Take 5: 29 January 2018 by Ms Kymn Yee

Good morning Gessians,

We have been talking about integrity for the take 5s so far in this term. You have heard many interesting stories and definitions about integrity. You should be rather familiar with that term by now and if you still are not, here it is again. Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles”.

Do not confuse integrity with honesty. You can be the most honest person in the world and still not have the integrity to be believable. There’s more to integrity than honesty alone. Honesty, by definition, is to tell the truth and being true. Integrity is having strong moral principles based on honesty and to follow those principles religiously. Integrity is honesty with moral and ethics added on.

A person can be honest but not have integrity. You can be honest to yourself but still cheat about things and cause maybe some harm to others. But if you have integrity then you have to be honest. You can’t do the right things which constitutes integrity, without having honesty.

I’ll try to explain it with simple examples.

You lack on integrity when: You cheat in your test.
But you are honest when you tell your teacher ‘Cher, I cheated in your test’.

You lack on integrity when: The assignment given to you was done sloppily and you did not give it your best effort

You are honest when: You submit your assignment by the deadline your teacher gave

You are honest when: You returned the $1000 and the wallet you found on the streets
But you lack on integrity when: You did not inform your parents that you went out at that time

You are honest when: You tell your friends not to lie.
But you lack on integrity when: You lie to your parents, friend and teachers.

You are honest when: You tell your teacher that you forgot to do their homework
But you lack on integrity when: You copy the homework from your friend in order to submit it by the end of the day

You are honest when: You wait for the green man at the traffic light before crossing the road
But you lack on integrity when: You decide not to use the zebra crossing because you rather take the shortcut

So you see, you can be an honest person but yet lack the integrity to act on what you know is right. A person with integrity will tell the truth about an event even if it brings them trouble. For example, they are involved in a fight where they could have gotten away with. But in order to let the truth come to light, they admit to what they have done. Integrity means at all times being effectively the same person, and not showing different faces in different situations as it suits them.

Before I end my take 5, I would like you to ponder on these questions. Please write the questions down in your handbook.

**“What would you do if…”
**
You saw your best friend stealing a watch from the teacher’s desk?

You noticed that your grandmother dropped a $20 note the same day you wanted to buy a popular new video game?

You saw the last piece of chocolate cake in the fridge but knew your sister was hoping to have it for dessert?

You jokingly said something at recess and later heard it repeated as a rumor?

You witnessed a classmate being bullied in the corridor at school?

What would you do? Would you do the honest thing? Or one that has integrity?