Argument Essay: Implementing The Honor Code In Schools

Can students be trusted not to cheat? More high schools, colleges, and universities are beginning to implement honor codes in their schools which, as the name implies, are sets of guidelines that are meant to constitute honorable behavior. These sets of rules do not condone acts of cheating, stealing, and plagiarizing with penalties upon violation. However, despite the establishment of an honor code, it is not guaranteed to work in all schools. Most students may not respond to having new sets of rules to follow or the punishment that comes along with not doing as such. The honor code should be revised in order to be more flexible with students as well as ensure their academic integrity. Honor codes should not enforce students to do more than what they should do just to show they understand the system, otherwise it would lose the appeal to the students and cause it to become meaningless. Those instituting these honor codes should also be aware of how the school’s
According to an online publication piece called New Honor Codes for a New Generation, “…colleges have found effective ways to reduce cheating and plagiarism…[by] encouraging student involvement in developing community standards on academic dishonesty and ensuring their subsequent acceptance by the larger student community” (Source F). Research has shown that schools that implement these honor codes, which allow for students to take exams without proctors and rely on peer monitoring instead, cheat less than other schools. This is due to a peer culture that develops on these campuses with such honor codes which “makes most forms of serious cheating socially unacceptable among the majority of students” (Source F). By allowing students to be trusted not to cheat without outside influence, it can help them form an understanding of the value of academic integrity as well as responsibility as a student without it being pressured