But what drove these modern changes, Appiah argues, was not imposing legislation from above, but harnessing the ancient power of honor from within. I am sure that you all have read or have heard of the honor stories of the Greeks – The Odyssey, The Iliad, and these works are duplicated in so many cultures with ancient texts focused on going to war if one’s honor was betrayed. But the more that human beings began to live by what we call the social contract, the more that the purpose for essentially “following the rules” became a desire to reflect on morality and act accordingly in order to cultivate a higher notion of what the self could be. Weren’t humans more than self-interested warriors?

Yet if people are, by nature, self-seeking, we need rules to curb the tendency toward self-satisfaction or self-indulgence. A two-year-old will grab at something and emphasize that this is “mine.” As we get older, we hopefully evolve and develop a sense of others, of how living in a set of rules enables group and individual development. Perhaps many of you remember something along the lines of a classroom contract that lies at the basis of much of elementary education in the U.S., borrowed from the Italians who founded the Responsive Classroom.

Today, you will sign the honor code or be asked to remember and reflect on your prior signing of it. In this code, you agree to do your own work, to tell the truth, to abide by the rules on campus designed for safety, to not plagiarize, to keep striving to be a good and moral individual living in a community where we value one another.

The honor code, I would argue, is part of our desire to buy into higher ideals that forge a grander self, a self that is always evolving, always seeking consciousness, and always integrating itself into the social contract by practicing its ideals and principles.

On a very basic level, Vermont Academy has rules to follow and there are disciplinary consequences for breaking them.

We often also speak of what you do when no one is looking and why it is important to continue those paradigms of right behavior, keeping your own conscience as the motivator.

The honor code might even include future moments of choice about your position in the defense of another or of yourself – being an ally, being a self-advocate.

We ask you to exercise belief in a system of ethics and morality because it is built on preserving the common good and on the identification of the good.

How do these small acts of compliance or rebellion impact your learning at this point in your life and how does your behavior day to day begin to forge the ethical fabric of who you are?

Here are some moments I will share where students at Vermont Academy helped others, cultivated their moral and ethical selves, and did so voluntarily.

Last year, I drove down Shepard Lane and saw Lucas Hoffman ’24 deep in conversation with Sameera Azam-Nooristani ’26, and they were supporting each other’s differences and finding common ground at the same time. Another example involves graduate Cole Allen ’24 who, last year as a senior, partnered with Casey Rhodes ’27 in French class on day one to make them feel comfortable, welcomed, and important. The only demand Mrs. Frey said they placed on each other was to strive for the “best in class” performance in their French skits…together.

Several years ago, graduate Thor Martin ’23, stopped someone with a confederate flag sticker on his car when they both pulled into a gas station, and he questioned the man, trying to help him to think about the implications of his actions and how divisive and hurtful his action was in putting such a thing on his car.

Here is a shout-out to everyone who was tempted to look at the paper or test of someone near them but stopped themselves and just worked on their own.

Here is another shout-out to those who were caught breaking a rule but who immediately told the truth and owned what they had done, understanding that the discipline system we are striving to create is about social justice and finding a way to reflect on our errors, missteps and rule-breaking and yet find a way back to community, to oneness.

Proctors were assigned to help families move in last week, but there was one non-proctor who, on his own, asked a family and a student moving into alumni if they needed help.

Last year, students traveled to Tanzania over spring break, foregoing their own vacation to volunteer at the Meloc School. They left Tanzania, as Ms. Armiger said, connected to another group of students halfway around the world.

Yesterday, all of you participated in the service work we had planned by advisory, and some of you helped Saxtons River residents. Notes of gratitude have been flowing in to Ms. Armiger.  Many of you, as she said, “threw yourselves into your projects and served your neighbors here in the village.”

In his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Anthony Appiah, whom I mentioned earlier, writes that lately “We have grown accustomed in this anxious, post-9/11 era to constructing a world fissured by warring creeds and cultures. Much of humanity now seems separated by chasms of incomprehension.” He challenges the separatist doctrines and revives a school of thought that dates to the Cynics of the fourth century BCE, tracing its influence on the ethical legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Kant's dream of a "league of nations," and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In doing so, Appiah shows how Western intellectuals and leaders, on both the left and the right, have wildly exaggerated the power of difference and neglected the power of one. Challenging years of received wisdom, Cosmopolitanism is a work of philosophy about global culture.

Can we do both, I would ask? Can we value the differences and individual cultures of all of the wonderful countries represented in our Nita Choukas Theater here – and I believe we have 22 countries represented – and can we also value the collective practice of the honor code that makes us work, as one, on the affirmations in our Core Beliefs? Mr. Diaz spent some time yesterday making sure that you all remember these Core Beliefs, or for new students, that you are now exposed to them. They emphasize respect for others, authenticity, the value and worth of each individual, and the importance of confronting your challenges and seeking face-to-face resolution of conflicts.  

Today as you reflect on your honor code signing or step onto the stage here to sign our book of honor for the first time, you will be both your individual self representing the vibrant culture from which you came and also declaring your part in the social fabric of our community. So we are one and many, and this is, at heart, a metaphysical concept of spirit.

By not cheating, by telling the truth, by standing up for yourself and others, and by cultivating your ethical self, you will show your value of human life just as much as of particular lives.  

You can leave here today reminded not to plagiarize or use Chat GPT in an unguided way, not to lie about something that happened, not to walk away when someone is feeling isolated by a group, not to be self-seeking rather than seeking to balance personal ambition with the wellness of the group, but you also could leave here with a little more awareness of your inner self, your moral self, your relationship to values and beliefs that form healthy communities and productive societies. It is my hope that you do both. Thank you.