The Mercury Reader

1. Title of the Selection: Too Much Pressure (title refers to cheating in school)
2. Author: Colleen Wenke
She was born in1979 and graduated from Boston College 2001 with a degree in
psychology. She enjoys traveling and extreme sports. (biographical
information
significant because she is close in age to students and closer to the issue-perhaps
more credibility)
3. Date of Publication: Wenke wrote the essay in 1998 when she was a freshman at
BC.
4. Topic/Main Idea
-Who or what is being discussed? increased cheating in high schools
-What about it? There is increased pressure to do well and get good grades,
especially by a new breed of cheaters (college bound overachievers).
5. Summary of Reasons
-trying to juggle too many activities
-facing too much competition
-penalties not strong enough to act as deterrents
-more concerned about getting the best grades, getting into the best schools,
getting the highest paying jobs
-believe people who cheat are the ones who get ahead in life-therefore
cheating acceptable
-must cheat in order to gain an advantage
-blames schools because they emphasize grades not learning
6. Assumptions
-admitting that she cheated, students will identify with her and accept her
arguments
-all people belonging to her parents generation opposed cheating as her
parents did
-teachers knew about the cheating and condoned it by silence
-penalties for cheating the same in all schools as they were in hers
-collective responsibility valued over individual responsibility (schools are
responsible, not the individual student)
-competition and material success valued over honesty and integrity

7. Figurative Language
Students who would not ordinarily cheat get sucked into believing it is the
only way to get ahead in school.
The thought of a big fat F
cafeteria scholars (answers to tests during lunch)
8. Discussion Questions
1. What other reasons might cause students to cheat?
-parental pressure
-desire to be admired/accepted by friends and teachers
-unable to do the work
-low self-image (think they cant do the work)
2. What examples of cheating have you encountered among in high school.
3. What seem to be the most common forms of cheating?
4. Is copying homework as bad as copying someone elses answers for a
test?
5. Are students who allow other students to copy their homework cheaters?
What about students who provide test questions or answers?
6. What leads students to cheat?
7. Do you agree with Wenke that the pressure for grades is a primary cause?
8. What can be done to discourage cheating?
9. Why is honest businessman an oxymoron to Wenke? (cheated way to
the topother professions?)
10. Compare to Making the Gradewheedling for good grades at expense
of learning