Honesty

Was just thinking over the events of my day and remembered a semi-amusing story: every day we have a citizenship lesson that is meant to help improve classroom behavior. Today's lesson was on honesty. We watched a short movie, badly acted by young children whose thespian activities moralized on the necessity of telling the truth, even if no one else but you is aware of it. Scenario one: a little girl drops a fiver; a little boy picks it up. He spends it on Hot Wheels; then he finds out the dough actually belongs to his classmate who received the money for her birthday as a means of procuring a new pair of mittens. At first he dismisses any thought of remorse or need to expiate his actions; then the 'truth fairy' enters his life and starts laying on the guilt. The question of ethics posed to my 8-year-olds is this: "If the little girl who lost the money doesn't know that the little boy is the one who picked up her money, does he have any obligation to confess?"--after all, he didn't know it was her money and he's already spent it.
So as children of a certain age will do (most notably 7 & 8-year-olds), one of my students raises his hand to share an experience he had—remarkably similar— (can we say story projection?) of finding $10 and then buying something at Wal-Mart with it. To which, in another amazing coincidence, another student claims he remembers this experience, as the money found was his. I’m so glad that the main point of my lesson, HONESTY, stuck.