Honor Code: Conducting Student Integrity

The student author of the editorial seems to respect the honor code Groveton expects from its students, yet the author assumes the code itself is solely responsible for the alleged reduction in cheating at the school. Citing a survey to further empahsize the aforementioned assumption, the author only invites more speculation on the topic rather than providing further evidence as intended. While cheating is a frowned upon topic in all universities, this editorial is rife with assumptions and fallacious deduction, rendering the argument weak and unconvincing. First, the reporting system for Groveton 's novel honor code and the "old-fashioned" system it replaced both relyed solely on a human witness for reporting. Teachers used to monitor students and the new protocol calls for students to monitor each other and report any instances of cheating.

Most teachers have great relationships with their students and want them to succeed. Some students struggle and end up cheating. Having an Honor Code would destroy these resected student-teacher relationships non existent due to the fact that students would have to tell on other students. The balance that had been established would be destroyed and could never be recovered. Having an Honor Code will fracture the trust that students have with teachers.

Not so long ago, the honor code system was brought up to the U.S. Senate whether if it’s best to have it input schools to lessen cheating behaviors from students. It was not welcomed at first for those that were against the honor codes and as well of the people in the Senate. Even though after all the revisions and such, some voted to agree to have the codes set in place that would be good enough to have around in school; albeit honor codes don’t always work around schools, and cheating or some type of academic dishonesty will always happen— it’s inevitable. It seems by having these honor codes set in place, it would oppose the cheating and consequences against students. As the ones who have voted for the honor code wanted that safe, confidential, and knowing that their hard work and knowledge wasn’t used against them.

In Alyssa Vangelli’s article, she states that “Students opposed the honor code because they did not feel it was their responsibility,” (Source B) This statement immediately provides a fairly unsettling contradiction-after all, the entire purpose of the honor code is to make peer monitoring the responsibility of the students. The students complain that they are not trusted, yet when measures are taken to earn this trust, they balk. Supporting this is Sledge, Sally, and Pringle’s 2013 survey of a small university, in which only 8% of students stated they would report a fellow who student for cheating. While a larger scale survey would need to be done to validate these results, this alarming statistic seems to suggests that the lack of trust towards students matches a lack of

The honor code is often viewed with disdain by students who see its purpose solely as another set of rules to dutifully abide by. Administrators see it as a way to prevent cheating as seen through Source F where it states, “a number of colleges have found effective ways to reduce cheating and plagiarism… many of these colleges employ academic honor codes to accomplish these objectives.” This philosophy itself demonstrates a major flaw in the major purpose behind the honor code. The purpose of implementing an honor code should not be to eliminate cheating through making examples out of, mainly through expulsion and suspension, those who act with academic dishonesty. The purpose of the honor code should be above all, to foster a community where values such as integrity, honesty and respect are held in the highest regard.

Honor codes help to inspire students to have integrity. Many people were quick to criticize the idea of having an honor system due to the belief that plagiarism and cheating rates would just increase. Although that may be true in some cases, a 22-year old student on University of Virginia's Honor Committee stated "It's not like we are saying we hate you, it's just that we have standards here" (Source D) after many students were caught plagiarizing. These students were either expelled or dropped out; some even lost their diplomas. Donald L.

Honor codes rely on its student body to work, but it 's the student body honor codes are used for. Schools shouldn 't have a set of rules for students that, they want the students themselves to enforce. The schools struggle to enforce such codes and they pass on the burden. They want the students to take on a responsibility they don 't want. Most don 't want to risk telling on another and become a social outcast.

Integrity is being honest and doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Don Galer’s quote, “Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do” shows that integrity is affected by strong moral principles and what we do with those. The role of National Honor Society is to celebrate the students who have kept up their integrity throughout their high school career and to keep them on that same path. Integrity is an important aspect in education today because there are so many opportunities to cheat on a multitude of assignments but the students who stay away from cheating will be better off in the long run. For example, while I have been in high school there have been many times that I could have cheated like reading the spark

An honor code can be so effective that “many schools with academic honor codes allow students to take their exams without proctors present, relying on peer monitoring to control cheating” (Source F). Despite this system, there is research that “indicates that the significantly lower levels cheating” (Source F) at schools with honor codes. This is possible because there is a peer culture that denounces cheating, making kids embarrassed to commit academic dishonesty. Such a peer culture was formed by educating the students about the value of academic dishonesty.

Honor codes should be mandatory in every school because schools are places where students learn the skills necessary in order to face the reality of life and the hard work that is needed in order to succeed. If schools do not enforce an honor code, students will develop with the notion that cheating is not punishable and is socially acceptable, even though this is in fact not true. In light of this, it is imperative that schools avoid this misconception so that students understand that cheating is not acceptable. Honor codes help in accomplishing this because they instill the preconceived notion that they should be honest with themselves about how much knowledge they really have about a subject. Furthermore, honor codes create a fair system of judgment for all

That aside not every student will take a pledge and feel obligated to stop cheating or to be completely honesty. This could be the flaw in the honor code, stating that the students take a pledge to not use plagiarism or cheat which means that not every student will have the integrity to not cheat when he/ she didn’t study for a test and has the integrity to be honest to the educator that they have

“Since “everyone else” is cheating, they have no choice but to do the same to remain competitive. And there is growing evidence many students take these habits with them to college.” (McCabe, Donald and Pavela). More and more colleges are using the honor codes. The honor code has helped to prevent cheating.

Introduction Academic Integrity is an essential component of third level education because it is the fundamental building block in which we derive our professional ethics and integrity from. It sets a pattern for life long integrity in all areas of life. Our job as students is to construct knowledge honestly and fairly. A culture of honesty earns a great deal of respect. Integrity is fundamental to everything we do in college, I don’t think we can have genuine learning without integrity.

Study shows that one reason why students cheat is because they feel as if they almost have to because of their peers. In their article, “Source Is Important When Developing A Social Norms Campaign to Combat Academic Dishonesty”, Jennifer N. Engler and Joshua D. Landau maintains that “By this account, students cheat because they believe that their peers

I remember some classmates, cheating back in high school. Throughout my entire educational career, I have experienced meeting a lot of cheaters. Plagiarism is considered a form of cheating. The punishment has changed from a zero grade to expulsion. A lot of students who cheat, are only fooling themselves.