Have the students brainstorm about what integrity means.
"Integrity is one of those words that can be hard to define. If you look it up in a dictionary, you're likely to find definitions like these: 'Steadfast adherence to a strict code of moral, ethical, or artistic values; incorruptibility; the quality or state of being whole, entire, undiminished, or unimpaired; soundness; the quality or state of being undivided; completeness." (What Do You Stand For?, p 135)
Have the students break up into small groups to discuss one of the following 6 scenarios - OR - pick 1-2 scenarios to discuss as a class:
1. You are going to a just released movie that is sold out. Tickets had to be pre-purchased. You have your ticket and arrive 10 minutes before the door opens and the line is already wrapped around the corner. You spot a friend near the front of the line. Do you join your friend near the front of the line so you can get a good seat?
2. You have an iPod loaded with great music. Your friend just bought a new iPod and asked you if you can load his iPod with your songs. What do you do?
3. Alicia and Sara are best friends who have practiced and practiced learning all of the cheers and all of the movements in anticipation of trying out for the cheerleading squad. They’ve made a pact that both will be on the squad or neither of them will. "We’re in this together,” they agreed. The day after tryouts the panel of judges announces the new cheerleading squad. Sara has made it! Alicia has not. Sara has second thoughts about “their pact.” She joins the squad. Did Sara do the right thing?
4. Standing in line at a store, you notice, when a customer in front of you pulls the keys out of their pocket, $10 falls to the floor. No one notices this but you. Do you pick up the $10 and keep it “finders keepers, losers weepers” or do you give it back to the person ahead of you in line.
5. You have a major project due in a couple of days. You have been busy and haven’t been able to come up with any good ideas and time is running out. Your older brother had to do the same project and he got a good grade on it. Your teacher wasn’t at the school when your brother was there. So there is no chance he would recognize it was someone else’s project. If you don’t turn something in, your grade will go from a “C” to an “F”. Do you re-type your brother’s project so it is your own and turn it in? Do you use parts of the project and turn them in so at least your grade won’t drop to failing? How much of the project do you use? Or do you come up with your own project or turn nothing in and hope for the best?
6.
Your friend Evan is popular, well liked, and a great soccer
player. Your school’s soccer team is competing for first place in the district,
and Evan is key to winning. During math class this morning, you saw him cheat
on an important test. No one else noticed. If the teacher found out, Evan would
be kicked off the soccer team. Is it your responsibility to report what you
saw? Is it anyone’s responsibility? What might be the consequences of not reporting?
Class Discussion Questions:
1. How would you show integrity in this scenario?
2. Would your actions change if you were around different people (ie: your parents, your friend group, teachers, grandma, coaches, church friends, etc.)?
3. Is integrity really just being honest, or is it more than that?
4. Where do you often have the opportunity to practice your integrity?
As you finish, please share the following quote:
"Integrity is doing the right thing. Even when no one is watching."
-C.S. Lewis
