It seems like there's pretty much a consensus on this one: Generation Y is made up of a bunch of cheaters.
CNN wrote about this back in 2002 and now a new survey from the Josephson Institute in Los Angeles finds that cheating among high school students is rampant. Amongst other things, the survey of almost 30,000 high school students in the U.S. finds that 64 percent cheated on a test during the past year, which is probably lower than the actual number because 26 percent admitted to lying on at least one of the questions in the survey.
I'm really not sure about what sort of level of accuracy you can hope for when you survey cheaters about cheating, but nevertheless....
The results have received some attention, but I did not come across an article that compared the results to similar studies from previous generations. I looked around a bit for research that compares current academic cheating rates with rates from 20 or 30 years ago, but didn't find anything along those lines. I'm sure something like this is out there and I'd be interested to see it.
Even without the data, it's not hard to buy that cheating is more prevalent now than it has been in previous generations thanks to the Internet, which has made it easier to cheat than ever before, as Plagiarism.org explains here. I suspect that a thorough analysis of the proliferation of cheating that the Josephson survey and others are identifying has more to do with problems regarding how people manage the information explosion rather than the moral caliber of an entire generation. This is why William C. Kashatus' op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer is disappointing. Kashatus, a college lecturer, references the same survey and blames the results on the character of the Generation Y.
He writes:
He absolves himself and his fellow teachers of any blame, concluding:
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CNN wrote about this back in 2002 and now a new survey from the Josephson Institute in Los Angeles finds that cheating among high school students is rampant. Amongst other things, the survey of almost 30,000 high school students in the U.S. finds that 64 percent cheated on a test during the past year, which is probably lower than the actual number because 26 percent admitted to lying on at least one of the questions in the survey.
I'm really not sure about what sort of level of accuracy you can hope for when you survey cheaters about cheating, but nevertheless....
The results have received some attention, but I did not come across an article that compared the results to similar studies from previous generations. I looked around a bit for research that compares current academic cheating rates with rates from 20 or 30 years ago, but didn't find anything along those lines. I'm sure something like this is out there and I'd be interested to see it.
Even without the data, it's not hard to buy that cheating is more prevalent now than it has been in previous generations thanks to the Internet, which has made it easier to cheat than ever before, as Plagiarism.org explains here. I suspect that a thorough analysis of the proliferation of cheating that the Josephson survey and others are identifying has more to do with problems regarding how people manage the information explosion rather than the moral caliber of an entire generation. This is why William C. Kashatus' op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer is disappointing. Kashatus, a college lecturer, references the same survey and blames the results on the character of the Generation Y.
He writes:
So please excuse me for sounding like a Dutch uncle, but I believe that this generation of students - the so-called millennial generation - lacks accountability. That does not bode well for our future.
Members of the millennial generation - those born between 1982 and 2002 - expect to be granted privileges without having to work for them. They've grown up in a world of instant gratification, dominated by computer games, e-mail and cell phones. They expect their teachers to "entertain" them, not challenge them. Often, when there is a challenge, few students rise to meet it.
He absolves himself and his fellow teachers of any blame, concluding:
Nor will I criticize my fellow teachers for the failures of the millennial generation. Most of them are experienced educators who are doing the best they can.It's unfortunate that Mr. Kashatus decided to highlight an important issue with such shallow analysis. Arm any nineteen year old student from any generation with Internet search tools the day before his or her 20-page history paper, of which nothing has been written, is due and you're playing with fire. At least the educators in this article appear to take a broader approach to the problem.
Ultimately, the millennials are accountable for themselves. Let's hope it doesn't take another Great Depression for them to meet the challenge.
