What is your Honor Code?

What motivates you to act?

In an earlier post, it was suggested that knowledge is something we might have to earn, something we have to become worthy of. It is not a given that we should have access to any knowledge out there, simply because we are curious of it. In some cases, we may not be worthy of it because we are not yet mature enough to handle the responsibility and power that comes with it. In other cases, we may not be worthy of it because we are incapable of appreciating it: it is above our honor code.

To understand what I am getting at with this, it may be helpful to review another earlier post, “How the Soul Is.”

Basically, we all have an honor code. It is not dissimilar to what is our love language. A love language is the preferred way one expresses and receives love. In has to do with how one wants to be treated by those he loves.

An honor code, at least as I’m using it here, is the reward type I prefer for the work or effort or energy I expend day to day. The parts of the soul, described in that previous post, each have their own preferred rewards. The belly prefers comfort: food, drink, sex, etc. The chest prefers honor: words and symbols of praise, like a medal or certificate or pat on the back. The mind prefers knowledge: learning something new and meaningful.

While each person has all three of these parts and therefore all three of these preferences or honor codes/rewards, each of us is driven by one part of the soul more than others. The belly driven person’s honor code is comfort-type rewards. He’d rather receive money, food, or drink for his efforts, even if those efforts are directed toward learning. The knowledge is not his preferred reward, money for having learned is. That can be carried through all three types.

To connect that to our worthiness of knowledge, imagine how someone who loves only money and comfort or pleasure would fail to appreciate knowledge that only offers honor or wisdom? My friend, Andrew Kern, who will be contributing to Substack here, has shared some of his insights about the Temple and the Soul in some of the work he does through The CiRCE Institute. These insights offer very little by way of being practical (and therefore monetizable) or of earning the learner of them any honor. The one driven by money or honor would find it very difficult to appreciate the knowledge and wisdom that comes from those insights. They just wouldn’t be “practical” enough.

It could be a helpful exercise to evaluate one’s honor code. What is my honor code? What is my preferred reward for the work that I do? Moreover, if I can understand my students’ honor codes, how might that help me teach them? Might it help me to know how to motivate them in the classroom?