Suggested Reading:
The Ugly Duckling (Hans Christian Anderson)
The Empty Pot (Demi)
Honest Abe (Evaline Ness)
Sam, Bangs and Moonshine (Evaline Ness)
The Adventures of Obadiah
I Know You Cheated
The Truthful Ham
On My Honor
Let’s Talk About Cheating
The Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree
Cherry Tree
Ephesians 4:25

Suggested Movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington not rated
Forrest Gump rated PG-13

Family Activity:

• Talk to your children about why it is wrong to cheat on schoolwork. Set a good example for your children by taking responsibility for your own actions.

• Talk to your children about taking responsibility for their own actions. When your child admits that they have done something bad, thank them for telling the truth. Tell them that while you are upset with them for what they did, you are proud of them for their honesty. After their punishment is over, thank them for telling the truth and reinforce how proud you are of them. 

• Encourage your children to be honest with you about their opinions. They will say things that anger you, but do not punish them for being honest. If their opinions are inappropriate, talk to them about it and explain to them why they are mistaken. 

Class Activity:

• Discuss the importance of honesty in schoolwork. Try to help your students to understand that you assign them work so that they will acquire new knowledge and learn new skills. If they do not do the work then they are not learning skills and acquiring the knowledge that will greatly benefit their future.

• Have students write and perform skits about someone trying to avoid punishment by lying and getting into more trouble because of it.

• Talk about how important honesty is to friendship. Would anybody want friends who lie to them?

High School Activity:

• Discuss whether or not students believe that their leaders are honest. Why would people in positions of authority lie? Are there ever times when leaders should lie?

• How often do people lie? Is it possible for a society to function without lies? When is it harmful too tell the truth?

• Discuss the importance of academic honesty, especially in properly crediting sources. Do not just use the threat of punishment for plagiarism to deter students, but also explain to them why we have these rules. Explain that writing a book is hard work and that people deserve to be recognized for the work they have done.

 Quotes:

Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure.
-Joseph Sugarman

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
---Mark Twain

There are some occasions when a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest.
---Lord Phillip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

The best part about telling the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said.
---Mark Twain

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
---Oscar Wilde

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
---Luke 16:10

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.
---William Blake

Our lives improve only when we take chances and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
---Walter Andersen

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
---Winston Churchill

Honesty is stronger medicine than sympathy, which may console but often conceals.
---Gretel Ehrlich

One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences.
---O. A. Battista

If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
---Georg C. Lichtenberg

Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.
---Maimonides

Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death.
---Lyman Beecher

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.
---Mary Kay Ash

I would give no thought of what the world might say of me; if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.
-Sam Houston

My word is my bond.
-Gentleman’s pledge

Make yourself an honest man [woman], and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.
-Thomas Carlyle

Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
-Kin Hubbard

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.
-Democritus

Honesty is the core of honor, and the single most important qualification of a leader.
-The Duke of Wellington, British General and Prime Minister

I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches.
-Thomas Jefferson

Honesty isn’t a policy at all; it’s a state of mind or it isn’t honesty.
-Eugene L’Hote

The pursuit of truth will set you free – even if you never catch up with it.
-Clarence Darrow

A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.
-Edgar J. Mohn

If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.
-The Talmud

What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth.
-Jewish proverb

When somebody lies, somebody loses.
-Stephanie Ericsson

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
-Thomas Jefferson

No legacy is so rich as honesty.
-William Shakespeare

Perform a Random Act of Kindness Each Day