A new survey of 30,000 high school students by the Josephsen Institute reveals:
- 30 percent admitted stealing from a store within the past year.
- 42 percent said that they sometimes lie to save money.
- 64 percent cheated on a test during the past year (38 percent did so two or more times), up from 60 percent and 35 percent, respectively, in 2006.)
Intriguingly, while boys and girls cheat at the same rate, boys are more likely to lie and steal.
One clue as to why dishonesty is pervasive comes from another question. 59% agreed with this statement: “In the real world, successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating.”
We can harumph about how kids today aren’t as honest as we were but obviously they’re getting the signals from parents, teachers, political campaigns and the broader culture that cheating is key to success.
Other theories:
“The problem stems in part from the lack of controls in an increasingly laissez-faire business environment.”
– John Dvorak of PC Magazine
“Advanced technology has led to more opportunities for an easy fix, increasing temptation.”
–Fall River (Mass) Herald News
“The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically….”
–Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Is this actually getting worse? In the last two years, it has but if you look back further, it’s a mixed picture. For instance, 71% in 2000 said they cheated compared to 64% this year. This makes me wonder whether somehow we feel that lying and cheating is more tolerable during tough economic times.
What are you theories?
posted December 3, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Good for them. They have a great future in law, business and politics.h
posted December 3, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Is the moral relativism of today’s teens much more than a reflection of their parents?
Look at how many adult “cheat” on their taxes, their marriages, their jobs. We like to blame society at large, but like parents who tell their kids not to smoke while they have a cigarette in one hand, often it’s the case of do as your elders say, not as they do and pretend that they don’t.
posted December 3, 2008 at 6:21 pm
This is a religious site. When they took the study at High Schools they should have taken it with kids that had some religious background. How do you know what you’re looking at if you don’t? I think it matters how their families live their lives, like Hootie said. Anything shouldn’t go to get where you want to go. It’s how you get there that makes you what you are. If you can’t respect yourself it will show in your life.
posted December 3, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Such is life in public school. I’ve been stuck in this level of Hell for 3 years now and sometimes I feel that all I’ve learned is how to write poetry and play a flute while walking around. Let’s not forget lying, cheating, stealing, doing whatever it takes just to get an A in a class.
posted December 4, 2008 at 7:14 am
The message to kids is: “You better bloody well succeed!”
The various entertainment and sports media show the symbols and accolades that accompany success, and there is no glory for those who fail. So what do you expect?
Steroids in sports, cheating on tests, anxiety, body-image problems, anorexia, et cetera.
Ours is a society that overtly rewards the successful and provides little or nothing for those who can’t or don’t reach those grandiose heights. The problem is that risk that leads to success is held as a social good, and in one sense it is. It drives people to stretch towards their real limits, but it is also pretty Darwinian. Don’t be surprised then that without the nets to catch those that fall from the high bar, that the mess on the floor is horrific.
What is needed is an environment that encourages and rewards success, but does not define success as being the best, but as striving within the rules to be better. That means we have to take the focus off the elite and the rewards for being a member of the elite. They will always be the extraordinary exception, and we have made them the goal that defines being successful, worthy and good.
posted December 4, 2008 at 7:26 am
Looking back at my own younger days, I’m not sure that there is that much more pressure to succeed now…what I do notice (admittedly as a non-parent myself) are more parents who don’t see themselves as responsible for kids’ moral formation. They just don’t. They’re the bankrollers of their kids’ educations and entertainment, and occasionally they seem to enjoy having these younger humans hanging around the house, but the idea that they, the parents, are supposed to be actively shaping their kids into decent, civilized human beings, for the sake not only of the kids but of society, seems not to be there. And that’s a shame.