“The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself.” This phrase coined by Gamaliel Bailey details the morals surrounding cheating that is a common event in today’s schooling. This raises the question: Do honor codes effectively deter students from cheating and plagiarizing? Honor codes do not deter students from cheating because they are not respected, they only work in honest environments, and they are not strongly enforced. The inefficiency of honor codes can come from the fact that many students do not respect the honor codes. Students are given hundreds of rules to follow, so honor codes can lose their meaning in the sea of other rules. Sometimes honor codes require students to write a …show more content…
Honor codes are not as discussed as much as they need to be, but they also are not strong enough. Over forty-two percent of students are not aware of the punishments they will be given if they cheat (Sledge). This shows that schools are not discussing the consequences with their students. Informing the students of the consequences related to violating the honor code will help strengthen it in their minds, which would result in less cheating amongst students. Honor codes were originally very strong and carried very harsh punishments, but as they are implemented they are usually softened or weakened. Honor codes also work better when they are enforced by students (Dirmeyer). This is because when students enforce the honor codes, they become more accustomed to them and they gain an adamant attitude against cheating. The attitude against cheating discourages others from cheating, which creates an honest environment for the school. Honor codes must also be well funded and executed in order to make a strong impact on the students. The schools must invest heavily in developing an importance for academic integrity amongst the students. Students will not cheat if they know it will be bad for their social appearance (McCabe). Students do not want to be embarrassed by other students for cheating in class and this is why an environment of students that are against cheating is so