This semester, Claro plans to test you on The Great Gatsby, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and A Catcher in the Rye.
You have always been a good English student so you prepare for these exams as you normally would: you read each novel thoroughly, take extensive notes, and study your notes before each test.
As usual, your hard work leads to good grades. However, you notice that your peers are scoring similar grades to you with far less effort. Even notoriously poor students have become English experts.
Suddenly, a dummy who struggles to turn on a light is explaining Gatsby’s green light.
You sense something is amiss and one day your suspicions are confirmed. Yellow books known as CliffsNotes have infiltrated the school, from west top to east bottom, and revolutionized the way your classmates are studying.
Some students are using CliffsNotes in lieu of reading a book, some students are using them in adjunction to reading the book, and some students did not use them at all.
Usage also varied in frequency.
Some students used them with every book, some students used them with some of the books, and some students never used them with any books.
CliffsNotes became part of Prep's culture.
Poor students utilized CliffsNotes to narrow the gap between their superior peers. Once relieved to avoid summer school, these students were now filling up honors classes. Their parents were never more proud.
The increased GPA’s of their unintelligent contemporaries forced honors students into moral dilemmas. “If I know that I am one of the best English student in SFP without CliffsNotes, do I let some Joe Schmo (or Stro? or Fro? #nodiss) take away my spot in an honors class when the entire student body knows that I am the smartest English student here?”
Suddenly, the honors students began using CliffsNotes too.
Elite before using CliffsNotes, by simply leveling the playing field, these students were attaining never-before-seen heights in the English department. Prep cashed in on the wave of excitement generated by these extraordinary students, raising tuition nearly double in ten years.
Prep never knew for sure which students used CliffsNotes and which students did not. More importantly, they did not care.
Increased class participation added value to class discussions that may have otherwise not existed. The improved English grades made Prep look spectacular.
But slowly, the excitement of the “CliffsNotes Era”—as later deemed by future writers of the Seraph— began to die down.
A decade passes and Prep concludes that there is a CliffsNotes problem on its premises. They enforce definitive rules prohibiting CliffsNotes while imposing penalties against any student who uses them from this point forward.
This would be a noble effort by Prep’s hierarchy; however, its bearing on students who used CliffsNotes prior to this legal language should be nonexistent.
Were the accomplishments of students who learned during the “CliffsNotes Era” legitimate? Of course! Their grades still count. Their diplomas are still valid.
Prep’s administration cannot justify erasing an entire era of student accomplishments out of embarrassment that their employees dragged their heels when confronting the issue. It is disingenuous at best. It’s not like Mr. Williams is being asked to give back his 1999 salary.
Had Prep’s concerns about CliffsNotes usage been legitimate, they would have made a better effort to rid the school of them as their prevalence increased.
For years, Channel One ignored the ‘CliffsNotes Era’; now, every day, a new reporter hops aboard his or her moral high horse to diminish what SFP’s students once accomplished.
Never mind the fact that Wikipedia estimates that 2/3 of students as early as 1900 were academically cheating in some fashion or another. For Prep to assume that students from these eras would not have used CliffsNotes had they been available at that time is laughable.
As such, the valedictorian of the Class of 2002 needs no asterisk. He or she should take her rightful place amongst the great graduates in St. Francis Prep history, no questions asked. Their legacy should remain unquestioned, their greatness undisputed.
Future generations of Terriers deserve as much.
Nick Xouris’s 2014 HOF Ballot:
Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling,
Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux
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