What is the point? Whether it is studying math that they will most likely never use outside of school or reading a Shakespearean play so old it needs to be translated despite being written in English, students understand the struggle to find purpose for the lessons they are being taught. The importance of education cannot be overstated, it gives be students the tools and reasoning to form their own opinions and become their own person. Currently, education is seen as more than a means to an end. The reasons for wanting to be educated and what it means to receive an education have been lost. Learning is no longer something to be enjoyed, but enforced to a dangerous degree. Students must understand that focusing solely on high academic achievements …show more content…
However, cheating in school can get a student expelled; cheating in the adult world can get you infamy. This is a lesson that former associate editor of the New Republic and Highland Park High School alum Stephen Glass learned the hard way when he was caught fabricating stories. In his renowned expose on Glass, Vanity Fair contributing editor Buzz Bissinger mentioned how the young reporter’s upbringing could of influenced his poor journalistic integrity. Bissinger writes, “Beneath the inventions of Stephen Glass there is his own story. People try to explain it now by citing the pressure he faced to perform, and it is true that he came from an environment in which there was brutal pressure to excel.” Later, Bissinger refers the Lawrence-Lightfoot’s description of Highland Park High School as a place where “values such as character and morality were sometimes little more than brushstrokes against the relentlessness of achievement.” (Bissinger). to substantiate the theory that the constant pressure to succeed enabled Stephen Glass to prioritize his own professional success over journalistic ethics. In his defense of school’s placing too much stress on academic achievement, Jack Cahn asserts “If the purpose of school is to prepare students for life, we should be continually holding students to high standards so they will develop mechanisms to handle the pressure.” (Cahn). That statement is not incorrect. When faced with pressure, some students will develop the habit of cheating, and as Stephen Glass proved, this mechanism can be used to handle the stress later in life. Coming from the same environment as Stephen Glass, I would have to disagree that his upbringing alone enabled him to fabricate his stories, but it certainly did nothing to discourage it. That is why students have to decide to be better than Stephen Glass. Students must learn to value themselves as individuals beyond tangible