Foothills Honor Code

With the rise of the digital age cheating and plagiarism are becoming easier for students to get away with, with more access to information and higher stakes some would argue it had become a ‘necessary evil’. In turn it has also become easier to find and punish cheaters, but disputes on how to regulate these students and hopefully prevent cheating and ever waging. Honor codes have been implemented at schools and universities across the nation, that are a written agreement that require students to be honest in their work and conduct, especially promising not to cheat; however, many people (both students and administrators) are questioning if they actually provide positive results. My school Foothills Academy does not have an honor code implemented,
They cheat either because they feel like they don’t have any other option or because they won’t get caught, but I don’t feel like this problem applies to Foothills Academy. Being such a small school, for a student here it is easier to receive more teacher attention or even peer support that can prevent future cheating better than a public school. Teachers watch their students closer and have higher expectations of conduct. Adding a honor code would only make the students feel out of control and not trusted, which would cause a backlash of bad behavior. In fact, knowing these students all it would do would make them want to rebel against the code. While I’m sure cheating does happen here, a better way to handle it would be to promote an anti-cheating
Ultimately depending on how it is enforced it can help but it all rides on the consensus of the students, and while Foothills Academy should not implement a honor code there are steps that can be taken to promote academic integrity on its campus. Seminars on cheating and plagiarism should be held to have students better understand and recognize when it is happening, after-school help and tutoring should be promoted more so students don’t have to rely on cheating to get the grades they want. To actually spur a change in these students unsavory habits we need to make a change to help them in the right direction, not just make them sign a