as teachers do in sculpting a good learning environment! We MUST do our homework. We NEED to be honest about it! We NEED to pay attention in class. We need to do what we can to become intelligent. If we don't take in the information our teachers feed us, why should we expect them to feed us more? Do not ask friends if you can copy their homework because you were up late last night. Do not think it's no big deal to talk through the teacher while they're trying to teach. Do not aim to be the class clown. Do not try to be defiant towards your teachers. Most of what I have to say about students is up where I talked about cheating. Seriously, if we're going to spend six hours a day in school, why don't we learn something while we're there.


The things I've talked about all mix with eachother. You need all of them to have a good learning environment. Without one it's like taking the bottom block off of a tower of blocks. Everything comes tumbling down. One more thing we need to finish off our learning environment is respect. There are times in school, and in other places I'm sure, where it's not about learning anymore. It's not about having a good education. It's about respect. Simple respect. Without respect we lose everything. I want to be able to trust the people who operate on my body in the future. I don't want to have to tell my parents my teachers don't care about cheating anymore. I don't want to have to say no to my friends who want to cheat off me because it's so normal anymore....do you?