Fans are getting their fill of great hockey as networks scramble to capture every moment of the 2015 NHL playoffs. Multiple games each night--every night--for viewers to keep up with (or totally avoid depending upon your proclivity for hockey). Throughout the coverage you will hear every athletic cliche imaginable, but one the other night struck me differently. An NHL commentator was describing video showing penalties that should have been called and the players who got away with it. Then he said, "But during the playoffs if you're not cheating, you're not playing hard enough."
         When big games are on the line coaches and athletes look for an edge to get them the win. A lot is at stake, emotions are high and the pressure is intense. The expectation is that the players will leverage any advantage available to them. But to so easily invoke an expectation of cheating is troubling.
         After watching a documentary on cheating in our universities this issue is something that has been part of my conversations with people the last while. According to "Faking the Grade" directed, written and produced by Andy Blicq for Merit Motion Pictures, estimates suggest 70% of university students cheated at some point during their high school years and many continue to do so in their post-secondary studies. But it doesn't stop there. Those who cheat in school are more likely to go on to cheat in life.
         Experts say we shouldn't be surprised. Since students see cheating going on in the world of sports, entertainment and business, they learn that cheating is simply what is needed to get ahead. Harvard reports that 1/4 of students asked to withdraw each year are asked to do so because of academic dishonesty. Those are the ones being caught. For every student found guilty, many more are getting away with it.
         Offices of Academic Integrity exist to promote honesty on campuses and deal with offenders, but the battleground is difficult and the weapons at the disposal of those inclined to cheat are numerous, expanding and hard to trace. Bribery, sabotage, or paying others to take exams is increasing. Smartphones are favoured devices to assist in cheating so they are now banned in some exam rooms. But other inventions have been engineered to fit inside water bottles or other innocuous items to assist in test settings.
          A student interviewed for the documentary said he is making $50,000 per year writing papers for students he's never met. A student simply emails him the topic--followed up by an email from that student's parents arranging for payment. Yes, some parents are paying for the papers…as well as the costly devices students hide as they take exams.
         Don McCabe, a leading researcher in the field of academic integrity says we've been raising a generation that have a hard time distinguishing between right and wrong and says parents are in a difficult position. "It's tough," he remarked, "because if you tell your kids not to cheat that child is immediately at a disadvantage, and if you tell them to cheat, I think you put them in a longer term disadvantage of greater consequence. I see it as almost a no win situation for parents today, which is very unfortunate."
         If parents of these students are complicit, conflicted, or even just ambivalent about the cheating going on, where are students to look for the moral line? They will soon be managing our businesses, handling our medical files, running our governments, providing our services and raising children of their own. Beyond the facts and figures of their profession--what have we taught them?
         We need to be able to function together knowing that our interactions will be honest, above board and legal. Honesty and trust need to matter. Some have suggested the genie is out of the bottle and the benefits of cheating mean many aren't likely to turn away from it. But references to a genie imply some sort of magic is involved and it absolutely is not. Living right is hard work. Acting with integrity while watching those who aren't is hard work. The easier path is to think we can wave a magic wand and join in on the advantage. But to live like that means always wondering and looking over our shoulder waiting to get caught, to get called, and to deal with the professional and personal penalties that will inevitably catch up to us.
           Let's ensure we are telling our children, and setting the example ourselves, that if you're not cheating, you're doing it right. That's my outlook.     Â
