Object Lesson

Truthfulness Object Lesson 1                         https://sites.google.com/site/valueslessons  

Equipment: rock, a rotten apple/peach/pear - you could ask for one at a fruit shop.

1. How is a rock like truth? (Take ideas.)

2. The rock is solid and strong. Does it change if I drop it? (Try)

3. Will it change if the wind and rain fall on it? If I showed it to you next week, would it look exactly the same? Next year?

4. Ask me a question. (Answer it truthfully. If it's too personal ask for another.) I answered your question by telling you the truth. Would I give you the same answer if you asked me that question next week? If you asked me next year? So how is the truth is like this rock? (dependable, never changing.)

5. How is telling lies is like the rotten spot on this apple? (It starts with just a small lie which doesn’t seem so bad. But lies grow bigger and bigger until we feel rotten inside.)

6. (Show the best side of the fruit.) Does it look rotten on this side? You can still look good on the outside, even when you tell lies to people who trust you. But how does telling lies leave you feeling on the inside? (Cut the fruit) It makes you feel rotten, like this. 

7. When you get caught lying, what happens to the way people think about you? How can you ever get them to fully trust you again? How long does it take?

8. Next time you are tempted to tell a lie, remember the lesson of the rock and the rotten apple, and choose to... (point to the slogan, children join in) 'Tell the Truth.'

Truthfulness Object Lesson 2

Equipment: easy to break thread, scissors.

Ask a child to come to the front of the class and hold up both hands. Loosely wrap a piece of thread or yarn around the child’s wrists and tie it. Explain that the thread or yarn is like a little lie. Ask the child to break free. Have a pre-assigned student come to the middle of the room. Ask them, 'What were you doing before you came to class?' Have them tell a big lie (e.g. 'I was just chasing a grizzly bear I saw in the backyard.') Wrap the thread around them one time. Ask them another question, relating to the first (example, 'Why would there be a grizzly bear in our back yard?' 'Because it escaped from the circus and smelled Sam’s smelly socks that he left on the trampoline.') Wrap the thread around them again. 

Continue to ask them a series of questions about their lie until they are wrapped several times. ('But there hasn't been a circus in town for months. How could it have come from a circus?' 'It escaped months ago and was hiding in our garden shed.') 

Discuss how it’s easier to just tell the truth the FIRST time. Once you tell a lie, you have to tell more lies to cover it up. 

Ask the thread-wrapped student to try and break through the wrapped threads. 

Explain that one lie can lead to many more as we try to cover up our lies. 

When we lie, we often have to tell more lies to keep people from finding out. 

When we tell many lies, it becomes more difficult to free ourselves. 

Ask the child to break free now. (If the child succeeds, you can compare how much more of a struggle it was for them than for the first child.) 

Explain that the more we lie, the harder it becomes to choose to tell the truth. It can also take a long time to gain trust back from others.

Ask, 'How can we break free from these lies?'

As the student owns up to telling each lie, use a pair of scissors to cut through a thread to begin to free the child’s hands.

Ask him more questions, and as he tells the truth, cut the strands until he is totally free. (e.g. Was there really a bear? Were there smelly socks on the trampoline? etc.)

Next ask, 'Is there something you need to say to us?' When he says, 'Sorry for telling lies', cut all the rest of strands and set him free.

Explain that to be free of lies, we must always tell the truth. If we have already told a lie, we must get free by telling the truth to the person we lied to, and saying sorry. 

When we tell the truth, we can be happy with ourselves, and people will begin to trust us again.

'So next time you use a pair of scissors, remember the thread, and always chose to...(point to the slogan, children join in) Tell the Truth!'