America Places A Heavy Emphasis On The Crime Of Stealing

Ethics are the principals that build an individual’s character and integrity. It is the code of conduct that a person lives by; it is the way that a person conducts themselves when no one is around. Stealing, lying, and cheating are wrong, yet every day in the workplace these issues occur. Growing competition lends to the need for people to do what they can to get ahead and stay ahead. Ethics are pushed to the side as people try to gain power or to stay out of trouble, all at the risk of tarnishing their character. This same mindset has spilled over into Academia. A student’s desire to successfully earn a degree by any means necessary has caused educational institutions to address these ethical issues by setting policies in place to combat academic dishonesty.

Honor codes have been a strong subject of dispute over the last few years. Whether to hold students accountable for their own actions, and allow them to control the cheating in a school is, in all regards, a major decision that could potentially be detrimental to a school’s society and reputation. However, the rewards for a successful honor code are exponentially higher than the cost. Schools should always have some form of honor code in place, whether it be something like a signed contract at the beginning of each semester paired with an honor court to hold violators accountable, or something as simple as a statement of trust on a worksheet.

As defined by the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Academic Integrity is the moral code or ethical policy of academia. This includes values such as avoidance of cheating or plagiarism; maintenance of academic standards; honesty and rigor in research and academic publishing. Many believe academic integrity to be a strong, pervasive and understood rule when going to Universities and Community Colleges across the globe; however, in the recent decades, abiding to the rules and policies to uphold academic integrity has slowly become more problematic for students across the board. Thesis?

Multiple studies have found that students are spending less time on their academic studies leading to a decrease in education and an increase in temptation of academic dishonesty.  Cheating has been prevalent since mankind existed, but writer William Chace gives his outlook on the issue in his article, “A Question of Honor”. Chace is able to use adequate reasoning to engage the reader in an article that depicts perspectives from every angle. Included within the article are a sense of sympathy, through explanations and even a proposed solution of how to end academic dishonesty.

Read the Academic Integrity: Student Code of Conduct section in Penn Foster 's Undergraduate Catalog and Student Handbook carefully. Discuss what the policy means to you and include ways that you 've learned

The conflict of whether or not honor codes should be established has been brought up again due to an increase in cheating and collaborating on tests and school work. Recently, a surplus of students have been caught cheating in unexpected places, like Harvard and the University of Virginia. Those colleges are considering using honor codes to counteract the surge of cheating that has arisen. Although there is currently a cheating problem that needs to be dealt with, incorporating honor codes into high schools and colleges is not the most effective way to solve the cheating problem, and will not solve the cheating problem indefinitely. It is very difficult to change a person’s personality and their morals, no matter what paper they sign, but there are ways to make people’s convictions stronger. One of which is student interaction. Like many people, students have a “follow the herd” nature and want to fit in with the crowd. If many students discourage cheating, the “crowd” may choose to not cheat in fear of being shunned. Student interaction is much more effective than honor codes, and is a much less drastic change.

If a college campus harbors an environent where cheating is seen as acceptable and an activity many people participate in, even students with correct morals and no desire to cheat themselves are less likely to report fellow students for unsavory behavior. This can also go a step further and that same student who failed to confront a peer for cheating, may give in to the school’s atmosphere and start cheating themselves. This makes them all the less likely to report other students for fear of appearing hypocritical and/or being reported themselves. A study on honor code effectiveness was completed by Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle at a small public university (Source E). Their results showed that only 8% of students would report a fellow student for cheating. Even more surprisingly, 40% of students anonymously stated that they had “violated the honor code and not been caught”. This points to a very cheater-friendly attitude at this particular school and shows that the honor system is not very effective in this

Honor codes are a set of rules or ethical principles governing a community based on ideals that define what constitutes honorable behavior within that community. The use of an honor code depends on the belief that people can be trusted. Those who are violating the honor code can be subject to punishment, including being expelled from the school. Schools should maintain the use of honor codes so that dishonesty is deterred from.

Add in that no dishonest students can work together and should be seated away from each other, and this will allow room for the honor code to take effect and be integrated accordingly. One might argue, that putting honest students with dishonest student will not work, because of the fact that cheating has already happened in schools that are known to have strict honor codes, such as the University of Virginia, in which Chris Khan, the author of the article “Pssst—How Do Ya Spell Plagiarism?” discovers, “Since last spring, 157 students have been investigated by their peers in the largest cheating scandal in memory. Thirty-nine of those accused of violating the school’s honor code have either dropped out or been expelled—the only penalty available for such a crime” (Source D.) However, Khan overlooks that just because an honor code is strict does not mean that it is effective in reducing cheating.

Chace, W. M. (2012). A Question of Honor: Cheating on campus undermines the reputation of our universities and the value of their degrees. Now is the time for students themselves to stop it. (Cover story). American Scholar, 81(2), 20-32.

Nowadays, it is a common occurrence for students to copy assignments off of either the Internet or their peers. Because colleges and society in general put so much emphasis on the grade students receive to determine their intelligence and their ability of attend a college, it becomes the grades, the letters students receive on a piece of paper, that matter. Even when teachers warn students about the punishments that go along with cheating, students still cheat, thinking they could get away with it. The students then carry the habit of cheating through their careers and lives. Therefore, it is important for the school to implement an honor code in order to promote a culture of integrity and to reduce academic dishonesty.

Rules governing academic integrity among students and schools is a practice deeply entrenched in the American education system and that of those around the world. Likely beginning at the University of Virginia in the United States during 1842 as a way to discourage cheating, dishonesty, and plagiarism, it soon spread throughout the nation. Today, the overwhelming majority of schools in the US, from elementary to collegiate, have their own form of a honor code. Among these schools is Port Charlotte High School, PCHS abbreviated, whose own code of conduct is based heavily on students being educated about the effects that their cheating will have on their academic future and punishing those who are discovered to have cheated in any form. So far, these particular academic regulations have proven successful and because of this, the charge put forward by the school should continue to be maintained. Revising the Code of Conduct into a peer-enforced system creates is statistically inefficient, hostilities between students, and eliminating the honor code would easily produce a school where cheating reigns free.

During the seminar, the students unanimously agreed that PCHS does not have an honor code to prevent cheating on tests, or school related projects. Therefore, many students take the chance to copy answers from other students who work hard to earn their grade. That’s why these students ask that an honor code be implemented by the student government, monitored and enforced by PCHS faculty, and be constantly revised to make PCHS an exceptional learning environment for students.

The honor code is a set of rules used by high schools and colleges to prevent the students from cheating, stealing and plagiarizing. The honor code puts the responsibility of maintaining academic integrity on the student’s shoulders instead of those of the faculty. Ideally, this code works well because the students are trusted, monitored and held accountable by their peers. Unfortunately, in reality the honor code is not successful and actually allows for more cheating. Rockhurst High school is better at preventing misconduct by enforcing stricter policies than the honor system. The honor code should no longer be implemented in Rockhurst High School because it is not necessary.

In today’s society, school is no longer about learning new material nor fully understanding the material, rather it is about getting the passing grade, which leads students to act upon instinct and perform questionable actions including: cheating, plagiarizing and stealing. Therefore, it is necessary for schools, such as my own, to implement an honor code in order to cultivate academic integrity, promote a healthy academic environment since it is adaptable to any school domain.