Cheating is sign of bigger problem

By Janice Hatfield Young

It's been a while since I traipsed the halls of Cherry Hill High School East as a student. But I seem to recall that it was usually the academically challenged kids who cheated - or at least the ones who didn't study sufficiently - and never the smart kids.

After all, the smart ones were the ones who studied for exams, never needing to glance sideways at their neighbor's paper.

Now it's a new Abercrombie-clad generation, toting iPods to school in designer bags. But delve beyond the surface and you'll find that these students are more than electronics-savvy fashionistas.

Many are worldly teenagers who carefully develop their student profiles - crammed with advanced-placement courses and extracurricular activities - designed to impress the fussiest college admissions officer, much the way driven politicians plot their rise from the local town council to the U.S. Senate.

By age 15, these kids feel the pressure to perform like circus acrobats balancing on a high wire, fearing that one false step will lead to their demise.

It's not like when I attended high school, and we interrupted our free time to attend classes.

Sure, we were expected to do well and were encouraged to join school clubs or sports. But we had time to spend with friends, who actually came to our homes and met our parents and weren't just names on an instant-messaging buddy list.

So how, I wonder, has high school morphed for some students from an adolescent journey of self-discovery through friendships, academic interests and extracurricular activities to a cutthroat competition for the valedictorian title?

In the wake of the recent grade-fixing scandal at Cherry Hill East, where a student and a recent graduate allegedly hacked into the high school's computer system to change others' grades, I think parents, school administrators, teachers and students need to seriously scrutinize the ultra-competitive culture that exists at schools such as East.

What does it say when a handful of supposedly good students is driven to cheat? Besides damaging the school's reputation and casting doubt on the majority of dedicated students who work hard and honestly to achieve their grades, it says adults have gone too far.

We - parents, administrators and teachers - are demanding too much, and not just at Cherry Hill East.

Neighboring Moorestown experienced a court battle for valedictorian a few years ago that ended badly for the litigating student, whose acceptance at Harvard then was rescinded after it was discovered she had plagiarized during high school. Recently in Springfield, Montgomery County, a teenager took his own life, seemingly over poor grades.

I realize only a few students are caught cheating. But as the parent of an East sophomore, I worry that this competitive culture may corrupt more good students. I also worry that this academic vortex leaves no space or time for students to develop friendships, see family members, or obtain a good night's sleep.

To improve this scenario, I believe that we parents and educators must stop pushing our kids to achieve the highest possible grades at any cost.

Rather, we should encourage them to pursue classes and activities that will interest, challenge and benefit them as individuals and not just give them a competitive edge in their quest for a college acceptance letter.

And we should be reasonable. Teachers should not assign hours of homework each night, knowing that students receive assignments from other classes, too.

Perhaps it's a pipe dream, but if we work together maybe we can improve the school culture and stop reading news stories that cover students who cheat, sue their school district, or, tragically, take their lives.