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Corrupt politics leave bad impression
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Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday Dec. 9 after he was discovered to have been attempting to sell president elect Obama’s former Senate seat. In addition, Blagojevich was proven to have withheld state support from the Chicago Tribune in order to have editorial writers fired who had openly criticized him.
Senior Cathy DeLay said she despises politicians who lie and cheat to get ahead because they are deceiving the people who voted them into office.
“I think it’s dumb because they’re voted in by the people and they’re lying to those people. They can’t really be trusted,” DeLay said.
DeLay thinks having politicians who conspire to gain power or money is a sign of weak government and believes she is not the only one who views America in that light.
“I think it means our government is falling apart because we don’t have a true honest government anymore,” DeLay said. “It shows other countries that all Americans are liars when we’re really not.”
Government corruption has always existed but having a political scandal unfold so close to home has opened some students’ eyes to the effects of cheating in order to get ahead. Senior Kylie Good said she believes corrupt politicians have are a larger influence on the American population than they may think they do.
“I think when we have corrupt people in government we will be more prone to do the same corrupt things,” Good said.
Whether it’s a governor accused of auctioning off a senate seat or a student handing in a plagiarized paper, Good thinks morals are compromised in the act of cheating.
“If you cheat once and get away with it, you’ll cheat again,” Good said. “Eventually you’ll get caught.”
Even though she realizes cheating is wrong and often comes with a price, Good admits to feeling at times that there seems to be no other option.
“It’s not good but sometimes you need to do it. When I don’t know what I’m doing on my homework I do what I have to to turn something in, but I always go back and learn what I didn’t understand,” Good said.
While Good can relate to students feeling the need to cheat in order to meet a due date or get by, she thinks cheating to get ahead is a different story.
“Cheating to get by is trying to not get the worst grade possible, but cheating to get ahead means you could have done more,” Good said.
Though she knows reasons for cheating are many, Good thinks that most students cheat or plagiarize because they aren’t confident in their own ability to be successful in a class or on an assignment.
“A lot of kids who aren’t doing well in a class are more likely to cheat than kids who have a solid grade,” Good said.
English teacher Jennifer Shiek said that in the eight years she has been teaching she has encountered her fair share of identical test answers and plagiarized papers. She believes students feel the need to cheat because they aren’t confident in themselves or the quality of their work.
“Plagiarism is high and integrity is low. The most common reason I think is laziness, second is confidence. It takes a lot of hard work to write a paper, every single word has to be something you think of,” Shiek said.
Another justification for cheating that Shiek has come across is the desire some students have to make a better impression on colleges.
“If students are concerned with getting into college they think more about getting ahead in life,” Shiek said. “I tell the kids, ‘I want to hear your words,’ because their words are good enough.”
Shiek said she wants students to set goals and reach them, but not at the expense of their moral values.
“If you really want a guilt-free success you have to do what you know you should do instead of what is easy. You have to hope that someone along the way taught you the value of right and wrong,” Shiek said.