Essay on A Slippery Slope

Submitted By smallhouse152
Words: 903
Pages: 4

Cheating in school Nowadays, when getting a college degree is considered the first important step to have a good job; many parents are meddling in their children’s education. They do everything for their children so that their children can get a good result. In the article: “A Slippery Slope”, C.W.Nevius states that cheating has become more common. He writes about how parents help their children cheat in school in order to get a good grade for their children and what the bad consequences are, such as: a teacher quits her job because of the stress, the children are flunked. Nevius says that parents are helping their children cheat in school. Instead of giving their helping hand with their children’s homework, they do the homework so that their children have a good grade in school. For instance, parents do the projects for their children. And when their children are requested to talk about their projects, the children don’t know anything because the projects are done by their parents. Parents say that their children don’t have a lot of time to do the assignments. Dr. John Walkup, associate professor of child psychology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, says about what parents do for their children: “It sends a message. You can’t handle the situation, so I’ll handle it for you” (p.304). Furthermore, parents give their children an unfair advantage by asking for a paper from the doctor to prove that their children have the educational problems, such as dyslexia. If the children are diagnosed with a learning disability, they can get more time to do homework and SAT test than normal students. Besides, parents even meddle in their children’s grade. According to Alice, a young teacher at a Bay Area, when their children can’t get the good grade as they want, parents will threaten the teacher and ask for a better grade for their children or come to the teacher’s office to prove that their children are capable of getting the As although their children don’t. Moreover, parents even file a lawsuit against the school when they feel unsatisfied with the result or with the children’s coach. Parents are helping their children; and they don’t think about what they do can affect other people and their children. Alice, the teacher at Bay Area public elementary school, has her student’s parents force her to give an A so that the student can get into the good college. She feels so upset. Then Alice quits her job. She says: “It got to the point where it affected my health. I got into kind of a state of depression. It felt like my soul was being attacked” (p.303). In another case, a coach in Omaha high school resigns because of the lawsuit which is filed by the students’ parents. The coach is sued because parents think that he doesn’t dispense the equal playing time. Because of the high expectation, parents are putting the pressure on the teachers, coaches and their children. Children say:” I thought I wanted to go to an Ivy League school, but I couldn’t believe they were so mean!”(p.308). In the fact, those students don’t deserve the colleges they are studying. They just go to those colleges because of their parents’ expectations, not because of their capacities. Nevius also states that parents who are helping their children cheat in school don’t think they are cheating. According to Dr. David Anderegg, a Bennington College psychologist, parents