Recently, the Washington Post reported that 64 percent of U.S high school students admitted to cheating on a test in the past year. Some may believe that teenagers today lack honesty and regard for ethics, but what adults don’t seem to realize is that they’re unknowingly pressuring high school students to cheat.

Teenagers are turning to cheating because there is a limited amount of time to study due to home duties and extracurricular activities. Adults are pressuring us to fill our schedules with such activities in order to help teens get into good colleges and universities, but this is no excuse for compromising our morals.    

Yes, these activities do improve the quality of our college application, but is it worth not having time for what we enjoy?    

Most students try hard and focus on schoolwork but the pressure from parents to “go the extra mile” is impeding our ability to do what we want to do.    

For instance, instead of learning how to operate a camera in TV Club in order to appeal to a communications college, I would much rather be spending time with friends enjoying my fleeting childhood.    

The fact that competition in the college world is so high lurks in the back of parents’ minds and they believe that pressure is only helping teenagers and not hurting them.    

“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”    

Even though this phrase has been used multiple times throughout life as an excuse, it has truth to it. Pressure creates determination, strength and a fighting spirit for teenagers to compete in the competition for college.    

Unfortunately, pressure has also brought cheating.  But you can’t blame parents for wanting the best for us, they just want us to grow up to be successful and honest adults like themselves. Little do they know, it is their bad influences that may provoke  their children to cheat today.    

For example, there have been many Major League Baseball (MLB) players accused of using performance-enhancing drugs to increase their level of play even though many children idolize these baseball superstars. So if these adults are cheating to break records, then what’s the harm in cheating on a test that will get you into college?    

Adults are showing us that it is okay to go on and cheat! And they think that we’re the problem; ironic isn’t it?  Adults aren’t the only reason why teenagers are cheating. Adults are punished severely for cheating, yet we’re old enough to know that peeking at another’s scantron was wrong. But we go and do it anyway.  If adults really want teenagers to be a successful and cheating, teenagers need to ignore the pressure from parents and neglect the influences from adults.    

But adults need to put effort up as well. They need to stop pressuring us too much and think before they act. Cheating on your wife and then punishing your children for copying another’s homework is pretty hypocritical. So if teenagers and adults do that, then that 64 percent will decrease and those unethical adults will be happy as well.