The Honor Council: Outdated Ideals Of Honor

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 and codes of conduct have existed for about as long as systems of institutionalized education have, as they exist for the betterment of the students. Honor codes often consist of a set of enumerated standards that the aforementioned institution holds its students to. Without them, students’ cheating would go unregulated, which would overall just harm themselves, since it would be detrimental to their learning experience. The use of outside advantage to garner better grades would make it harder for the students to gain the help that they need, as well as allowing students to proceed without actually

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

“At the University of Virginia, there’s a saying that students soon commit to memory: ‘On my honor as a student, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment/exam.’ Students write this on every test in every class during their college career, pledging as their predecessors have since 1842 never to lie, cheat or steal.” (Source D) By making students write this statement, it creates a false sense of trust that can be abused. They are more likely to cheat because they think that no one will notice just because they wrote a saying on a paper. By putting the honor code in students faces, it creates a fake trust that can be easily

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.

Periodically it is more suitable to have a set of rules in classrooms then to not have any at all. As the time flutters by, more plentiful crimes have been devoted despite the fact not many are in the great state of Idaho. Teenagers are more likely to commit more crimes then adults. Plagiarizing is the number one crime perpetrate by teenagers when they are in school writing an essay. Students like to plagiarize because they are timid of failing or they simply aren’t sympathetic in that subject. Schools need to have honor codes because it can atrocity the crime rate tremendously. Some schools in the state of Idaho have honor codes like Nampa Senior High School and Columbia High School. Although the students do not follow either honor codes at the high schools.

Many schools have implemented different ways of using honor codes or systems in and out of the classroom wall. The schools use a set of referred to rules or requirements to make the students rethink on the very idea of whether they would want to cheat, steal, or plagiarize knowing that there will be consequences should they be caught in the act.

I often wonder why rules or laws have to be established to cover every part of daily life. People generally know what is right and wrong but as I grow older I see that every set of rules is made to prevent people from doing a certain action ever/again. By acknowledging the set of rules it is in a way similar to signing an honor pledge but that just might not be enough in some places such as my high school. It would be a good idea to establish an honor code at my school to prevent practices such as cheating, plagiarism, and stealing with established consequences for violating the honor code.

Although, some may not think an honor code can be useful in a college environment, but it can be seen in Dirmeyer, Jennifer, and Alexander Cartwright article which states, "students at colleges with honor codes—typically students enforced cheat less than their counterparts elsewhere do (Cartwrights). Which comes to an understanding that a more healthy academic environment will take place in a college community, if a college does enforce an honor code. This honor code will typically stand

First, establishing an honor code will mold integrity into a social norm. Likewise, enforcing rules to eliminate cheating and unoriginal content remarkably impacts the culture of the school. By enforcing strict rules and punishments into the school's system, students gradually grow aware and take pre-cautions. As a result, "peer culture [develops] on honor code campuses... [that makes] cheating socially unacceptable"(source F). Though a handful of students may attempt to evade the honor code, the new culture will lead them to be "embarrassed to have other students find

As kids grow to adults they start learning throughout their lives right from wrong, and reward or consequence. Honor code is a form of this teaching us students about, "trust and integrity," when doing our work or taking a test, so we know when the honor code is violated there are consequences to the actions or a reward for our hard work in trying. Schools should maintain honor code because of this. In order for honor code to work, trust needs to go both ways for students and the faculty at the school so a , "culture of trust and integrity [is created]...[that we] value so highly [in life]" (source c). Some schools can go to far when enforcing the honor code, and student will see it as "another rule to obey" (source b), but the actual main

First honor codes are proven to help stop cheating and plagiarism. But it is the student's responsibility to stop that person from cheating. In source B many students said they did not want it to be their responsibility. If a school has an honor code but most students are uncomfortable turning in fellow students it defeats the purpose of having the honor code. Once the honor code is well established with good sensible rules students might think the honor code is beneficial.

Why should we have an honor code? We should have an honor code in our school to insure that the kids here are getting a good education and that they won't leave school not knowing what do with their lives because all they did was cheat.

Throughout many schools the honor code is known as a set of rules one must follow to gain and maintain honorable behavior. If one does not follow the code on the other hand is faced with many consequences for their actions. Although it should not have to be seen as a rule book you must follow, but as integrity you gain from it. You can not put a price on a student’s journeying of gaining