Thacher’s Honor Code is a way of living that both students and faculty cherish. Although an abstract concept, the Honor Code is experienced in real, daily, concrete ways. Thacher students never receive keys to their dorm rooms because doors at Thacher are never locked. A laptop computer left in the Dining Hall at lunch will still be there at dinner. Students are trusted simply to sign out the library materials they need without supervision. The Community Council sponsors student-directed discussions about the Honor Code in order to help new students understand what the Honor Code means to them and how it shapes our community.

The Honor Code is as central to academics as it is to other areas of life at Thacher. The School helps 9th and 10th graders to understand issues of cheating and plagiarism and then allows juniors and seniors a degree of freedom in taking examinations. Thacher trusts juniors and seniors to act honorably as they take exams unproctored, a situation that allows them to concentrate on their work in a quiet, self-directed environment.

If you ask Thacher students, past or present, about the three top elements that make Thacher the place it is, they will, without hesitation, name the Honor Code as one.