Windham High School is a public school that isn’t known for any significant honor codes or systems. It is a school that states its rules at least annually and advises that all students should follow all stated or written rules accordingly. Despite these rules involving consequences for cheating, stealing or plagiarising, my school community still involves a high level of distrust and occasional suspicions of dishonesty. My school, Windham High School, should implement an honor code (against stealing) to improve my school’s waivering sense of community and to reignite the focus of all students academically inside and outside the classroom. As a victim of stolen items multiple times, the incident of something being taken that belongs to someone …show more content…
The number of times I have heard or been asked to watch a friend’s belongings at this school is countless. Trust seems limited and only available to one’s closest friends. An honor code against stealing at WHS could increase the range and level of trust which consequently takes an edge off of everyone, especially when they’re in the classroom. The more a student doesn’t have to focus on their belongings being stolen, the more concentration they will be able to put into their work. Classrooms may also involve more fluidity in collaboration as every student would learn to trust each other within the same room. If an honor code is established at WHS, it should also be student enforced. As strong as peer pressure can be, the elevated expectations everyone would hold for each other based off of a non-stealing honor code would bind everyone together on the same mindset and trust. As Dirmeyer and Cartwright indicate in their commentary, “... students at colleges with honor codes-typically student-enforced--cheat less than their counterparts elsewhere do.”(Jennifer & Cartwright) While honor codes against plagiarism and cheating would also be nice to institute, WHS should first start with a non-stealing honor code as it relates heavily to human integrity both inside and outside the classroom. If a whole school could manage to