Character Education
Informational
Handbook & Guide
Integrity:
Honesty, sincerity, and
completeness
Short Lessons
• Give students a series of
ten scenarios in which they would choose to be honest or dishonest
Ask them to privately record what choices they would make in each
situation. Collect the papers and give each student an
“honesty” rating based on their choices. Return the papers
to students at the next class.
• Play the song,
“Honesty,” recorded by Billy Joel. Divide the stanzas into
sections (you may want to leave out some stanzas as inappropriate).
Assign groups of students to discuss what each stanza means and
present their interpretation to the class.
• Divide students into groups.
Ask each group to create a three-minute skit in which a person has a
choice and either chooses to be honest or dishonest. Make sure
students include the consequences of the choice in each
skit.
• Ask students to brainstorm
times when they feel tempted to be dishonest. Divide those times by
whether they involve family members, friends, or strangers. After
you’ve discussed why students would be dishonest in those
situations, turn the situations around so that the student are the
ones being lied to. How do they feel now?
• Discuss cheating on
homework. What are the effects of not being honest in
school?
• Calculate the dollar amount
that shoplifting costs a typical store. Use real numbers from a local
retailer, if possible. Then, calculate how much the store-owner would
have to raise prices to compensate for what is lost due to
shoplifting. Relate this to everyday items that a student would
purchase, such as candy and sneakers.
• Ask students for examples
from TV programs that make dishonesty seem glamorous. Can they
recognize dishonesty even when it seems justified?
• Discuss with students why
they often consider it an accomplishment to “get away with”
cheating or stealing. Have them give examples of such situations,
then ask them to identify who they injure with those
actions.
• Brainstorm and develop a
list of characteristics of a person who is trustworthy and a person
who is not.
• Use well-known sports or
entertainment figures to talk about how people get certain
“reputations.” Are reputations ever built on
trustworthiness? What kind of reputations do the students want to
have? Why are “bad” reputations more popular than
“good” reputations? Can students get a reputation just
because they are members of a certain family?
• Ask students to identify
five persons in their lives they think are trustworthy. What are the
characteristics that make each of those persons trustworthy? How
would they rate their own trustworthiness? How would their friends or
parents rate it?
• Discuss what it means to
“give your word” that you will do something. Relate
“trustworthiness” to the character trait
“responsible.”
• Invite a speaker from the
Big Brother/Big Sister program to discuss the program with your
students. Ask the speaker to emphasize the importance of
trustworthiness to the success of this program and to discuss the
characteristics of a good mentor. Provide information about how your
students can become involved with this program if they are
interested.
• Invite a speaker from the
employment office to discuss with students the types of jobs
available and the requirement that employees be
trustworthy.
• Have students write an essay
on one of these two topics: I) What would a society be like if no one
believed in honesty? What kinds of consequences would this cause? 2)
What would a society be like if everyone was 100% honest? What kinds
of consequences would this cause?
Student
Activities
1. Tell the children the story The
Boy Who Cried, ‘Wolf!” (Summary: A young boy, for his own
entertainment, makes believe and screams that a big wolf has come
into the village. The people in the village are very alarmed at
first. But after he pulls this stunt several times and no wolf is
ever seen, the villagers begin to realize that he is just pretending.
One day a mean wolf actually comes into the village. But this time
when the boy cries out to forewarn the others, everyone knows that he
is not trustworthy and they ignore him.)
Discuss the importance of telling
the truth at all times. Use the following questions in your
discussion:
• What happens if someone lies
a lot? (Others stop believing you.)
• Why didn’t the people
believe the boy when there really was a wolf? (Because his repeated
lying made him untrustworthy.)
• What is the best way to make
sure people believe us all the time? (Always be honest.)
• Has this sort of thing ever
happened to someone you know?
2. Ask the children if they know
what a “contract” is. Through class discussion, help them
understand that it is an agreement and a special kind of promise.
Say: “A contract is made when two or more people discuss a
particular situation, decide what to do about that situation, and
then promise each other they will do it. An oral contract is one that
is spoken; the people tell each other what they will do. There are
also written contracts. The people write what they will do, and then
sign their names.” Explain that signing their names to a written
contract means that you agree what is written and you promise to do
what it says.
Prepare a written contract for the
class. Have the children choose the most important rules—rules
they agree to uphold. (Emphasize that it is up to each child to
suggest changes if he/she doesn’t agree with or isn’t
prepared to abide by certain rules.) List these on a large piece of
paper. Then write, “I will follow these rules at school”
(or wherever appropriate). Sign the contract yourself, and ask each
of them to sign it. Post the contract in a conspicuous place to
remind everyone of the commitments they made.
In addition to, or instead of, the
class contract, you might have each child make up his/her own
document. Photocopy the “Class Rules Contract” or create
your own. Have each child fill in the blanks with commitments he or
she agrees to keep. Then sign your names. Have the students take
these documents home for parents’ signatures.
3. Before discussing the concept of
integrity, have the students read literature and see audiovisual
presentations on the Holocaust (e.g., Steven Speilberg’s
“Schindler’s List”) and the Nuremberg Trials.
(Remember first to preview or review these.)
Begin by defining
“integrity” and discussing how it relates to the Holocaust.
Discuss the motivations and the activities of the Nazis during the
Holocaust and the defense used by war criminals during the Nuremberg
Trials. (Many charged with war crimes attempted to rationalize their
behavior by arguing that they were merely following orders.) Ask how
integrity plays into this issue and discuss what alternative courses
of action could have been followed. Ask what they would have
done.
Read about and discuss those who
protected Jews and other persecuted groups from the Nazis during the
war. Say: “It would have been easy to disagree with the
government’s abominable behavior and still do nothing about it.
How is this an issue of integrity?”
Ask them if they can think of any
issues in the United States—even in their own
community—which require individuals to make sacrifices to do
what is right rather than what is convenient.
Have them write an essay on an
incident or issue in history (other than the Holocaust) in which
individuals demonstrated great integrity in the face of strong
pressure to compromise their principles.
4. Ask students what supplies
employees often take from the office for use at home or elsewhere
(e.g. pens, paper, paper clips, envelopes, staplers, staples, paper
pads, computer supplies and calendars). On the chalkboard, list these
supplies.
Have the students form small groups
and give each group an office supplies catalog to calculate the value
of the items listed. Tell them to estimate the total loss to the
company in one year. Discuss the monetary loss to the company over
the long term, the waste of supplies, and the loss of
employer/employee trust.
Ask: “Does taking these items
represent a violation of trust in all cases?”
If they answer that it doesn’t
matter in the case of staples and paper clips, ask: “Would it
matter if the boss knew?”
“Choose always the way that
seems the best, however rough it may be. Custom will soon render it
easy and agreeable.” - Pythagoras
“The elegance of honesty
needs no adornment.” - Merry Brown
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