The following is a conversation between me and two of my students today:
This is what was said as I was talking with one of my boys about him calling a little girl in my class a liar (I’ll call him Tommy and her Sarah).
Tommy- “I think it’s fair that I called her a liar, because she called me a bad name first!”
Me- “Well, just because someone says something mean to you doesn’t make it ok to call them a name back. But what name did she call you?”
Tommy-“Uh…well... what was it? Oh yeah, she called me…a pretentious jerk!”
Me-“Oh, a pretentious jerk? Really??
Tommy-“Yeah, that’s what she said.”
Separate conversation – me to Sarah
Me-“Did you call Tommy a bad name?”
Sarah-“No Miss Bass I didn’t’.”
Me-“Are you sure you didn’t say anything mean? You didn’t call him anything like a pretentious jerk??”
Sarah-“No Miss Bass I promise. First of all, I don’t know what that word even means, and second I don’t say things like that because I’m a Christian.”
Haha, you just have to love the stuff they come up with. They are so cute. Sometimes it’s hard as the teacher to know what to believe (however, not in this particular case). For the record Tommy did admit to me later that he made that up. But it got me thinking a lot about lying. It’s crazy how many times a day I catch my students in lies, from talking in the hallway, to writing mean notes about other students and then signing someone else’s name. And these are only 3rd graders. Lying isn’t something we are trained to do. Ask the two year old who snuck a cookie when their mom wasn’t looking and 9 times out of 10 they will skew the truth. Lying is something we must be trained NOT to do.
I try so hard to instill in my kids that honesty is the best policy. The other day I heard one of my girls say, “you should just tell the truth, because then your punishment will be less.” Yes, many times this is a perk to telling the truth, but it should not be our motive for being honest. We should tell the truth because it’s the right thing to do. So in Miss Bass’ class (and hopefully through their lives) honesty is the BEST policy!
“What is desired is a steadfast love, and a poor man is far better than a liar.”
–Proverbs 19:22
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.”
-Colossians 3:9
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