Will somebody please explain why this topic gets an hour coverage but when I tried to get the networks interested in the institutional cheating, perpetrated by foreign students in engineering departments at numerous American universities, they couldn't hang up fast enough. If you don't think that this is a serious problem, I can introduce you to two gentlemen that already had PhDs and flunked out of the Masters program, at my university, because they didn't cheat. But they weren't trying out for a game show, so big deal.

I am totally enjoying the special on children riding with drunk drivers, cheating, etc. BUT, during the cheating session, your expert talks about honesty and lying. With that, I am surprised that none of these children challenged you adults to the fact that you in fact LIED to them (just heard the reporter use the word ‘ruse’ = Deception, Trickery!!). NO – you adults outright LIED to the children through false promises. What say
you? WEO on sweeps200548@yahoo.com

I'm a bit disappointed that every group that was presented had someone planted to push the others to cheat. I would have liked to see the kids do this on their own rather than ensuring that it would happen. To me this wasn't a test to see if kids would cheat but more a test to see if kids would push to not cheat. I'm glad there were a few that really fought back towards the individual who was cheating but to me it didn't seem like a real test to see who would cheat but just fighting back to be honest. I'd like to see the same situations with kids who weren't coached to cheat and see what the outcomes were. This I think would be more realistic. Kids will cheat on their own.

Your premise is that parents find cheating/breaking the rules reprehensible. Several years ago I met with the parents of a high school senior who had received a zero on a test in my English IV class because he was cheating. His friend, who had been absent for the past several classes, was not taking the test, but he had some notes that he purposely displayed to his buddy. My student's dad's response was, "Who wouldn't cheat in that circumstance?" Students are not allowed to use cell phones at school, yet parents frequently text their children and expect answers. Class discussions in my English classes commonly indicate that parents approve of whatever needs to be done to get ahead. Parents -- how can you expect your children to be truthful, when so many of you condone lying and breaking the rules?

How can Dateline NBC do a study on kids cheating when they cheated themselves? It was pretty obvious to me that their "study" of kids being more likely to cheat if grades are emphasized rather than attaining the knowledge was planned out to where their study would prove right. Well the first group of kids are evidently cheaters just based on their personalities. Dateline NBC interviewed the kids and picked out the ones most likely to cheat and stuck them in the group that focused on "grades." Then they interviewed kids and chose two that they know would not cheat and put them in the second group that focused on "knowledge" so that their study would prove them right so that they looked good. Well I'm not buying it Dateline NBC. You are the cheaters for trying to fool us adults into thinking that the reason those kids were against cheating was because they were told not to worry about whether or not their answers were right when in fact the only reason they were against cheating was because thats just their personality and they would have been against cheating if they were put in the first group as well.

Okay, so there is much to be discussed here but I will try to keep it short. Natalie, you said that we need to teach young children the gift of knowledge that will motivate them to see that the learning process is more important than the grade. There were many variables that were not considered in this report but what parents missed most was the gut feeling kids had that guided them to know it was wrong to cheat. Nobody addressed that. Also, young children will never appreciate learning and knowing that the process of learning is more important than the grade until we take the grades out of pre-school, stop "making" teachers responsible for their learning (that is a personal responsibility that we motivate children to do by how we inspire them. We can not control their inspiration) and we encourage them to see conflict as an opportunity for learning. In essence there are no steps to not cheating, not driving with a drunk driver etc. It is the inner state that guides us. Until we are willing to address that kids will just keep trying to please the adults around them in an attempt to "not" get caught!

As a psychologist involved in clinical and media issues I was troubled by the recent program on cheating. I hope someone has read The American Psychological Association's research ethics guidelines. The most glaring issue to me is that the Dateline staff was using cheating (lying) and deception to explore cheating and deception. The next most glaring issue is that the situation is primarily about novel situations and peer influence as well as "cheating". I certainly hope that these children were given an opportunity to explore their internal reactions to being deceived by their parents who colluded with Dateline. I think the program is important but I think there needs to be more clarity about what goes on with the situations. I am hoping there is follow up with these children after the program.

Dr. Robert Simmermon-Atlanta

WAIT,

We as adults need to put some logic into this. If our assessments (instead of tests) were applications of knowledge that you could not cheat on, instead of discrete pieces of knowledge, then kids would understand that we expect them to gain knowledge not just memorization. If a kid can look it up on the internet then why would we test them on that? We can develop assessment where there is a 1000 different ways for them to demonstrate higher order thinking, instead we take the easy way out and insist on objective tests.... Let's put the pressure on adults to make the learning and the assessments meaningful not superficial.

You lied to the kids to see if they will cheat.Then at the end you tell them cheating is the same as lying.What is wrong with this????Guess everyone is a cheater.

OK...the truth is that i cod not have kids....but, every parent i know not only encourages their child to cheat but in fact does it for them. the all have excuses -everyone does it so i must give my child and equal chance....they are a minority....they have a disability....on and on.....my dad was a school teacher who refused to even help me because it was cheating....i am, unfortunately ,glad that i don't have kids because i couldn't do what all - and i repeat all of the morally respectable middle class people i know do....

Can you say ENTRAPMENT!!! This was NOT a test of potential to cheat, it was a cleverly disquised plot to get children to go along with someone else based on what is beleived by kids to be todays most cherished result, 15 minutes on TV. I was DISGUSTED that this was actually aired. Bad enough that everything else they have to deal with, now it's the adults LYING to them to get people to watch get ratings. This producer shouild be fired! And then the PARENTS go along with it? What ever happened to TRUST! OH-WAIT, WAIT- next week let's try and turn them into RACISTS! Should raise our ratings another 1/4 point! And then later in the season, tune in to see if we can get them to throw the lever for a DEATH ROW EXECUTION by promising them a free X-BOX!!! Journalism, HA!!!

Very distasteful show about kids and cheating you had yesterday. putting the pore kids and their parents under the microscope like that so you can embarrased them in national television.

No wonder why you guys are nowhere near good ratings.

There were so many things wrong with that show but I will not waist my time pointing things out to a network that is full of bad shows.

I find it very amusing how people are quick to say "but the parents and other adults lied to the kids!" as though that's an issue here. Yes, there was some deception used but considering the circumstances, it was a necessity. How else could you expect to get more reliable results? If all of the kids knew it was a test in honesty, then none of them would have tolerated cheating. It wasn't a test to see who would initiate cheating, it was a test to see who would cave in to the pressure to cheat.

What's next, tell the police that they can't go undercover because "that's a form of lying" and they should never lie to try to catch criminals? It's the same thing. They provided an environment, introduced a situation and watched how the kids reacted/behaved. It's why it's considered to be an experiment/test, to see how they would react when they (the kids) think it's for real.

And for someone to claim to be a doctor (psychologist) while putting down what was done is just shameful. Any real trained professional would know that in order to get more reliable results, you have to sometimes withhold or mislead when it comes to information. It's like when drug testing is done. If the 'volunteer' knew if they were taking the real drug or a placebo, that would affect the reliability of the results. So they are lied to by being told that it's the real deal to get more accurate feedback/results.

Grow up people, this is the real world we're talking about, not some idealistic fantasy world where everything is always pure good with no bad in it.

ANYWAYS...

All that said, the thing that stuck out to me most was this. During the athletics segment, Miranda was the only kid that took a very solid stand against cheating and she stuck to it. She even went as far as to speak up about it when the 'authority' returned. I'd say that the experiment worked rather well, because out of all of the kids, one had the guts to stand up and do the right thing. She not only didn't give in to the peer pressure of cheating, she was practically battling it.

So now I'm wondering, does anyone know if she has a Twitter or FB account? This girl deserves to receive a lot of kudos for how she handled things. If I were rich (like Bill Gates, Jay Leno, etc), I'd be offering to pay her way through college. It's sad to say, but there are actually many ADULTS that could learn from her example and it would be nice if her honesty were to be made into an example, so others know the importance of it.

1 - capitalism.

*do whatever you can. step on whomever you have to. get ahead. get more. go go go go go. greed is good!*

2 - raising children consequence and pressure free.

*you did what? well mister man, im not gonna spank you, you go sit in your room all day and play games on the internet, use facebook, text on your cellphone...oh, and think about what you did!*

*it doesnt matter who wins. everybody gets a trophy, and everybody gets icecream/pizza after the game*

3 - parents not taking part in their childrens lives -- leaving them alone to learn life lessons from other kids and childish adults on the internet.

--this is why cheating is on the rise.

--this is why more and more young people suffer from apathy and lack of compassion.

--this is why people suffer from boundless ego, but no wisdom to balance it.

this along with several other things that nobody seems to be paying enough attention to, to bother putting a stop to.

Mr Anderman? Why did YOU cheat in school?