At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there is a clear connection between class rank and cheating.

With education becoming a rat race of who can get to the top, students now purely focus on what can boost their grade point average and could care less whether they learn anything in school.  

The content that is taught in class continues to lose value as an emphasis is placed on learning ways to cheat. This system creates a toxic culture in schools that lacks the foundational merit that educational structure was built on.

This toxic culture can be seen in all classes, even the ones that are supposed to be filled with the most intellectual students the school has to offer. Even though these students are supposedly the most academically advanced, they are cheating their way through the courses to obtain GPA points and not learning very much in the process.

The whole concept behind honors and AP classes is to challenge the most able students in school and stimulate learning. However, many courses are frequently cheated in, so it is fair to question what type of education these students could be getting.

It is crucial to realize that cheating in high school is not limited to just helping other students on tests.

This lack of academic integrity can be seen in students sending homework to one another, finding tests online and using other avenues to reach success.

Thus, it is fair to draw the universal conclusion that students care more about getting the grade they need to boost their rank, than learning anything in the process.

This is a sad realization to make about school, a place that is supposed to be one where intellectual stimulation and unique education occurs before the corruption of the real world.

This fact challenges the ideal of journey over destination when it comes to education.

The problem lies in the fact that colleges want to see high rankings and solid GPA. Students will throw caution to the wind to just get good grades as opposed to actually learning anything.

So, what is the real issue?

Students are learning from high school how to cheat and how to lie rather than expanding their mind. This will lead to them to entering college, and then society, with a mindset that the destination will outweigh the journey.

Society is directly suffering from the rat race in high school.