Many students, from both my interviews and others, expressed not only a distaste for cheating but desire to do well and be academically honest and actually learn the material. One even said that, even though it is his hardest class, he always does his Spanish homework so he can make sure to actually learn the material well. Perhaps the many who don’t do their Spanish homework actually recognize it as useless, repetitive work and cheat on it so they can pursue homework that interests them more.
I believe that conventional wisdom has given us a false stereotype of high school students as compulsive delinquents and general ne’er-do-wells who will leap at any opportunity to cheat, and that given a chance, a group of motivated high school students can prove our accusations wrong.