preview

The Code Of The Honor Code System

Decent Essays

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. The honor code system basically tells students that is up to them to decide whether it is acceptable to cheat or not. Although, most people would hope that the students at Rockhurst possess enough integrity to know that cheating is wrong, it only takes a few “cheater-types” to undermine the “honest-types”.(Source C). As Rutgers University professor Donald McCabe said “honor codes don’t always work. Their success depends on a culture of academic integrity”. The students need to have an expectation that cheating is not tolerated by their peers.
Unfortunately, the students at Rockhurst High school do tolerate cheating. Students in general are not willing to peer-regulate one another. In a 2007-2008 survey of a small public university, of the 275 students only 8% said they would report a fellow

Get Access