Codes of Honour

I asked my kids to write their codes of honour and give me the reasons they believed what they did. I found something rather interesting: without fail, those who cheated said that it was in their code not to cheat, lie, or steal. By my count, they have done all three any time they’ve plagiarized.

I also find it interesting that many of the students who I would think of as having strict codes had loose ones and vice versa. Here is what I have learned:

1. The kids who need to think about it, don’t see the validity.

2. The kids who don’t need to think about it, see the validity, but don’t get why I would care enough to have them do this.

3. Someone needs to teach much of this generation about honour and having a code because I don’t think they realize how one works.

4. Many claim the Ten Commandments but can’t actually go beyond the words and deal with the meaning.

Thoughts on how to get them thinking more about this? I know it’s not my job to teach this stuff necessarily, but whoa is it necessary.