Honor Code
Canterbury’s Honor Code testifies to the school's commitment to create an environment in which honesty and integrity prevail. The code acts as an extension of our Behavior Expectation Policy and is consistent with the Purpose, Mission, and Philosophy articulated by Canterbury's founders. By extending the Behavior Expectation Policy to include an honor code that focuses on personal and academic integrity, we create opportunities for our middle school students to gain insight into these vitally important concepts.
In accordance with the mission of the school and the Behavior Expectation Policy, Canterbury students will not participate in lying, cheating, or stealing, and they will not tolerate those actions in others.
I pledge to uphold the Canterbury Honor Code in letter and in spirit throughout this school year.
Middle School students will also use a pledge on all tests, projects, papers, reports and long-term assignments:
I pledge that I have upheld the Canterbury Honor Code in letter and in spirit.
Lying
At Canterbury, we believe it is vital to tell the truth at all times, recognizing there is honor in telling the truth even when that truth reveals a mistake or an error in judgment. It requires courage to face mistakes and accept responsibility for their consequences.
Telling the truth includes explaining accurately why work was not completed on time or was incomplete, why one was absent or late from school, why one missed an obligation, how one interacted with other students or a teacher, and any other specifics about one’s actions. A student who makes false excuses for his or her behavior has not upheld our Honor Code.
Cheating
At Canterbury, we believe students must engage in honest scholarship. Honest scholarship in student work means that the product comes from a student’s own mind and effort. Such work includes all tests, exams, long-range projects, and homework. Written work, for instance, needs to reflect a student's ideas, organization, punctuation, and sentence structure. In order to help families and students alike understand types of habits and help which are suitable or not, we provide the following examples of permissible and non-permissible help that can be given and/or received, keeping in mind that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter. All families should review and discuss these examples at home.
Students who give or receive help with the intent of providing or gaining an unfair academic advantage are not living up to the Honor Code.
Permissible Help From Fellow Students and Parents
- Telling another student what the assignment is
- Repeating specific directions given by the teacher
- Identifying weakness in organization, style, word choice or content. In other words, it is permissible to comment: “This paragraph is weak,” or “These words are misspelled,” or “You didn’t answer all the questions.”
- Sharing notes (unless the notes are the assignment)
- Showing another student how to do a problem by using another example
- Brainstorming ideas on creative writing assignments
- Reviewing material in preparation for a test or exam
- Discussing concepts that were addressed in class or engaging in discussion of course material for better understanding
Non-Permissible Help From Fellow Students and Parents
- Giving another student your answer or answers to any given question
- Telling another student how to re-write something (i.e. “…just write this down.”)
- Sharing with another student any content that is part of an answer
- Letting someone read your answers, knowing or suspecting he or she intends to paraphrase those answers
- Showing or explaining to another student where to find information for an assignment (i.e. “look on page 34 for the answer”)
- Looking at another student’s paper and/or using his or her ideas or answers
- Using a calculator when not permitted
- Having another person, including a parent, assist with the production of an assignment, including typing or word processing written work (Exceptions are made for students with special learning needs.)
- Discussing any aspect of a quiz, test or exam before all students have taken the test
- Letting a project partner do all of the work and then putting your name on the final project
- Using any part of someone else’s work without proper acknowledgement
Homework, Papers, Projects
Our Honor Code does not expressly address plagiarism, though it is clearly a form of lying, cheating, and stealing. When doing research, students may use the ideas, even the exact words, of other authors. Whether quoted directly or paraphrased, however, such borrowed material must be properly cited. Students will learn and practice how to use proper citations in their composition classes. All teachers assigning papers requiring research will reemphasize the importance of proper citations and will expect compliance.
All rough and final drafts of assigned papers and written projects must reflect the student’s ideas, organization, punctuation, and sentence structure. All projects must reflect the student’s own labor, design, and artwork.
Exams, Tests, Quizzes
Honest scholarship in test situations means that students refrain from looking at other students' papers, even if the information is not used. Obviously, taking answers from another test and using them or looking at one's notes or a text is forbidden. Any time a student is unable to finish a test during a given period and the teacher allows the student to return later to complete it, the student may not talk to others about the test or look at related materials in the interim. Moreover, if any aspect of a test (content, format or level of difficulty) is discussed between students who have and who have not taken the test, students on both the giving and receiving end of this conversation are guilty of breaching the Honor Code. Students also may not give advance notice to others of pop quizzes.
Collaboration among students is often directed by faculty, but students should know that unless specific directions for collaboration are given by their teacher, it is understood that assignments are to be done individually. When appropriate, students will be encouraged by the teacher to help each other by critiquing writing, clarifying the directions, comparing the length of answers, sharing resource books, discussing a group project or lab experience in preparation for writing it up, and giving examples.
There are a number of very difficult "gray" areas. For instance, we strongly discourage students from comparing answers (the familiar "What did you get on number 12?") because while the intent is simply to identify errors (permissible), the result is often to supply answers (a violation).
Similarly, we urge parents to use discretion when providing correct spellings; in many cases, looking the word up and copying it from a dictionary stimulate better retention.
STEALING
At Canterbury, we believe in respect for one another’s property. A student who demonstrates this respect never defaces anything that belongs to another student or the school, never “borrows” property (including money, clothing, books, academic work, papers, calculators, uniforms, art supplies, library books or classroom supplies) without specific permission, never takes or hides food or other items that were intended for another person, never takes things from the “Lost and Found” that are not his or hers, and never violates a student’s or teacher’s privacy by entering her room, computer files or folder, locker, or other personal property without permission.
Use of the school's computers and network is a special privilege, and analogous standards of integrity apply in this realm. Tampering with operating systems or other students' files or folders is analogous to "taking" or "hiding" property. Using another person’s E-mail account is dishonest. The Guidelines for Acceptable Internet Use and Statement of Student Responsibility signed by all students elaborates on these guidelines.
In our world, to “look the other way” is often to condone, and there is no better time than the Middle School years to harness our students’ idealism by joining together to make our school a community where honesty and integrity prevail.
The staff hopes to create an environment in which students would expect their peers to adhere to the Honor Code and feel comfortable reporting violations or confronting one another. Because the age of our students and the size of our student body make the burden of required reporting of violations too great, students will be encouraged, and taught how, to speak up when they observe another student violating the Honor Code. Likewise, all other members of the school community -- parents, teachers, and staff -- will be called upon to do their absolute best to protest, in an appropriate way, behavior that lacks integrity.
