Trust Me

Our school focuses on character education in homeroom, and today we were talking about the importance of being trustworthy. I passed out different scenarios, and since this group loves to perform so much, they broke into pairs and dramatized the scenes so that we, the audience, could determine how the breakdown of trust affected anyone involved. The first scene showed a guy who fell asleep on the job, leaving a store open to burglary. That one was fun for them to act out, but not all that applicable to their own lives. The next one showed a babysitter who decided to gossip on the phone while little Tommy scribbled on the walls and ate crayons. It was this one that opened up all sorts of stories of babysitters. There was the one who put a Capri-sun pouch in the microwave, throwing sparks everywhere. Another one started a game of hide-and-seek, but never went to look for the kids, which reminded another child of an uncle, not a babysitter, who accidentally burned his little sister's ear with his cigarette butt. It sure is challenging to talk about strong character when they're all surrounded by such questionable behavior. But then there was the one who convinced him that eating broccoli was cool; obviously, this babysitter was his hero. Perhaps there's hope in this wild world, after all.