A local high school is on national news for a cheating scandal involving dozens and dozens of students who took advantage of stuff taken from secured faculty spaces. The fact that the prosecution is pursuing a criminal path (breaking and entering with possible felonies,) has supposedly shattered the community. Lost in the coverage is the matter of honor.

Honesty is a value that everyone claims to elevate, when asked. All that we see in the media, however, are examples of blood doping, steroid use, mythical WMDs and Larry Craig. It's interesting that independent schools, with their successfully fabricated diversities and closed, relatively controlled environments, provide petri-dish studies of values education.

Every school--when asked--claims honesty as a highest core value. We've been thinking a lot about honesty recently, because of a situation that involved real honor demonstrated by students.

It is true that we hold teenagers to ethical standards that are rare in our society. If you research the statistics for teenage behaviors, you know what we're dealing with as we enforce structures that forbid sexual activity, and substance use. While private schools exercise lots of discretion in determining whom shall be admitted, none of the screening systems keep us from enrolling teenagers who are ultimately typical of the greater population.

This means that--as a school--we are saddled with the task of controlling behavior that may be generic to the population. It is a daunting task. The best, I suggest, we can do is elevate values, like honor. Ryan knows.

How do we elevate values? Well, we're committed to experiential education, so the avenues are many, and begin with Wilderness Orientation. Ultimately, it's a matter of relationships....relationships that elevate students to choose the standards by which they will live.