Posted on Dec 21, 2020
West Point accuses more than 70 cadets of cheating in worst academic scandal in nearly 45 years
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Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 3
So - I've seen lots of comments on this across different forums and a pretty good point is brought up...
People cheat all the time in the Army. Be realistic - people have cheated on correspondence courses. I remember when there was always people making a CD with answers to correspondence courses. Or people Google answers on SSD at every level - or probably do on DLC however the hell that works now.
We all know the Army has a pretty solid culture of hiding shit in units. C'mon. The Army has not really ever been some bastion of integrity. Not only with cheating on tests in correspondence or SSD - but let's think about how often commanders will allow readiness numbers to be fudged to make their slides look better to higher. Or pushing people through last minute to get some training done and half ass the training. Or the fact that everyone has heard about "we don't steal anything in the Army, we relocate it" or something to that affect. Or how units all over the Army shove shit under the rug.
So it's somewhat surprising how many people are butt hurt over this. I'm not saying cheating on a test is right at any level. Or at any college. I'm not saying these cadets were in the right. Nor do I agree with the WP Chief of Staff saying that it "never" would have happened had they been on campus and not remote. I'm just saying that we need to really examine ourselves and realize that the Army has never been this place where integrity is on a pedestal and that people haven't ever cheated on tests or fudged numbers or half assed training or any of it.
Cheating is wrong - but they're human. Not one single person on this planet is perfect. As humans, we are inherently flawed. I cheated on a test in high school once. I think our whole class did in this math class my senior year actually. The weird thing was - I had only gotten the answers for the second half of the test (it was split into two classes and I was the only senior in the class with all the juniors) and I did the first half on my own and actually did better on the first half than the answers I got on the second (I have always been bad at math).
People are flawed. I am not as upset with some cadets cheating on a test as I am with people who sexually assault in our ranks and get away with it. Or senior leaders who abuse their rank and get away with it. Things like that.
People cheat all the time in the Army. Be realistic - people have cheated on correspondence courses. I remember when there was always people making a CD with answers to correspondence courses. Or people Google answers on SSD at every level - or probably do on DLC however the hell that works now.
We all know the Army has a pretty solid culture of hiding shit in units. C'mon. The Army has not really ever been some bastion of integrity. Not only with cheating on tests in correspondence or SSD - but let's think about how often commanders will allow readiness numbers to be fudged to make their slides look better to higher. Or pushing people through last minute to get some training done and half ass the training. Or the fact that everyone has heard about "we don't steal anything in the Army, we relocate it" or something to that affect. Or how units all over the Army shove shit under the rug.
So it's somewhat surprising how many people are butt hurt over this. I'm not saying cheating on a test is right at any level. Or at any college. I'm not saying these cadets were in the right. Nor do I agree with the WP Chief of Staff saying that it "never" would have happened had they been on campus and not remote. I'm just saying that we need to really examine ourselves and realize that the Army has never been this place where integrity is on a pedestal and that people haven't ever cheated on tests or fudged numbers or half assed training or any of it.
Cheating is wrong - but they're human. Not one single person on this planet is perfect. As humans, we are inherently flawed. I cheated on a test in high school once. I think our whole class did in this math class my senior year actually. The weird thing was - I had only gotten the answers for the second half of the test (it was split into two classes and I was the only senior in the class with all the juniors) and I did the first half on my own and actually did better on the first half than the answers I got on the second (I have always been bad at math).
People are flawed. I am not as upset with some cadets cheating on a test as I am with people who sexually assault in our ranks and get away with it. Or senior leaders who abuse their rank and get away with it. Things like that.
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The honor code was one of the few things that remained with me when I resigned my appointment. A simple yet powerful code
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SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
Imagine that...even West Pointers are fallible. Who would have thought?
This isn't the first cheating scandal though.
This isn't the first cheating scandal though.
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