Response to Courier Tribune article

"If you are not cheating, you're not trying hard enough" Kipp C Schauble

That is not his quote but a quote from his column in the Asheboro, NC paper on Friday May 15, 2009 in which he suggests that using performnace enchancing drugs in college to help one pull a cram study session in order to improve ones grades is justified and acceptable behavior if the end result is a better job in the future.

My response follows:

A Prescription For Cheating: A Reply

While this column is not an out and out endorcement of cheating via taking performance enhancing drugs, it does leave one with the impression that doing so in an effort to secure better employment opportunities for ones future is acceptable behavior. I seriously doubt that the retention of information gleamed from drug aided all-nighters is long lasting.

I believe the best method of learning is repetition. Physical activities are enhanced by repetition and so are mental activities. We learned the multiplication table by repeating it over and over. I learned my colors, writing, and most everything I know today by this method. Little of what I learned in cram sessions is retained in my brain.

I once had an economics professor who had never had a student earn an A in his class and he had been teaching for decades. I wanted to be the first. I started at the library and found books on how to study. I followed the formula in one of those books and in the end I got that A. The Dean of the college called me into his office. He congratulated me, remarking he “didn't realize I was that smart.” Proper study techniques trump cram sessions in both the amount of information retained and the length of retention.

I can't accept the argument that illegally taking medication compares equally with drinking too much coffee. Neither can I accept the premise that cheating via performance enhancing medications that are not prescribed to the student is acceptable or justified if the end results in a better job for that person.
For every person who obtains a job as a result of cheating, there is another person who is denied employment that may have deserved that job.

I would rather see a physician that actually learned his medicine than one who received good grades aided by illegally dispensed medications. I hope that cop that pulls me over actually knows what he is doing and is not using performance enhancing, mind altering drugs to help him get that promotion he wants. I hope that whenever I'm faced with a life and death situation on the highway that I have a clear head and know exactly what to do to give me the best chance to live. I just won't have time to pop a pill and read the driver's manual.

Maybe mandatory drug testing should be required of all students making an A on a final exam.