Honor Code Case Study

In an unsupervised state, students will honor a previously made commitment that stipulates that they will not cheat and have the courage to stop other, less honorable students from cheating despite having signed the previously mentioned agreement — this is the basic idea of the honor code. However, if the hypothetical situation illustrated by the honor code 's statement were always true, teachers would only be necessary to teach the class — and even then, could easily be replaced by a video recording — because the students would have the capability to test and function without committing academic dishonesty. Sadly, this is not the case because some schools are better suited for the honor code than others. The success of the honor code depends on …show more content…
We Achievers are quite tolerant of each other’s faults — even those of academic dishonesty. Paired with the statement that "the likelihood of being caught depends on the students ' tolerance for cheating" (Dirmeyer and Cartwright), it is easily discernable that Achieve is not the prime host for the honor system. I have seen students cheat before while the teacher is present, so what would stop them from cheating if there is no teacher present? I have stood silent, as have many others, after witnessing previously said cheating without saying a word or bringing it to the attention of the teacher, so what could possibly stir us out of our inactive stupor? The answer, quite frankly, is education— specifically, education of the process of the honor system and of its effectiveness. In order to have an effective honor code system, the students of Achieve must be taught to fear the honor code, much like members of a religious institution are taught to fear their respective ecclesiastic beings. The honor code must become a sort of religion — one that does not tolerate