by Amos Epelman

I am a senior at Emory University studying biology and economics. Education is essential but while all education is created equally, not all people are. Some individuals learn in different ways than others. As a member of the Emory University Honor Council, I hate seeing people cheat because they thought that was the only way for them to get a good grade in a course.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, an action is worth a thousand pictures. We say that we are honest people, but do our actions speak the same way?

I believe the education system speaks of great success, but its actions fail those who put their trust in it. Educational institutions advertise themselves as the gateway to success in life, but many students leave university with crippling debt and a lack of functional knowledge in their work field. As a member of the Honor Council, we are quick to judge students who are accused of cheating but seldom ask the question of why. Do people cheat because they enjoy breaking the rules or because they feel the need to cheat to achieve the level of academic success that is expected from them?

Education is one of the fundamental keys to success in life and any educational institution would agree, but their actions do not follow. For students, education is a burden, a constant suffering of competing with your peers to achieve monetary and life success. Education should be inspiring and diverse, not repetitive and stressful. It is time for these institutions to take a deeper look at themselves and ask if what they are doing is truly life changing, or just a way of making money.

Now imagine yourself sitting at a table with five friends, each of you working on a separate assignment. It is 10 p.m. and you open the assignment due the next day at 10 a.m. You have 12 hours, but all the previous assignments only took 30 minutes to complete.

It is now 11 p.m. You have completely underestimated the workload of the assignment. You have convinced yourself that your friends are distracting you and that is why your assignment is taking so long to complete. You return to your dorm and begin to work alone.

It is now midnight. You begin to panic. It has been two hours and you have barely made a dent on the assignment. It has three parts, and you have barely cracked the first part. You take a glance at the other parts in the hope that the assignment will only get easier, only to have a deeper sense of despair as you realize it only gets worse from here.

It is now 1 a.m. You are starting to feel tired. Your friends, all ready for bed, ask if you want to hang out, and you reluctantly say no. You finally finish the first part, but panic really sets in. If you even want a chance of a good night of sleep, you need to finish the assignment in one hour.

It is now 2 a.m. You ask yourself, “Why haven’t I been working on this assignment throughout the week?” only to remember you just took two midterms, each worth 25% of the total grade of each class. Your eyes are now burning from exhaustion but you power through finishing the second part of the assignment, only for the third part to loom over your head. You contemplate asking a friend for the answers, but you have just enough honor inside of you to try and power through.

It is now 5 a.m. You finally finished the assignment. You submit it and get ready for your four hours of beauty sleep. All of this, for an assignment worth 5% of your total class grade.

I used to believe in the education system. Now I believe it is time for change and for everyone to be conscientious of each other’s needs. Not all students learn the same way and not all teachers teach the same way. However, what unites us all is a passion for learning, but the system we live in now needs to change. We should take pride in learning, even if it does not come in the way or time you would hope it does. Students must be proactive and teachers must be willing to help and understand.

I believe that each student’s potential is locked behind a door, and the lock cannot be opened by a key that is one size fits all. Every student is different and it is time for the education system to adapt to that.