The Middle School just wrapped up a week-long rollout of Pennington’s Honor Code, centering a collective mindset around the School’s tenets of honor, virtue, and humility. As it appears in the Student/Parent Handbook, the code states, “As a member of the Pennington community, I aspire to conduct myself at all times with honor, virtue, and humility, and I will trust in others to do the same.” The code is further defined within the handbook’s appendix by its comprehensive areas of applicability: academics, outside of the classroom, social relationships, and community at large. 

Honor Code Week began with earnest discussions, held during Advisory group meeting times, about what the code is exactly and what it means to uphold these principles, both within the classroom and beyond. Together with their peers, students explored various examples—cheating, body shaming, inappropriate language, unsportsmanlike behavior, and too much social energy disrupting class focus—which would directly violate the Honor Code, and then they brainstormed alternative solutions to these scenarios.

Using guiding questions concerning the ways in which these rules directly relate to the Middle School, Advisory groups spent several days creating skits to illustrate key aspects of the code. During Thursday’s Community Meeting, the groups took turns performing their skits for their peers. The examples ranged from inappropriate phone use to bullying, littering, and cheating, and each group used a creative framework with which to deliver their messaging, from a lively rap song detailing what it means to be a part of the Pennington community to a Shark Tank-themed skit wherein the winning product was an invention honoring humility called “Humble Pie.”  

The week wrapped up on Friday with each student creating a handprint with their name on it. Students could also include any additional words or phrases which helped to embody the Honor Code philosophy for them. The handprints—prominently hung within the main foyer of the Middle School—are a tangible pledge that represents each student’s acceptance of the Honor Code and their personal commitment to work towards those core values each and every day.