Personal values, actions, and personality are special features that characterize an individual. What characterizes a person on an academic platform is his/her integrity and in order to preserve academic integrity, the education system found the honor codes. The honor codes or systems, in our schools, are a set of principles that maintain an honest and fair academic environment for all students. Despite its effort to cultivate integrity, our honor codes should be revised because the codes create mistrust among students, the expectations of the honor codes are never meant, and puts pressure on the ideal image of a “perfect” student.
First, the honor codes should be revised because its strict punishments threatened the relationship among students.…show more content… For example, a principle of the honor codes was to prevent students from using another person’s work in their assignments; however, “...where honor is well defined...plagiarism has become a problem,” (Doc D). Despite the honor codes’ restriction on plagiarism, this problem continues to arise in schools. This shows that even the most defined schools fail to achieve the expectations of the honor codes because students continues to find a way to use someone’s else works as their own. Along with plagiarism, “...we see significantly less self-reported cheating on campuses with the honor codes,” (Doc F). Beside plagiarism, the honor codes preserve integrity by prohibiting the act of cheating; however, the concern of students cheating weigh heavily on schools. This reveals that it is important put the honor codes into revision because the current honor system is not assessing what schools should do to prevent further cheating or plagiarism. Even with the use of the honor codes, a student research from 2007-2008 displayed that only 8 percent of students would report a fellow student for cheating. The honor codes expects students to notify their teachers if they find one of their peers cheating, yet the data indicates that less than 10 percent of students are willing to report their classmates or themselves, thereby weakening the values of integrity. Plagiarism…show more content… In Source E, a student research presented that 88 percent of students believed that their failure on an assignment is due to the violations of the honor code at school. This shows that the current honor systems is more critical of the students’ academic responsibilities because their performances on their assessments are unacceptable according to the honor codes’ principles. Knowing that they’re not good enough, students will find alternatives to keep their grades up in school and when everyone “...else is cheating, they have no choice but to do the same to remain competitive,” (Doc F). The honor code encourages competition among students because it required that all students must keep their integrity, but also exceed in their academics; therefore, creating tensions among students and those who fail to achieve the codes’ academic goals are more likely to be pressured to cheat. On the contrary, the students who exceed in school are also facing pressure to maintain their positions on the academic ranking; hence, “...encouraging even the honest types to cheat,” (Doc C). The honor system prioritize academic integrity; however, it fails to acknowledge that every person learn and develop differently. The honor system is limited in its educational opportunities and when students have to follow a precise guideline,
