Editorial

Teaching ethics

A new study of nearly 25,000 American high school students found that nearly two-thirds admitted cheating on exams and more than one-fourth said they stole from a store in the past year.

Yet 92 percent of the students surveyed said they were satisfied with their own ethics.

The Josephson Institute of Ethics, which conducted the study, concluded: "The inconsistency seems to be explained by high levels of cynicism about the ethics of successful people and the prevalence of cheating in the 'real world' creating a justification for dishonest conduct."

In other words, a substantial number of high school students think cheating and stealing are OK because they think success sometimes requires dishonesty.

Last week, 77 students from Saxony Lutheran, Notre Dame Regional and Central high schools attended a workshop titled "Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace and Society." Eleven people from the business community helped the students work through hypothetical situations that brought up ethical dilemmas.

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce is to be commended for sponsoring the workshop and creating a dialogue between local business people and students. While students recognize that some people do succeed through dishonesty, and those people often make headlines, we hope they learned first-hand that a willingness to work hard, intelligence and backbone are far more common qualities in successful people.

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