What's Wrong with this Picture?

There is a restaurant about 25 miles from my house that I visit on a fairly regular basis. I have three main reasons for frequenting this restaurant. 1.) Nice atmosphere, 2.) it's close to my church and thus, a number of my friends, and 3.) they have at least two things on the menu that I can eat despite my food sensitivities. Those are all good reasons to frequent a restaurant. But, this blog isn't really about the restaurant. (It's the old "bait and switch" blog.)

It's the business across the parking lot from this restaurant that keeps drawing my attention. This is the sign above the door to this business.

My first thought, upon seeing this sign is "Wow, maybe now would be a good time for me to go back to school and get my masters or even a doctorate degree." I mean really, if I can have someone else write all of my essays, how hard could it be? And check out what it says on their window.

Guaranteed A!!! Even better! That should help my GPA.

O.K., but let's get serious. Isn't the point of going to high school, college, or graduate school to learn something? If someone else does your research for you, what will you really know when you graduate? Are there people running around with degrees, perhaps practicing medicine, or law, that didn't really do their own work? That's kind of scary.

And get this! This company has been in business since 1998. That's 13 years of people cheating on their essays! To their credit, they don't plagiarize, and they can get a paper done super fast - for an extra fee. I'm not sure who uses this essay writing service but I don't think it's your average college kid. The cost for a five page essay is $125 plus $10 more if you need it in a hurry.

I love that part of their advertising says "Essay writing can be very time consuming. The research that goes into it can be a bit overwhelming. The complexity of your assigned research paper may even discourage you from completing it." Well, we wouldn't want you to get discouraged or overwhelmed. Why should you be like ever other college student in the country? Not when you can pay someone to be discouraged and overwhelmed for you!

There are a few testimonials on their website but this one is my favorite: “My professor assigned a 10-page essay that was just too complicated for me to research. This writing company wrote a custom essay for me in 2 days!” Too complicated? Shame on that professor! What was he thinking? Was the entire class forced to dish out $25 a page in order to pass the class, or did they manage to figure it out on their own?

Let's call a spade a spade here. What this company is encouraging is called cheating. I just can't see any reason that would justify paying someone else to do your course work for you. How could you possibly feel good about graduating knowing that you'd basically cheated your way through school? At least if you copy out of the encyclopedia (which I'm not encouraging) you've taken the time to do a little bit of research.

So, I guess I won't be getting my doctorate any time soon. But, I do have days that cause me to be overwhelmed and discouraged. Maybe I could just find someone I could pay to say tidy up the paperwork, or do the laundry. I may go broke, but at least I wouldn't have compromised my integrity.