CHEATERS NEVER PROSPER, OR DO THEY?

So, let’s see now. If you are rich and famous, mostly rich, you can buy you kid’s admission into virtually any prestigious university or college you wish. You can even buy qualifying scores on the admission tests. I now have found out that for the right money you can get your kid a spot on an athletic team whether that kid had ever even played that sport or any sport for that matter. Hmmm. Does that mean that money talks? Does that mean that the “golden rule” is really whoever has the gold makes the rules? It sure seems that way.

What if you, a normal person of average means, with average intellectual accomplishment, having average skills at sports, or in other words, like most of us? Does this put you at some disadvantage? You bet your life it does. It means that, if a university has just so many open spots for admission, those spots are reserved for the highest bidder rather than those most deserving of admission. It cheapens the entire process as well as the diploma from those schools.

What then are our students learning? Are they learning the material necessary for a career? If their goal is to become a doctor or a nurse, is it important that they know the difference between an enema and a tongue depressor? If their goal is to serve in Congress and on important committees that deal with our economy, is it necessary they master the principles of economics? Does that remind you of anyone?

Maybe what they are learning is that cheaters do prosper. Maybe they are learning that the diploma from certain universities is more important than what they might learn in class. Maybe they are learning that if you are rich enough, you can travel through life as a complete moron, survive, and even prosper.

The whole concept has a lot of pitfalls. Consider, if you will, you buy good test scores for your child and you then pay off some shyster college official to get that child into, say, Yale. How in the world can that child possibly hold their own amidst students who are actually qualified to be there? Does it mean that the entire educational level of the classroom has to be reduced to include individuals who could never understand the material? How is that helpful to education?

Lying and cheating have become second nature today. From fudging the numbers on your Income tax return to the highest levels of government. From businesses who sell inferior products, some even dangerous, to advertisers who tell you anything to get you to buy these products.

Why wouldn’t some people cheat to get a prestigious diploma? There seems to be no downside. Why wouldn’t some cheat to get rich? Why wouldn’t some people cheat to get elected? Why wouldn’t aging athletes cheat by taking performance enhancing drugs to extend their playing days? Is there a penalty for this activity?

Well, I’m here to tell you there is a downside. There is a judgement day. We all have heard of rich, seemingly successful people who suffer serious depression. Some even commit suicide. I believe a lot of that can be laid at the feet of a life of cheating. Some individuals know they don’t deserve the success they have had. Many athletes who extend their playing lives, suffer terrible injury when their bodies can’t take the punishment. Trying to cheat Mother Nature is never a good idea.

As a child I was taught that cheaters never prosper. Even though some seem to get away with it, I still maintain that cheating will eventually catch up with you. Cheating for your kids is actually cheating your kids. You are denying them the opportunity to fail and to learn from that failure. At some point in their lives they will have to face reality.

Ron Scarbro