My high school is one of the highest ranked public schools in Pennsylvania. Many students take between five and fifteen AP courses and work hard to achieve perfect GPAs and test scores in hopes of being accepted into prestigious colleges. The school doesn't even publish class rankings because the difference between the grades of the best students is tiny. In such a high-performance atmosphere, it is almost inevitable that some cheating will exist. Although cheating is a problem, implementing an honor code would not be successful. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay There is already a lot of cheating, especially in higher level classes, but most cheating is relatively inconsequential. Everyone at my school was repeatedly warned about the dangers of plagiarism, and there were clear penalties for students who cheat. Most articles are sent through a plagiarism detector such as Turnitin. As a result, few students are willing to take as big a risk as copying an entire essay from the Internet. However, there are many collaborations that take place in other forms. Most students have heard the phrase "Just change the wording so it's not obvious" when their friends send them photos of their class work. In an environment where students may be taking four or five advanced courses at a time, busy work cannot take priority over studying for a test or writing an assignment. The assignments that students cheat on the most are the ones where no one considers it a risk. As Donald L. McCabe points out, the success of an honor code depends on a “culture of academic integrity.” Few students see the problem with cheating in such small amounts, especially if integrity comes at the expense of a good grade. Additionally, as Source F points out, many students also feel like they have no choice but to cheat to stay competitive. One of the biggest problems with an honor code is that students don't feel comfortable reporting their peers and forcing them to do so. this would only encourage disrespect towards teachers. Most students believe that cheating is immoral and deserves punishment, but only 8% of them would report cheating by a peer. There is a strong sense of camaraderie among students as they sympathize with the amount of homework they have to do or the unfairness of a certain teacher. Pitching these people against each other would only create feelings of animosity. Other high schools that attempted to create an honor code, such as Lawrence Academy, faced backlash because of these rules, and they were eventually removed. Students simply don't feel comfortable sending their peers to be punished. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Finally, an honor code based on punishment would simply be unrealistic. In some AP classes, teachers are required to create tests from a bank of College Board-approved textbooks. As a result, in many cases it is possible to find and study certain test questions online before an exam. Should students be blamed for using a useful resource to study? Should teachers be blamed for obeying orders to create..