The Shadow Scholar

If you have a few minutes today, read this incredibly entertaining, and depressing, article from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The unnamed author recounts his tale of writing thousands of papers for cheating college students interested in paying top dollar for his work.  He writes:

"In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper.

I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting...I've completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else."

Ed Dante (his psuedonym) goes on to recount his experience working for an online company that produces essays for college and graduate students at a price.  In witty prose, he recounts writing 75 page papers in two days, email correspondences with college students whose English prose makes text messaging lingo look like Shakespeare, and making top dollar for writing essays for nursing students, education students, business ethics students, and (my favorite) seminary students.

Read the article. 

It's astounding how pervasive cheating has become in higher ed as well as in high schools across the US.  One must ask the question, "Why?" The most obvious answer is that people will pay. Laziness rules.  But how could literally thousands of our most educated be so comfortable with an obvious ethical volcano? 

Universities like my own alma mater practiced "the honor code," which was supposed to stem student cheating.  But the fact of the matter is that we live in a pluralistic society that has very little basis for absolute ethics. And we live in an academic system that prizes good grades and "achievement" over more foundational matters of right and wrong.

This will be a common theme on this blog. What does it mean to educate? Can a person truly be educated without knowing right from wrong?

I wonder what the shadow scholar would say....