Lit Review for Paper #3

How would you know you have lived up to society’s expectations and how would you know whether society regards you as successful or not? The answer is: through other people. You rely on other people’s approval. “In order to be successful you have to be acknowledged by somebody else. You need proof and most of the times you need somebody else to tell you that you are a successful human being” (Dragos). The meaning of success is difficult for an individual to figure out because it is defined by society. In order to be successful, society has to think of you as successful. Success is also a comparison between people. For example, if two people were compared to each other (whether they are both successful or both unsuccessful), the more successful one would be considered successful and the less successful one would be considered unsuccessful. One cannot be successful if society does not accept them as successful because society defines what success is. Real success, however, is doing what makes you happy. As Dragos asserts, doing what makes you happy inevitably leads you to success because you want to do it, rather than being forced to do it.

We know that society’s pressure to succeed puts a lot of stress on us. We know that stress causes us to adopt unhealthy habits and lifestyles such as getting only a couple hours of sleep each night, skipping a meal, and putting ourselves down when we do not reach our goal. What we might not know, though, is the extent to which the pressure affects our actions and behaviors. Under pressure to succeed, many students resort to academic dishonesty in order to get good grades in school. Academic dishonesty is the violation of “the submission of work for assessment that has been produced legitimately by the student who will be awarded the grade, and which demonstrates the student's knowledge and understanding of the content or processes being assessed” (de Lambert, Ellen, and Taylor). Such violations include lying, cheating, and plagiarizing. A survey conducted by McCabe in 2001 shows that 72% of high school students admitted to academic dishonesty (Finn and Frone). Another survey conducted by McCabe and Travino in 1993 shows that 78% of undergraduate college students admitted to academic dishonesty (Finn and Frone).

The purpose of school is education. School is supposed to be an institution that provides us with the skill and knowledge that would be useful in our lives. Today, however, school is deemed nothing more than a prerequisite to our career. We no longer value school for the sake of learning. We only find it significant because we believe it is a requirement to a successful future.

“People don’t go to school to learn. They go to get good grades which brings them to college, which brings them the high-paying job, which brings them to happiness, so they think. But basically, grades is where it’s at” (D. Pope).

We take the opportunity to learn and to be educated for granted. We also take the opportunity to succeed for granted. We no longer see success as a privilege that we have to earn and work hard for. We now view success as an expectation that we must fulfill. We do not appreciate success anymore because we expect it. When we do not succeed, on the other hand, we become frustrated because we believe we did not get what we deserved.