Why Harvard Students Cheat

Harvard Professor Howard Gardner has now written a column analyzing some of the reasons behind the Harvard mass-cheating case.   I found the following observations especially   telling (and discouraging): 

Colleagues and I undertook a study of “good work.” As part of that study, we interviewed 100 of the “best and brightest” students and spoke with them in depth about life and work.

The results of that study, reported in the book “Making Good,” surprised us. Over and over again, students told us that they admired good work and wanted to be good workers. But they also told us they wanted — ardently — to be successful. They feared that their peers were cutting corners and that if they themselves behaved ethically, they would be bested. And so, they told us in effect, “Let us cut corners now and one day, when we have achieved fame and fortune, we’ll be good workers and set a good example.” A classic case of the ends justify the means.

And this is probably all too true: 

One clue to the troubling state of affairs came from a Harvard classmate who asked me: “Howard, don’t you realize that Harvard has always been primarily about one thing — success?” The students admitted to Harvard these days have watched their every step, lest they fail in their goal of admission to an elite school. But once admitted, they begin to look for new goals, and being a successful scholar is usually not high on the list. What is admired is success on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood — a lavish lifestyle that, among other things, allows you to support your alma mater and get the recognition that follows. 

There's some additional discussion of student perspectives on various things, including claiming degrees one doesn't have and otherwise inflating c.v.s (everybody does it, apparently), and some (appropriate, I think) criticism of professors for setting a bad example by "cutting corners" in teaching, and, in some cases, research as well.  The whole thing is here.   

P.S.  Has anyone heard Harvard called "MGU (Man's Greatest University)" before?  That's a new one to me, but sounds a bit retro -- the "man" thing, you know.   There's also the small matter of Oxford,  that other university located in a town named Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and a few others I could name if my perspective weren't hopelessly Euro/Anglo/U.S.-centric.  

P.P.S.  Yes, I realize Gardner is using the cheating case in part to publicize his own book, a choice which raises ethical questions of its own.  Personally, I don't mind, since it sounds like "good work" itself.  

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