All of My Favorite Students Cheat

When Dishonesty Is a Norm at School

By Christopher L. Doyle

There comes a moment in every school year, usually when my American history students say something like “How could people have owned slaves?” or “How could Richard Nixon have lied so much?,” when I pop the question. I ask them to tell me about cheating in school. By the time I ask, we usually know and like each other. Students feel comfortable talking with me. After a few seconds of silence, I qualify the question: “Have any of you ever copied someone else’s homework, cheated on a test or quiz, or plagiarized?” Another few moments pass, and heads begin to nod. I ask for a show of hands, and everyone raises an arm.

When this first happened, about five years ago, I thought it was an aberration. Perhaps some sort of bizarre peer pressure was at work compelling my high school students to confess to infractions they did not commit. “Maybe some of you haven’t cheated, but don’t want to stand out. If that’s the case, come tell me privately how you bucked the trend.” I got no takers.

I have asked about cheating every year since and find kids remarkably candid. Almost everyone does it. They copy homework (the most frequent form of dishonesty), crib on tests (second-most-favored tactic), and lift text from the Internet (either verbatim or with minor changes in wording). There have been a few outliers who refuse to engage in it. Ironically, I encounter them most often in so-called “lower level” classes. But there is also a disturbing extreme in the other direction, such as the two kids who confessed to misusing Adderall, a medication prescribed for attention deficit disorder. They purchased the drug illegally from classmates with add and took it to...