What if the secret to building a trusting community was to rely on students’ choices to do what is right? What if a school culture was centered on honor? These questions form the foundation of the Honor Code at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy. It is the driving force of what it means to be Maeser Academy students, and it is more than a signature on an admission document.
The Dilemma: Character in a Modern World
We know our students are growing up in a world that has often lost its way. In that world, character does not always matter; it sometimes seems as though character is a handicap. In that world, character is not enough; it is the expedience, and not the rightness, that gets us to the finish line. On social media, it is image and persona, and not authentic virtue, that drives the world of our students. And in the world of school and grades, it is the grade, and not the education, that often takes priority.
Many parents send their kids to Maeser because they want more than just academic excellence, they want a culture where their child is known and held accountable. They are looking for a school where their child will be called by name and be expected to be a person of honor. They are seeking character formation that carries a high value alongside college preparation.
It is to address these needs that the Maeser Academy Honor Code exists.
What Is the Honor Code, and Why Is It Important?
The Honor Code at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy is a pledge of commitment between students, faculty, and families to live a life of Truth, Honor, and Virtue. It guides our behavior in all things, from our academic honesty and respect for one another to our responsibility to others and our willingness to resolve conflict and disagree appropriately.
The Maeser Academy Honor Code embodies a classical view of education and virtue. We believe a life of virtue is inseparable from the life of education, and a commitment to knowledge is tied directly to a commitment to character. To cheat is to break trust in order to gain an academic advantage and to destroy the environment for all students in the community. To speak disrespectfully to another is to destroy their trust in others, to diminish their sense of value as a student, and to undermine their ability to learn. And so, our Honor Code is a commitment to live with integrity even in those moments when there is no one watching, even if no one knows.
It is the daily practice of choosing to do what is right, even if no one is there to witness your choice, or to know or reward it for doing so. In that way, the Honor Code is not a rule to break, but a habit to establish, one that requires both intention and discipline to practice on a daily basis.
The Student Experience: Embracing the Culture
The Maeser Academy Honor Code affects every aspect of life at the school from academics to the hallway to sports activities, and it is the responsibility of every member of our community. In addition to signing an honor pledge on every major assignment, students live the code by taking responsibility for one another and the community.
Students are trusted to walk quietly between their classes and take responsibility for the materials they use. Students are trusted to show up to and participate in Socratic Seminar when they know full well they will have to defend, and perhaps disagree with, another’s argument. They are trusted in this community because there is the culture of honor, in that students are expected to behave in a way that is in the best interest of everyone, even when they may prefer to do otherwise.
Students at Maeser Academy have the opportunity to live in this community of honor and are held accountable to those who come before us. When that accountability is not fulfilled and a student makes a wrong choice, they take responsibility, they reflect, and they are given the opportunity to repair the damage they have done. It is important to our students that they know that a life of virtue is a life in which they will be held accountable to those around them for the wrong that they might do.
Students will eventually leave this community to enter college, the workforce, and their own homes, all with the expectation and hope that they have learned to trust others, be trusted by others, and to make right those wrongs they may have done in a way that benefits not only the people around them but themselves. This is the responsibility of Maeser Academy students, a commitment to do what is good, what is right, and what is honorable.
The Faculty Role: Mentoring, Not Policing
Teachers at Maeser Academy are not required to police students, but we are charged with being their mentors. To do this, we are required to know our students very well, to have small class sizes, and to know the strengths, struggles, and challenges that each student has and work to bring those strengths into focus in a way that benefits both the individual and our community as a whole. Mentorship isn’t simply an aspect of our educational approach; it’s fundamental to it. Our faculty are both passionate scholars of their fields and mentors dedicated to the development of the whole child, and they partner with families in the endeavor of raising young people of character.
Impact on Community: Trust as a Shared Investment
The Honor Code is a code not just for our students but for all of Maeser. Families become partners in the shared commitment of integrity, respect, and trust—a community where the culture is not only different from a larger school, it is a more personal culture. Many visitors comment that there is an order to Maeser’s community that is neither rigid, a respect without being formal, and a community warmth that stems from a common set of values. This culture stems from a community who has chosen to live up to the Honor Code, year after year.
The Academy was opened in 2007 as a public charter school that is committed to classical education and who take their name from a man (Karl G. Maeser) who thought that “education is that which awakens the power within to do good” who have, since then, thought of the formation of character as being vital to educational success. As students learn to be in the habit of honoring the truth and practicing respect, those habits inform and permeate their relationships with and their attitudes towards those responsibilities.
Proof That This is a Working Culture
It’s a culture that is working, and its results are measurable. Ranked as the #1 school in Utah by U.S. News & World Report, with an average SAT score of 1330 and a graduation rate that exceeds 95 percent, Maeser proves that academic achievement and character development support each other. More importantly, our students carry these habits past Maeser with them as they grow into college students who work honestly, employees who are principle-based leaders, and citizens who serve the public with a sense of integrity. Our graduates don’t leave the Honor Code behind at graduation but become those who are the Honor Code.
FAQ
What does the Honor Code require of students? Students agree to the Honor Code standards: of truth, of honor, and virtue in their academic work and behavior. Students honor those commitments by not cheating or plagiarizing, by respecting themselves and others, by taking responsibility for their own conduct, and by signing the honor pledge at the top of major tests or written projects.
How is the Honor Code enforced if it is broken? Honor Code violations are treated with a focus on growth and restoration. The student has time to consider the violation of trust that occurred, considers the negative results of that violation, and commits to taking specific action steps in which the trust can be rebuilt. These action steps include a specific consequence for the act of dishonor committed.
How is the Honor Code at Maeser different from discipline policies at other schools? Rather than operating on a system of surveillance and punishment, Maeser operates on the classical principle that true education encompasses a virtue-based curriculum and is maintained by a commitment from students, faculty, and families to a set of shared values.
How do parents support the Honor Code? Families support the Honor Code by working in partnership with faculty to reinforce at home the values of integrity, respect, and personal accountability that students have agreed to live out at school.
Does the Honor Code help prepare students after they graduate from Maeser? The habits of honesty, accountability, respect, and courage that are cultivated in our students and staff through our daily living of the Honor Code prepare our students to live out those habits as they become college students, employees, and members of their communities. It is our hope that Maeser graduates lead by example and serve as positive influences as they move forward into these next chapters.
See the difference a culture built on honor and trust can make. Come to Maeser, experience our culture of integrity, get to know our students, and see how the Honor Code is practiced at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy!
Book a Tour Now