point/counterpoint: Einstein’s brains not so exceptional

It’s only high school

By James K. Galloway

Ultimately our opinions mean nothing to the school board because we don’t work for the school board, but an opinion should never be ignored – nor should a point go without a counterpoint.

So here it is: students shouldn’t cheat, but if I were a student who was given the opportunity to take anything better than what I earned in a subject I didn’t care about in the first place, I would take it – as many times as the teachers would give it to me. I would especially take it if it meant I got to keep doing something I loved, like playing football with my friends.

Cheating is wrong, by nature, so you won’t find me defending plagiarists, leeches and con men, but I will defend every person’s right to do whatever they want to do.

Unless you want to live in your parents’ basement forever, doing what you want to do can be something of a challenge. There comes a time when you have to do a little extra to get where you want to be in life. If you’ve never had the motivation or ability to follow those steps, that harsh reality will glare brighter than a forged record of any sort. Houses made of cards don’t stand even a breath of resistance.

Athletes are not our heroes, though. In the real world, they’re paid to do a job like anybody else, except sometimes they’re lucky enough to be televised and respected by people who like sports. This is where I might draw the line on giving athletes their privileges, because once you break into the pros, it’s money, fame, women and all the drugs you could ever want. They almost seem spoiled, but cheating them through high school still means nothing in the long run.

This is where college comes into play. Assuming a cheating student gets into college, athletes are forced to juggle their grades and sports regardless of what happened in high school. If the same negligent behavior goes on throughout that person’s college career, there won’t be any sympathetic teachers to make sure the little Slugger scrapes by. They just crash and burn.

So I’ve defended cheating, even though I said I wouldn’t. Here. Have a dose of truth: I cheated through high school, but I didn’t cheat in English because I have integrity and value originality. I feel no remorse for copying answers to a math problem I didn’t have time to work through, even if the time I could have spent working was spent playing music with my friends. I’m not a mathematician. How many kids copy each other’s math answers 10 minutes prior to class in our high schools? It’s hard to know for sure, but anybody who has been to high school knows it happens a lot; it happens a lot more than people are getting busted for anyway.

So let the athletes play – it’s only high school – they’re still children, after all. We raise them teaching them to “play the system” in every favorable way and then penalize them when caught.

If you’re a business major and you’re conspiring with five other students to get perfect test scores, you are doing yourself an injustice – not to mention corrupting the business world. If you’re an athlete and you’re using steroids to hit the ball farther, you’re doing yourself a gross injustice and corrupting the stats.

Bad people get found out eventually, so quit piddling around with things that don’t matter. Both stupid and smart people will play sports if they’re good athletes – politicians will be elected into office because they’re good liars – and writers will write because they’re good writers.

Off-field cheats find on-field friends

By Michael De Soto

I stole away to Washington this extended weekend, attempting to clear the accumulated college-related filth from my head. You know the stuff: the gummed up gears, the empty wallet, the malnutrition enabled by a drained ice box. The idea was to get fresh perspective. A clear head.

I was also bound toward songs sung by a Siren, a irresistible and strong minded enchantress who called my vehicle northward. A beckoning that resulted in long afternoons on the couch with Judge Judy, my mom and a bag of potato chips, I might add.

But we’re wandering here.

As couch time progressed to nightly news, I stumbled on a report about several schools in Montgomery County, Md., accused of fixing grades for a few of the less academically inclined varsity football players. This allegedly involved more than 45 players at eight high schools. Comically, two of the schools are named Einstein and Walt Whitman, who are, of course, two of the more upstanding and intelligent contemporary Americans in our short history.

And historically speaking, the problem of grade fixing is as old as eligibility requirements. Rules were made to be broken – right?

Well … high school might be a little young to start teaching kids how to cheat.

Though still not right, university level cheaters are another story altogether. I can understand or see the logic behind a university sports director fudging a few grades here and there. At this level, the highest and most competitive amateur level, it’s all about the money.

Show it to me: there are broadcast rights and television deals to be made, affluent boosters and proud alumni backers to please. There are stadium seats to fill and merchandise to sell. And all that comes even before the glory of the win-marching to a national title or bowl game or whatever. It makes some sense to cheat at this level. There’s a payoff.

But what’s the point of fixing a high school game in southern Maryland? To win one for the Gipper? Bragging rights and a chance to showboat to the soon to be coed cheerleading squad? A free chili-cheese dog and a mugshot in the local eatery? All good things for sure, but who cheats for that kind of stuff?

If it were me in those kid’s shoes, I know I couldn’t stomach the guilt-the weighty pressure while choking down a helping of chili-cheese and knowing that I was a fraud.

My friend over here argues that high school grade fixing is not really about the game, but about getting into college.

I’ll bite: for a few guys this is probably true. But a large percentage of this is for students that are already being scouted by major institutions-places that have already sold their souls to have the best teams money can buy. If those guys are good enough to be scouted, why bother cheating your way on the field? Universities used to shy away from “troubled” teens-but who does that anymore?

There are troubled people all over the place. You’re troubled. I’m troubled. The staff on this wicked good, yet subtly undercirculated paper is troubled. There’s nothing wrong with being troubled.

What is wrong is bumping around the grades of underachieving student-players.

For one thing, it hurts the non-athlete underachievers like me. Yes, you know my kind. I’m the kid genius that sat in the back of class and never did any homework. That’s me.

My colleague Galloway here sat back there too, but he was the one that smelled like reefer. (I joke.)

My point is to wait until college, when GPA doesn’t matter so much, to fudge with the numbers. Or better yet: don’t cheat.