RAISING A NATION OF LYING, CHEATING, THIEVES, AND THAT IS BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION - WHAT OUR YOUTH HAD TO SAY IN A NATIONAL SURVEY...

If you have not heard about it yet, you should beeline over to charactercounts.org and look at the 2008 survey of over 30,000 students from across the nation.  The survey asked questions ranging from self-evaluative beliefs about the student's reliability and peer perception of their honesty, and then went full force into direct questions about lying to parents and teachers, stealing from parents and friends, stealing from stores, cheating on tests and more. The results are even subdivided across gender, public versus private schools, those involved in sports etc...  The answers are frightening. Here are some basic rundowns: Over HALF have lied to their parents about something big two or more times. Over 20% have presented work they copied off the Internet, while 60% have cheated on tests (40% cheated more than once.)  Likewise, 60% admitted to having copied homework two or more times, with 20% being single offenders, making an 80% cheating rate. 22% have stolen from their parents or a relative, with 11% having done so more than one time.  Compared to 19% having stolen from a friend, it seems parents are better to steal from. 30% admitted to having stolen from a store with 15% admitting to having stolen more than one time. Of this, 35% were boys and 26% were girls. The result was a hair less for those involved in varsity sports. 83% admitted to lying to their parents came from public and religious private schools with a slightly lower 78% coming from independent, non-religious schools. And finally, 30% of the participants acknowledged to having answered untruthfully.  Click HERE FOR THE COMPLETE SURVEY. Yep, I feel good as a parent. Of course I am not naive enough to think otherwise and I have caught my children in a variety of sins. The true measure of life is learning from the mistakes.  While critics of the survey argue that the increased pressure on kids drives them to commit these sins, I reject that as an excuse. What we lack is strong parenting and strong consequences. We have allowed everything to settle to the lowest common denominator and what we are left with is crap.  Those who rise above are considered genius compared to those who do not. A friend suggested that I focus on the good things we do. I would like to believe that I do highlight all the good things, especially in the newspaper articles I write. But I will tell you how sorry I feel for those students that do not break the rules, who try their best and bust their ass only to find that society rewards the sneaks, liars and cheats.  We need to change the message we send to students by highlighting the value of learning, struggling, overcoming challenges without cutting corners. But how do we do that when the real life examples all around say otherwise? Teachers will attest to the fact that it takes one 'nutso' parent to upset the good work done in  a classroom. Why? Because the needs of the 'nutso' outweigh everyone else's needs.  Yes we need to highlight the good, if for no other reason than the fact that it has become a minority standard in a society where the majority are losers. To get past that we need to abandon the notion that everyone has a right to be stupid.  We used to condemn those that glorified ignorance and the trash aspect of life. Now we have how many television shows and how many movies devoted to that topic. I'm still waiting for the asteroid. MisterWriter