By Holly Hardin

Spending time trying to hunt down graduates who may have had access to Chapel Hill High School keys and discussing how to curb cheating only addresses this problem at the surface. We need to ask ourselves, what about our educational system is causing our students to cheat? Should the students be held accountable for this problem or did the problem exist before it reached their level?

Any system with a GPA/ranking system unjustly assigns more value, and often respect, to “higher-level academic” courses than to courses that are developmentally appropriate for an individual student or to courses in the arts. Schools that use this system put students, regardless of motivator (self, parent, school), in a situation where they are pressured to perform in classes that may not be a best fit.

Certainly this pressure can push some to succeed, albeit not all, but is that what we want motivating our students to do well?
We live in a highly competitive society, but why is only that portion of society seeping in? We also live in communities where people collaborate to find answers and produce goods/services/entertainment, where citizens find their niche rather than practice all trades and, ideally, where people value varying talents.

Moving away from traditional grading and a one-size-fits-all standardized curriculum towards a more project-based, student-constructed model is the direction we must take to allow students to be intrinsically motivated and allow them to find meaning and purpose in their work. Additionally, an authentic, experiential approach to education, where students investigate and work on real issues, would provide students with an actual goal and investment in the broader community, not just a grade.
Learning does not have to exist inside a classroom with time-tested materials; the greatest learning comes out of planning, implementing, sharing and mistakes made along the way. The skills gained in such a program could encompass traditional subjects while also building lifelong learners, problem solvers, critical thinkers and responsible participants in a global society, as well as actually preparing our students for this highly competitive society so often referred to. Or perhaps, even show them that not everything is about competition. Although a radical change, it’s time we started to take action.

Yes, I too hope the “school community will learn from the incident,” but working to curb cheating is only a solution at the surface; the true solution lies in changing our current approach to education.

Holly Hardin is the science teacher at Community Independent School in Pittsboro and a member of the Cedar Rock Cooperative in Carrboro.