Pushed to cheat

THE RECENT allegation that a Boston Latin School student hacked into a teacher's computer to pilfer questions on an advanced placement exam highlights one extreme example of cheating. But the phenomenon is widespread. Diogenes wouldn't care to spend much time walking the halls of America's high schools in search of his honest man.

Sixty-two percent of high school students cheat, according to the most recent data from the nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics. And that's the good news. The number of cheaters has fallen from a high of 74 percent in 2002. There is no indication that students feel guilty about their actions. The 2004 Josephson survey revealed that 92 percent of students say they are ''satisfied with my own ethics and character."

It would be easy to blame parents for pressuring their children to succeed at all costs. But the data suggest otherwise. Only 6 percent of the almost 25,000 respondents to the national survey said their parents ''would rather they cheat than get bad grades."

Teachers, however, are probably another matter. Pediatrician and child protection expert Eli Newberger has noted in his writings that teachers are often reluctant to confront cheaters, a belief backed up by studies showing that few cheaters are actually caught. Often that reluctance is based on misplaced sympathy. In one case, a teacher might believe that students are straining under heavy demands on time and external pressure to succeed. In another case, a teacher might fear that a student who receives low grades will be placed in a low track that could extend for a lifetime. In both cases, however, it is the teachers who are cheating their students.

Suspensions and even expulsions are legitimate responses to cheating. But the responsibilities of schools do not stop there. Prevention must also be considered. In rigorous Boston Latin School, for example, teachers and administrators should be asking themselves if the expectation of four or five hours of homework nightly in addition to extracurricular activities is creating superb students or skillful deceivers. In some cases, cheating may be an effort to get a decent night's sleep, not a means to gain admittance to an Ivy League college. And if the goal of cheating is mostly to get a leg up on one's classmates, why is it so common for better students to give their homework and test answers to poorer students? In such cases, cheating can be a revolt against a system that is deemed unfair by students regardless of ability.

Across Massachusetts, students are finalizing their college choices. Adults should be reminding them that it is character and respect for learning, not the name of their alma mater, that will determine future success and happiness.