Statement on Academic Honesty at Horace Mann School

This document is adapted from a statement published by the Department of English of Horace Mann School, which was itself adapted from a similar statement by the Department of English of Phillips Exeter Academy and used with its permission. I’ve also profited from reading similar statements from Riverdale Country School, and from Harvard and Princeton universities.

The faculty and administration of Horace Mann School are circulating this statement about academic honesty to affirm our solidarity with our students and articulate our common commitment to intellectual honesty. Our experience with our students leads us to conclude that, generally speaking, they are honest, hard-working, and strive for success by relying on their own efforts. In general, our students want an honest School, just as, in general, young people want an honest world. They want to be treated fairly, to be trusted, and to have the reasonable rules and demands of the School stated clearly and explicitly. This is what we want too. We also must say, as candor requires, that at times our students have made unacceptable use of the work of others, and that this fact disturbs us deeply. In order to clarify our attitude toward academic honesty and to encourage communication between us and our students, we share the following remarks. We hope that by doing so in a spirit of frankness and openness, we will emerge a more united School, one from which cheating and plagiarism are being eliminated.

Plagiarism and cheating are the opposite of academic honesty. Plagiarism and cheating make unacceptable use of the work of others and attempt to pass off the work of others as one’s own. These practices are dishonest. They subvert the central principle of our School, which is to provide the best possible education for our students. Such an education as we wish for our students can be sought only in an atmosphere of the love of learning, honest scholarship, and mutual respect. In the absence of academic honesty, none of the core values of our School can be integrated into its life and work. Genuine learning and the moral development of the students in our care are impossible in the absence of academic honesty.

In deciding to cheat or to plagiarize, a student defines himself or herself, at least for that moment, as a person to whom narrow and false self-interest matters more than integrity. These acts deprive the student of the self-respect that comes with genuine effort and the pleasure that comes with honest learning. But the consequences of academic dishonesty are not personal only. Academic dishonesty undermines the integrity of the School. In the presence of cheating and plagiarism, it is impossible to achieve personal or institutional wholeness, predictability, or trustworthiness. Plagiarism and cheating demean and are disrespectful of the honest work of others. They undermine the necessary trust and love between students and their teachers and among the students themselves. They make originality and intellectual discovery unattainable. They corrupt the proper relationship between the student and his or her object of study. They destroy community. For these reasons, all faculty members are required to report incidents of cheating or plagiarism to a Class Dean, the Dean of Student Life, the Dean of Faculty, or the Head of the Upper Division. The School regards cheating and plagiarism as very serious offenses, the disciplinary response to which may include suspension or expulsion.

We encourage our students to be independent and self-reliant as well as to learn how to co-operate and collaborate with each other. Education is a community undertaking, a social activity that must be governed by common understandings of acceptable and unacceptable behavior as well as by moral understanding of right and wrong. Whether working by themselves or in groups, students need to develop their abilities to think, to solve problems, and to express their ideas. Academic honesty provides the context in which students search for their own voices and develop their own intellectual powers. For this reason, teachers are responsible for defining the parameters of academic honesty and for telling their students when collaboration and co-operation are acceptable and when they are not. When in doubt about these questions, students are responsible for asking their teachers, and they may not proceed under the assumption that they are free to do whatever they please. Students may not engage in blatant copying of the work of others. They may not ask their fellow students questions about tests, quizzes, or in-class assignments they have missed or have not yet taken, including how hard the test was or what was or was not on it. If asked such questions, students must not respond. Such sharing of information constitutes cheating. Students must not re-use their own previous work without the explicit permission of their teachers; they must not re-tell stories without attribution or repeat information they find elsewhere; they must not allow or encourage their private tutors, should they have them, to do their work for them, to solve their homework problems or to write their papers. Such acts constitute cheating. Solving problems and writing are ways of learning, acts of intellectual development; cheating and plagiarism deprive the student of the chance to develop his or her own intellectual powers. Tests, papers, in-class essays, oral reports, and quizzes are not only tools of assessment, they are approaches to intellectual growth and development. They provide both teachers and students with necessary information about individual and group mastery of the subject and progress in the process of learning it. Cheating and plagiarism taint this necessary information and thus harm both the individual and the group.

Even as we deplore cheating and plagiarism and seek to eliminate them from the life of the School, we recognize the pressures and problems that may lead our students to make wrong choices. Work piles up; commitments multiply; deadlines approach; inappropriate and false solutions present themselves. The world provides plentiful examples of people who do the wrong thing and don’t get caught or are even rewarded. It is therefore all too common that otherwise honorable young people can make hasty, ill-considered, and careless choices. Compassion for our students and their dilemmas requires us adults to be open and honest with them, to explain our policies, cite our own sources, and answer their questions. Students, for their part, must not take easy ways out; when under stress or in doubt, they must share their problem with their teachers, advisors, or deans. Students must ask for help in a timely fashion. They must learn to avoid moments when, for lack of forethought, they lose control of their circumstances. At times, it may be necessary for them to accept a lower grade than they would like rather than cheat or plagiarize. Students must learn – and their teachers must help them learn – how to plan and how to manage their commitments. Such mastery of their commitments is encouraged by the School as part of our students’ growth and as an index of their maturity.

In sum: academic honesty is a general and universal as well as a particular matter. Academic honesty involves learning one’s intellectual manners. It involves a student’s overall approach to his or her education as well as to the individual disciplines that make up that education. Horace Mann School expects academic honesty from its students. Our opposition to plagiarism and cheating is part of our system of values. For all members of the School community, whether students or adults, these values are neither situational nor negotiable. They are about striving to do our best and to be our best. We have tried here to share our understanding of the general rules of academic honesty. To repeat: teachers in each academic subject will explain to their students the rules of academic honesty appropriate to that particular discipline. If these rules are not clear, students should ask to have them explained. Once students have been instructed in these rules and practices, however, they are responsible for their own behavior. Ignorance, the pressures of other work or commitments, the stresses of college admission, haste, a previously clean record, or immaturity are not acceptable excuses for academic dishonesty.