So it looks like Barry Bonds is in the race for the most home runs hit by a baseball player ever over the span of a career and nobody cares, well, not me at least and I am a huge baseball fan. When I was seven years old I watched reruns of Babe Ruth's games when the televised baseball game regularly scheduled would rain out. The Babe had a charisma, a charm, an intangible genuineness about him; you just wanted to see him win. He wasn't a pretty man, he wasn't humble but he was the genuine article.
On the flip side, Barry Bonds is nasty, juiced and dodgy. The man exudes sleaze to the point that true fans, like me, hope he sprains his head or something so that he cannot take the coveted title currently held by Hank Aaron as the Home Run King. Okay so Babe's record has been broken so much it isn't funny and big Hank Aaron already has the most home runs of all time but why if this is all true do people still talk about a man who has been dead for decades whenever homeruns are mentioned? Why is Yankee Stadium still the House that Babe built? Why is this man still thought of by many as the greatest home run hitter of all time?
My opinion? It's integrity.
Everyone knows that Barry Bonds is juiced like an underground racehorse but he still remains as of yet "un-busted". The Babe? The only juice he saw had a proof on the label.
So how does this apply to education? Simple, integrity is everything in online learning. Sure I can buy a research paper every week. Sure I can cheat but I choose not to. According to the New York Times reports that "... students who cheat in college are more likely to cheat in graduate and professional schools and to engage later in questionable workplace practices" (Roig, 2002). I know we've all heard the Slippery Slope argument but I believe that this is certainly a reality.
The problem is, if we are willing to compromise our values to increase our grades, such as purchasing a research paper, don't we ultimately cheapen the glory of completing that degree? Sure Barry Bonds is going to break the all time most home runs hit, but the experience is cheapened by his continual use of steroids over his career. Even were he now to be clean, it doesn't matter, the damage is done. You can't outlive your past.
Lastly cheating is in essence like stealing. For example if you are being paid what you earn because you "earned" a degree that you cheated on, you are in fact doing something akin to a con, a hustle, a confidence game but on a very low level. Do you think Barry Bonds or even Ken Lay ever cheated in school? It would be interesting to find out, huh?
Even for those who never are caught, there will still be irreparable damage, even if in your own conscious. So don't do it, tempting as it may be it's better to earn a "C" then buy an "A".
Roig, M. (2002 June 5). In school, at work, lessons in cheating. The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2007 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE0DF113AF936A35755C0A9649C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fCheating