<p>We program our kids to believe they have to be the very best…they have to over achieve…and then we wonder why they don’t have higher ethical standards than the ones they witnessed growing up. Now that notoriety is a gateway to success (at least financially), doing good and earning rewards is losing its hold. </p>
<p>When (or should I say if) the focus of testing returns to being about how much of what a student has learned can be applied to answer questions and not what that exam means to grad school chances…the honor code may return. Many of the LA schools keep fighting, but the sense of community required to override 15+ years of increasing pressure is rare.</p>