Best And Brightest Cheat Once Again: Harvard Edition

Earlier this year, seventy of the "Best and Brightest" students this city has to offer were implicated in a test cheating scandal at Stuyvesant High School.

Now comes word that the college many of those kids would love to go to - Harvard - has a cheating scandal of its own:

Harvard College’s disciplinary board is investigating nearly half of the 279 students who enrolled in Government 1310: "Introduction to Congress" last spring for allegedly plagiarizing answers or inappropriately collaborating on the class’ final take-home exam.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris said the magnitude of the case was “unprecedented in anyone’s living memory.”

Harris declined to name the course, but several students familiar with the investigation confirmed that Professor Matthew B. Platt's spring government lecture course was the class in question.

The exam was a take home and students were allowed to use their notes, books, Internet, etc. to respond to the questions, but they weren't supposed to collaborate with anybody else - not classmates, dorm mates, tutors, etc.

It seems half of the students enrolled did collaborate, however, since many of the test reponses were similar.

If found guilty of academic dishonesty, these students could be forced to withdraw from the college for a year.

But since they are the "Best and Brightest' this country has to offer, no doubt what happened at Stuyvesant is what will happen here - a pat on the wrist and a stern admonition not to cheat again.

No wonder these "Best and Brightest" go into government, finance, business, or whatever and cheat their asses off.

They've learned their lessons well from childhood.

They're special and nothing bad happens to them, no matter how badly they act.

The Best and Brightest indeed.