Dishonesty Proclaimed as a Revelation

News Item: Survey Reveals Students' Dishonesty. For those of you who imagined otherwise, high-school-aged youths will shoplift from a store or cheat on an exam. It's official now. The Josephson Institute, a nonprofit foundation based in Los Angeles, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly chosen high schools throughout the nation. Within the past year, thirty percent acknowledged having stolen from a store while sixty-four percent admitted to cheating on a test. Understandably, all were queried anonymously. The institute's founder and president, Michael Josephson, expressed dismay at the findings.

I, too, express dismay-that a prestigious foundation would devote time and effort collecting and tabulating data merely to substantiate that youngsters will filch or cheat. During the years I taught chemistry at a community college, not an instructor in my department failed to recognize that, given an opportunity, most students will game the system. We generally concluded that about a fourth of students will cheat without provocation, a full half if an opportunity presents itself, with the remainder refusing to participate. We never knew what portion of the "honest" students abstained simply out of fear of being caught.

But perhaps most disconcerting of all is that Mr. Josephson, immersed in the intricacies of ethics since 1987, is perturbed by the realization that human beings continue to behave as they have for thousands of years. Does anyone with the slightest perception of human nature doubt that deceptiveness and chicanery are built-in instincts? If you witnessed the election season recently concluded, you can retain no uncertainty as to the basic dishonesty of the human race and its institutions.

This gets us into the realm of the nonprofit foundation. Evidently this survey of the obvious, and its publicized results, serves a purpose. It attracts attention. And attention is what the nonprofits must attract. Mr. Josephson's Thanksgiving Letter, appearing on the institute's website, explains it clearly: ". . . the simple fact is we are a nonprofit organization and we need financial support to keep doing all that we are. Sadly, our needs are greater than ever in these tough economic times where many sources of our income are drying up." He concisely sums it up in the final sentence: "This is not intended to make anyone feel guilty, but I do want to be frank about our need and direct my request that you include the Josephson Institute as one of the organizations you support in your year-end giving."

Let me add a final thought. Operating a charity is a tough racket. Choosing the ones to which you will contribute can be even tougher. Be selective.


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