Student Blog: Benefits of Maintaining Academic Integrity

The excuse “my dog ate my homework” went extinct a few years ago with its successor being “AI did my homework.” With the ability to auto-generate essays and access Google, Sparknotes, and Photomath, it is easy to abuse the moral code of academic integrity. But while these online sources may make completing homework “easier,” using them does not produce the same profitable outcome as manually doing one's homework. I learned this lesson secondhand.

In my sophomore year of high school, I was stuck in a math class with a teacher who didn’t teach as well as she graded, reinforcing the stems of the lexeme, ‘homework.’ The example problems used in lecture were often intro problems that demonstrated one function at a time, but our homework introduced problems that required combining these functions and even presented functions that we hadn’t yet learned in lecture. As a result, a lot of students in my class turned to Slader, an online platform that equipped students with step-by-step solutions to their homework and in-textbook problems, but most kids just copied down the answers. However, the act of copying down answers does not aid students in learning how they got the answer. 

But, I have to confess, I did do some copying and I did use Slater. Gasp if you may, but while I didn’t just use it to get an A on my homework, I also used it to get an A in the class. Gasp again if you must, but I’m not finished! Unlike most of my peers, I completed my homework to the best of my abilities, but used Slater to check my answers and as a learning guide for the questions I didn’t know how to do. I’d copy down the provided step-by-step solutions and used them to teach myself the lessons my teacher’s lectures lacked. As a result I not only completed my homework, but I also gained the knowledge that I needed to earn an A. Note that my Slader usage was pre-pandemic and that my online pandemic final exams were exchanged for video projects. 

Maintaining academic integrity not only keeps students from cheating but keeping to it encourages the act of learning. The process of doing one’s homework and studying for a final instills the rewarding feeling that good grades symbolize. Before iPads were considered essential school supplies and online textbooks Ctrl + F compatible, students had to independently read their textbooks to find the answers being asked. This reminds me of yet another experience where the defense of academic integrity shone through. 

This time I was in 8th grade. I am not that old, but my small private school stayed ‘old school’ for a while before hopping on the e-book bandwagon– so we still had physical textbooks. As exhibited in my last blog, even as a middle schooler, I was a stickler for having good grades and understood that I was the one responsible for earning them. With this, I took my time to read all the assigned material to find my homework answers and extra information to support them. But one day a girl in my class asked if I could ‘help’ her on the in-class assignment and, knowing the actual definition of the word ‘help,’ I said yes. This ‘help session’ ended up being a “What is the answer?” Q&A and each time she asked about a question I told her what page and what paragraph the answer was located in. Frustrated with my ‘help,’ she said, “Why are you acting so mean? Can’t you just tell me the answer?” Although I saw this girl as a good friend, I did not let her academic gaslighting powers get to me and I held my ground and my answers… She didn’t ask for my help again. Nor did our friendship improve.

But that just goes to show that academic integrity not only aids you in learning cumulatively, but it also helps you weed out true friends. 

So class what have we learned? 

Correct! That maintaining academic integrity encourages honest learning that pays off in the long run and that true friends don’t demand you to let them copy your homework.