Emma Fouke ‘30 Shares Her Thoughts on the Honor Code

Middle School students gathered on Thursday, August 28 to reflect on their Honor Code, hearing from a variety of speakers. Emma Fouke ’30, one of the recipients of the Jan Jacobi Award, shared her thoughts.

Hello, Middle School. As some of you know, my name is Emma Fouke. I was one of the recipients of the Jan Jacobi Award this past spring, and Mrs. Shuckman asked me to talk to you today about the Honor Code.

As someone who was new to MICDS last year, I had never heard of the Honor Code. In case you haven’t either or in case you just need a reminder, this is the base of our Middle School. These are the foundations and traits we value most: trust, respect, responsibility, and honor. We value not just being a good student, but also a good person. I am here to discuss responsibility and honor.

Now, both of these characteristics seem extremely simple. An honorable student would admit to his or her mistakes, and a responsible student would turn his or her or her work in on time, right? Yet, why are some of the simplest things the hardest to choose to do?

I heard this quote a while ago about choosing your hard. The overview of it is that as a young adult, you are going to have to start making a lot of difficult and uncomfortable decisions for yourself. Whether you are fresh out of Beasley or almost on to Upper School, you are going to be given more independence and be asked to show more self-reliance than the year before. There are going to be times when the choices you face seem intimidating, but it is up to you to decide the kind of impact you want to make.

Inviting a new classmate to sit at your lunch table is hard, but so is watching them sit by themselves. Admitting to your mistakes is hard, but so is living with avoidable consequences. Standing up for what you know is right is hard, but so is letting the wrong thing happen. The impact you leave is directly correlated to your decisions, even ones that might seem small at the time.

While not every choice is going to impact you, sometimes it’s the fact that someone else invited you to sit with them, or that someone else owned up to what they did, that makes your life a little bit easier. Choosing the option that is going to not only benefit you, but also benefit others, is hard, but honorable. Choosing the option that might throw you under the bus, but saves someone else, is hard, but responsible.

By choosing to do what’s hard, by choosing the honorable and responsible choice, we make navigating Middle School a lot easier for everyone around us. So today, I ask every one of you, to choose your hard.

Thank you, and have a great afternoon.