Honor

I'm sure you can tell, but I did not upload a photo from New Zealand today. Instead, I put up the video that I edited for the Honor Council to use during NSO (new student orientation) week at CC. Simply put, I joined the Honor Council half-way through sophomore year because I wanted more things to do. I spent freshman year doing the same thing everyday; it got boring and eventually had negative effects on my happiness. So, sophomore year I was determined to join groups that would fill my time with things that I loved to do. The Honor Council was one of them. I had an Honor Code at my high school, but no one followed it and hardly anyone ever got in trouble. It frustrated the hell out of me and definitely helped form a negative opinion of my high school. When I got to CC, people also seemed to take for granted the privileges that come with an Honor Code, which again frustrated me; by the time I got around to sophomore year, I wanted to try to change that. After being at a school that doesn't have an Honor Code for half of a semester, I feel even more dedicated to the cause. At AU (University of Auckland), everything is so formal. You have to fill out everything correctly and the lecturers walk up and down the aisle watching everyone. That stresses me out ten times more than my actual test. I feel like I am guilty until proven innocent. It also made me grateful to be at CC with professors who trust their students enough to have the integrity to do the right thing. When I try to explain our Honor System to students here I usually get the same reaction, "What's keeping you from cheating?" I at first I was shocked at the question, now I just think, "Why would you want to cheat?" To me an A is not worth losing all of what CC has given me, I'd rather add my own thoughts and explore my own mind than lose the respect of my professors and possibly be kicked out of the only school at which I've ever actually wanted to learn. They put so much into us, why can we not put effort into our work for them? I guess I'm just an idealist, but cheating to get a grade just doesn't seem worth it to me.... Then again, I want to be a filmmaker and therefore will end up living in cardboard box, so maybe it doesn't even matter if I get the grade...