Yesterday, we observed that the Honor Code defines the ideal—it describes a true CCA student.  But have you ever wondered why it is called a “code”?  I mean, it’s not like we have to translate jumbled letters or secret symbols in order to break the cypher, like some kind of game on the back of a cereal box.

The word “code” actually comes form the Latin codex, which originally meant “tree trunk” or “block of wood,” describing the wooden tablets covered with wax that were then written on in order to create early books or codices.

Eventually “code” came to describe a system of written laws—like the Code of Justinian or the Code of Hammurabi or the Ohio Revised Code.  The essential thing, though, is that a code is written down.

Why is that significant?  Well, there is a Latin proverb often attributed to Horace that says “Littera scripta manet”—“the written word will remain.”  To write something down is to make it fixed, to give it a measure of permanence, to make it something that will last and that should not be changed on a whim.  Before the age of computers and the “delete” button, writing something down wasn’t just symbolically permanent…it was permanent.

Our Honor Code is a code, because it is written down; and it is written down because it expresses an ideal that will not change.  Fifty years from now, when many of you are grandparents and you return to CCA to watch morning assembly, it is my hope that the students will all be reciting the same Honor Code—because virtue doesn’t change with the times and neither does a true, CCA student.

Have a wonderful day.