The Honor Council: Outdated Ideals Of Honor

The increasing prevalence of honor codes in schools has changed the way students approach academic integrity. Honor codes are sets of regulations that require students to refrain from any sort of cheating and hold their peers accountable. Schools should continue to uphold their current system of honor codes in order to ensure academic integrity within the school while still respecting student privacy. The key to maintaining school honor codes is to involve the students in participating in the decision making aspect of honor codes, as well as enforcing them.

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

When an honor code is strictly implemented, for example by making students sign a paper that states that they will not cheat, it will negatively affect their ethos, or character, when they do cheat. In an environment where honor codes are implemented, if a student get caught cheating, that student will be deemed a bad person and lose everyone’s trust never to gain that trust again fully no matter how hard he or she tries. Increasing the awareness that the students can get caught and reminding them that they have “responsibility to perform honestly in the school environment” (Source B) discourage them to cheat. As a result, implementing an honor code provides an environment “where students and faculty could live in complete trust of one another” (Source B). Students should not have to worry about the consequences they will face just because another student is cheating off of them.

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

As mentioned in source B, “Students were expected to report or confront a fellow student…. Failure to confront or report a student would result in a period of probation” The problem with this honor system is that it’s saying that if the student doesn’t report the other student, he/she will receive a consequence. The problem with that is that the student might be scared or not have the courage to report the student that is copying and that student will receive a punishment instead of the cheater receiving the consequence.

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.

First of all, a cheater does not change his ways, because if they want to cheat they will find a way and do it even if they signed a honor code. As source D debated that “even here [University of Virginia], where honor is so well defined and policed by an elite student committee, plagiarism has become a problem.” Even in an university with an elevated system of honor code, the students still cheated because they choose to, completely ignoring the honor code. Also, the source C indicated “if a student enters a college with mostly “cheater” types [will encourage] even “honest” types to cheat.” This is a clear example of the decision took by any type of student to cheat, regardless of a honor code.

An honor code should be integrated into my school is because it discourages students from plagiarizing. The University of Virginia punishes all students by expelling them if they are found to be cheating (Source D). Chris Khan recounted how 157 students were accused of plagiarizing with 39 students having either dropped or been expelled (Source D). This demonstrates that students do indeed report cheating which is important because it makes it easier to spot cheaters while at the same time discouraging others from trying to do the same. In effect, the honor code system does not eliminate cheating, but it does create an environment where students know what is expected of them and

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.