Some of the neighbourhood kids have been doing their university applications and with my brother-in-law just starting college, we’ve been hearing lots of talk about who got into Cambridge University and who’s applying to do what course. Mostly, who got into Cambridge.
At last count, at least one of my brother’s friends has been accepted into the prestigious UK university while two others are on the waiting list. But what’s surprising isn’t how many seriously smart kids we have around here, it’s that one of them apparently told my brother he paid an English tuition teacher RM500 to write his personal statement for his application.
Now I don’t know if he paid the teacher to sit down and go through his essay with him and sort of coach him through it, or whether he paid the teacher to write it entirely. Obviously a teacher who would agree to the latter is of rather questionable character but that’s beside the point. The point is, no one seems to think there’s anything wrong with it!
I’ve heard comments about how it’s perfectly okay, that lots of other people cheat on their applications anyway, that sometimes you have to cheat a little to get ahead in this world… I mean, assuming it’s the second situation. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with seeking help in structuring or editing an essay and having someone go through it with you as long as you wrote it yourself.
Which makes me think, how far would parents go to ensure their child gets into a top university? How much are they willing to sacrifice just so they can tell other parents their son or daughter is studying in Cambridge? And by sacrifice I don’t mean financially, not at all. I mean morally.
Again, I don’t know exactly what the deal is with this kid but the whole incident just made me think really hard. The news shocked me, the reaction baffled me and now it’s just scaring me. Because what if, one day, my kid wants to apply to university and I think nothing of allowing him/her to cheat on the application? What if I become one of those parents who are so blinded by prestige I gladly sacrifice my integrity and the integrity of my child so he or she can get what she wants? Or worse, so they can get what I want.
