Things I Worry About
I read a frightening article in Family Circle’s April 2007 issue, “High-Wired Cheating.” I would recommend parents get a copy of this article and read it. There were two sets of statistics in this article that worries me. First,
- 66% of students (high school) admitted to cheating on class exams
- 58% of students said that had committed plagiarism.
Two-thirds of our high school students are cheating. Why? Have we parents become so intent on success for our children that we have removed room for failure in the process? Has popular culture allowed the difference between right and wrong to become so blurred any means now justifies the end?
The second set of statistics cause additional worries…
- 59% of kids between ages 13 and 18 say they would not act unethically to get ahead, even if they knew they would not get caught. But…
- 69% of this same group admitted have done just that ranging from lying or downloading songs illegally.
And parents pay close attention to this one…
- When asked whether they felt prepared to make ethical decisions, only 29% said yes!
Why would more than two-thirds of our youth feel unprepared to make ethical choices. Are we parents too busy, too disconnected, too stressed, too afraid to fulfill this duty to our children?
My kids are not perfect and I would rather have a friendly relationship with them…But when I am in the midst of a teaching session I always remember what my mom would say to me when I told her I hated her for some punishment…
“That’s fine. That just means I am doing my job.”