Essay On Honor Code

Most schools enforce an honor code with the premise that it will stop cheating. This honor code tends to include rules and consequences about integrity. Some schools take this code to the extreme while others have a more mild version of it. Woodside High School already has an academic integrity policy, which differs from an honor code. Through the examination of other schools’ honor codes and their results, Woodside should consider revising certain aspects of their policy. An honor code means that students are in charge of themselves to stay away from cheating. It does not mean that there are administrators telling everyone to sign documents. Honor code is built upon trust. The cartoon in Source A demonstrates that an honor code is not supposed to be enforced by superiors as represented by spycams. The purpose of honor codes is that students avoid cheating to maintain their own academic integrity for themselves, not because someone else is telling them what to do. Woodside’s integrity policy is about rules that students must abide by, and it is enforced by adults on campus. An honor code is different because instead of having superiors enforce the code the students would enforce the code on themselves. In addition, an honor code is vital to all academic situations. The goal of school is to improve one’s self, rather than
Harvard has an all-student court to enforce the honor code, shifting the choice to not cheat from an academic reason to a social reason. By having students enforce the honor code, it creates community values. By having students enforce the honor code, it creates community values, so it becomes socially unacceptable to cheat. Students refrain from cheating because it will harm both their social and their academic standings. By increasing the risks of cheating, students are less likely to