Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Period 11, Blog Entry for Week of 10/07
Topic 2: The Virtue of Honesty
Directions: In a comment, respond to the prompt below in 300+ typed words. Also be sure to respond to a classmate's comment so that we can keep our classroom conversation going.
In "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde Loisel goes to great lengths to over compensate for the fact that she misplaced her friend's necklace. Had Mathilde Loisel come clean and told Madame Forestier that she lost the necklace, she may not have spent most of her life in debt. However, she chooses to lie to Madame Forestier by omission and live in poverty in order to replace the missing necklace.
Do you think that honesty is the best policy? Explain why or why not and cite examples from your own experiences and observations. Have you ever had an experience when honesty has done more harm than good? If faced with the choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting yourself in an undesirable situation, which would you choose? Explain your choice.
Be sure to answer all parts of the question fully. Your comment/response to my prompt should be 300+ words. Your comment/response to a friend should be 50+ words. Your blog entries must be completed by 11:59 pm on October 14, 2012.
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Honestly I think that honesty is the best policy because when your honest people don't consider you a lier. Being honest is the best thing because it's easier to be honest and tell the truth than to lie and look guilty. As an example I had lied to my mom about doing my chores because I didn't want to do them but than I realized just doing what your told is the best thing to do. Sometimes being honest is not the best thing because you can get into more trouble but it's always good to be honest because you get more out of telling the truth than to lie and get in more trouble then you would telling the truth. I have experienced a time when I told the truth and still had got in trouble like lying to the cops and than getting caught for lying. If I ever had to choose in between being dishonest I would still be honest because I'm not going to make the same mistake I made the first time I was dishonest.
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, I agree with you that honesty is always the best policy. It’s not good to be labeled as a liar, because then nobody would trust you or believe you when you actually are telling the truth. Also, I agree that it’s better to do what you are told, rather than get caught in a lie and make the situation worse.
DeleteChris I also agree with you honesty is the best policy. You defiantly want to tell the truth. Say if you did not lie to your mom you probably could have gotten done with them quick. It was really cool that you said that lying can get you in more trouble. It was cool because you’re right. I had an experience just like yours.
DeleteI agree with a lot you said if I got caught for lying by the cops a defiantly wouldn’t attempt that again. Also it’s true that u getting more trouble if you lie then you were originally in. plus I agree on that I would choose honesty over being dishonest most of the time.
DeleteI just think to be honest is the best policy to stay out of more trouble you got in to.
ReplyDeleteHonesty is always the best policy in any situation given. It is important because you will have less to worry about and people will always trust you. For example, a while back I was told by my mom to hand in a paper to the principal. I put it in my backpack, and the next day at school I completely forgot about it until the bus ride home. When I got home I was hoping that maybe my mom would forget about it but she didn’t. She asked me if I handed it in and I had to think quick because I had a friend over and I figured if I said no I’d get yelled at in front of him, so I said, “Yes, I did hand it in.” I got away with it for a couple of days until one day my mom found the paper in my backpack. I got in a lot of trouble for lying. I figured I was going to get yelled at either way, so I might as well lie to try and get away with it, but I was wrong. I also have experienced a time when telling the truth led to getting in trouble either way. One time my mom found out that I was missing a few homework assignments in science. I knew I was in trouble, I decided to tell the truth to avoid making the situation worse. I did get grounded, but the consequences would have been much worse had I not told the truth. If I was faced with the choice of having to tell the truth to a friend and knowing that it would harm our friendship, I would still tell the truth because sometimes the truth may hurt, but it will always top lying. That is why honesty is the best way to go.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way you do to a certain extent. If it is some close to you asking if the outfit they saved all summer for looks great, and you feel they look terrible in it, should you say "hey you look great" and let them go out looking like that. Or tell them "I would not wear this outfit out of the house" and risk hurting their feelings for your opinion, I don't know, I don't think it would be great. Omission might work best here.
DeleteAndrew i feel the same way.About the clothes situation if your freind tells you that you look good just because they dont want to make you feel bad. Thats good but if you think you look like an idiot and other people say it then youll be hurt that your freind made you look as if you were a fool.
DeleteAndrew, i agree with just about everything you said. I really enjoyed your writing. I also think being honest is the best policy in just about every situation. I was also able to relate to your example you gave in your blog. That is why I liked your blog so much. I found it very easy to relate to your blog.
DeleteHey Andrew, I agree with your response. Honesty is the best policy and I liked your examples that were given. They really help me understand your thought about this blog entry. Also, I liked how you stated that the truth may hurt, but it's better than lying. I liked it because I agree completely, you should always tell the truth instead of getting more consequences for lying.
DeleteAndrew I agree with you lying is not cool. Like one time I lied to my y dad about getting an A on a math test but when he looked at my grade on the parent portal I was in so much troiuble. That day I regretted lying to him about the grade I had and had to suffer a punishment.All I know is being honest is the best idea beacause it's easier to be honest than to lie. So like I agree with your statement made lying isn't cool.
ReplyDeleteHonesty can be both a positive and a negative. Depending on the situation, honesty may do more harm than good in some situations. Such as, a relative of mine has poor hygeine, if I had told him straight out "You stink" it would have really hurt his feelings. Therefore, at Christmas and birthdays I gave him cologne, grooming kits and so on. Did he get the hint???? NO!!! But, I did try, without hurting his feelings. So no, I don't think honesty would be a great thing in this situation, instead omission seems to be the best policy in this predictment. (and a gas mask)!!!! However, one time I did something wrong and did not tell my parents. They didn't know I did something wrong, so I just skipped telling them. However, after awhile the guilt ate at me and I told my parents what I had done. Boy, did I feel better after telling and the guilt stopped. Now, I will tell the truth about "large" mistakes which I have made, but I don't think I am willing to hurt peoples feelings with how they look, their outfits, and hygeine.
ReplyDeleteEveryone once or twice has considered lying the easier option. Honestly is absolutely the best policy. If you lie you can hurt people and things can go down hill really fast its like a snow ball effect. A little lie can become a huge confusing problem in minutes. Also lying is the harder way of going about things because it is harder to keep your story straight.
ReplyDeleteOnce my dad lied to me when I was little about my American Girl Doll. The dog actually destroyed it when I wasn’t home and instead of my dad telling me he hid it from me and I never knew. I thought I lost it, until I found it in my laundry room. In the end I was mad at my dad because he made me mad at myself thinking I lost a $100 doll. Now because of that experience I always make sure I tell the truth. Also whenever I lie my parents ground me. I will always choose honestly of dishonesty. It has ruined my views on people. Plus I figure people rather know the truth from the start rather than later. I may get into a fight with a friend or they may be frustrated in the end but you can always work on that and change it. But you can never change the truth.
There are situations where it is okay to lie about little things. Like “I love you hair” even when you hate it. Everyone has there own opinion one clothing, hair or other things. I hate when you love something and then someone makes one negative comment and you point of view changes completely. I have stopped wearing things just because one person didn’t like it. Some people don’t care about opinions but some do and it can change their entire view on things. This why little lies about opinions are okay in my opinion.
To start off, I think that honesty is most definitely the best policy. There may be good and bad results when telling the truth but you just have to live with them. For example, in the story “The Necklace” Mathilde Loisel did not tell the truth and she ended up being in the worst situation she could possibly be in. If the necklace was real and she had told the truth, her friend may have said that it was alright and she could buy another one. Although in this case the necklace was not real and if Mathilde Loisel had told her friend the truth she would not have to live in poverty for the rest of her life. Honestly I have never been in a situation where honesty has done more harm than good. One time, I had a big project to do and four days to do it. Every evening my mom would ask me if I had completed it yet and on the third night I said I did, but I really didn’t. The next morning my mom told me that after school we were going to my aunt’s house to have dinner and we were most likely staying till late at night. When she told me, I couldn’t tell her I have my project to do because she thought that I already did it. All day at school I was trying to think of excuses for me to stay home. I thought I could maybe tell her that I didn’t feel good but she would probably then take me to the doctors and I absolutely hate going to the doctors. By the time I was on the bus going home I still hadn’t thought of a good excuse to use. When I got home I ended up going to my aunt’s house for dinner and I got home around ten at night. When I got home I had no time to do my project. The next day at school when my teacher asked me for my project I didn’t give her one. A couple of weeks after, I got my grade sheet and it had a zero in the slot for my project. I had to show it to my mother and I ended up getting grounded and I couldn’t see any of my friends. If I hadn’t lied to my mother about not doing the project she probably would have helped me and I never would have been grounded. I would to choose to be dishonest and put myself in an undesirable situation because I would not want to ruin a good friendship.
ReplyDeleteHonesty is the best policy, well atleast most of the time.In ways it can be good but can also be bad.For example parents had to lie to you about santa when you were younger.If they didnt your childhood would have been miserable. Also they may have to lie to you for you to be happy and you wont be angry because you dont know the truth.If your people told the truth all the time everyone would be miserable. We would all be miserable bc we are humans and we make mistakes. Mistakes such as things your bestfreinds dont like that you didnt mean to do.Like they say what you dont know wont hurt you. But dont get me wrong lieing is not good. If you lie often people wont trust you with anything. Also if you lie because you think its right for the occasion when they found out you lied you will never hear the end of it. So most of the times its better to tell the truth right away.And if you are thruthful you will have alot of freinds because they know you wont lie to them or keep anything from them. And last they will be able to keep secrets with you. Thats is how honesty can be good and bad.
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ReplyDeleteI think the best way to resolve the problem is always honesty.
DeleteBecause if you're not honest they will consider you a liar, even if you don't have anything to do with the problem.It's never good to lie to other people, you need to be honest in every way.And if you are you don't need to worry about it.
For example , my mom came to America a long time ago with two other friends, and her aunt.My mom and her aunt started searching for a job. They were so lucky because they found a job together in a really fancy restaurant. They were doing really good, her boss was really happy with their work.A young couple appeared in the restaurant asking if they could make a wedding party there, so they said yes.It was a lot work to do, my mom was responsible for serving tables and her aunt for the food.
Everything was good until my mom's aunt left the kitchen and she disappeared.My mom started looking for her because she didn't know what were the food orders.She couldn't find her, and her boss started searching for them.After hours, my mom found her and she asked her what happened. She said it was too much work for her, so she just decided to leave without saying anything.My mom told her it was easier for her to talk to the boss and ask him for something else to do, but she just said she was scared.
My mom's aunt felt bad for my mom because he was angry with them and about to fire them.She talked to her boss and told him and it wasn't my mom's fault. She said she was just gonna leave, and my mom could took her place in the restaurant.My mom was surprised that he did that for her.She was also happy because her aunt was honest with their boss and also with her.
Ketlyn, I totally agree with you that the best way to resolve a problem is honesty. I also like how you said if you’re not honest people will think of you as a liar. Lastly, I enjoyed reading your story about your mom and her aunt. That was a good example. Good job.
DeleteI think honesty is the best policy for almost all accounts. There are always a few exceptions to the rule. Sometimes you have to tell a little white lie for the right reason. Most of us have been taught since we were little to be honest. If you are honest it will pay off in the long run. Honesty is a good trait and you should display honesty in every scenario whether it is in school, at home, or even when you are just around your friends. You wont get anywhere in life with lying. If you get into the habit of telling lies you will find that it never ends. There are many situations that it is better to tell a white lie than tell the truth and hurt someone’s feelings or ruin a friendship or relationship. Sometimes there is just no reason to tell a hurtful truth. You are better off telling a harmless lie. Being honest will help you a lot in life making important decisions. For example, you can easily decide your friends in life when your honest with them and there honest to you. People know when they see an honest person and most of the time will respect you for it. When it comes down to it you should always be honest. You will realize it later on in life if you tell the truth you will be a happier person. It is okay to tell a white lie once in a while but you have to realize the difference between a white lie and a regular lie. A white lie is for a good reason, a regular lie is something that you know you should tell the truth but you still chose not to for some reason. That is why honesty is the best policy.
ReplyDeleteI think that honesty is the best policy because of many reasons. First of all, when people are honest they can be trusted. If you say to somebody that you won’t tell a secret and they know that you are honest all the time they can trust you. Being trustworthy is very good. Also, honesty proves that you are a good person. If you lie about something you would be more of a bad person. Nobody wants that reputation. Being honest shows that you are a good and trustful person. An experience of mine that shows honesty being the best policy was when my friend told me about my friend talking about me. My friend is very honest and never lies to anyone. I believed what my friend told me and it was true. Since my friend was honest it helped when the problem between me and my other friend was resolved. That is why honesty is the best policy.
ReplyDeleteBeing honest doesn’t always fix problems or fights. Sometimes if you do something wrong and you tell the truth of what you did it can ruin a relationship that you have with somebody. Even though you were honest doesn’t mean that what you did was right when it was wrong. Honesty does more harm than good. An experience that I had with honesty having more harm than good is when I was mad at my friend for doing something wrong even though she admitted it. Being honest about what she did wrong was good at least, but what she did wasn’t good.
If I was faced with a choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting myself in an undesirable situation I would chose being dishonest and be put in an undesirable situation because losing a friend isn’t a great feeling and situations can be resolved unlike some friendships that end. I really wouldn’t want to choose either though because neither of them have the choice of honesty which is the best choice to be.
Being honest most of the time is the best policy. If u lie to cover up something u need to keep lying to cover up the previous lie. In most instances telling the truth will always have the best outcome in a situation because the person will be less harsh on you because u told the truth. There were a couple of times were you was in trouble and told the truth and it helped me a lot. For example the time I lost my phone at school and I told my dad someone stole it so he wouldn’t be mad at me. He went to the school to ask about the phone and they said they found it and I got in trouble for lying not losing the phone. Personally if I had to choose between friend ship or a situation that is difficult I would choose the bad situation. The reason I would choose that is I can always get through the situation and still have that friend. Lying is easier in sometimes because it’s hard to tell the truth sometimes but you later in life going to be better off being honest. It’s sometimes ok to lie like when your little your parents tell you Santa is real or the Easter bunny is real. Those lies are harmless and won’t hurt anyone. There are only a hand full of situations that lie will help you. Like if you were skating a spot and you accidently hit something a broke it and someone comes over and asks you is you did it I would say no because that person didn’t know who did it so why get in trouble when you don’t have to. That’s like the only time you can lie for the benefit for yourself and like telling a little lie for example u don’t like how some one dressed and you say they look good.
ReplyDeleteI agree honesty is the perfect policy.Covering up one lie is ever lasting, because you have to keep lieing to cover up other lie's. Your also right about minor lies like folk tales like the easter bunny. those lies won't harm you it's the big ones that count. I also agree that it is better off being honest than than to keep going with your lie. Be truthful in life it's the only way to successed in the future.
DeleteI think honesty is the best policy. It is the best policy because if you get in trouble and you lie about it you are going to get in even more trouble then you are in. If you tell the truth you can get your punishment lessoned. Also say you get in trouble with the law enforcement. You can either lie about what you did or tell the truth. If you tell a lie you can get in even more trouble then you are in. If you tell the truth maybe just maybe you can get the punishment lessoned. When I was in the fourth grade I got in trouble for threatening to hurt somebody. I told my parents that I did not get in trouble. My dad told me something very meaningful that day. He told me to do what I have to do o I can do what I want to do. I think of that every time I do something. He also told me to think before I act. When ever I am about to lie about something I think of the things he told me that day. I have had an experience when honesty has done more harm then good. When I was in seventh grade there were two people that were honest about every thing. One day they were in the principles office and they were in trouble they told the truth about what they did. So they got expelled. If I faced with a choice of being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship, or being dishonest and putting myself in an undesirable situation. I would choose to be honest because if I told the truth maybe my friend would not be so mad. I would also be honest because if I put my self in an undesirable situation maybe I would not be able to get out of it.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think honesty is the best policy. I personally don't think anyone should lie to others. Like seriously, what's the point in lying? If you lie and you get caught, you'll face worse consequences than what you would deserve if you told the truth. I actually had a past experience where I lied to my mom about where I was one night and I ended up getting caught. I acted like I was at my friend's house, but I was actually with a boy at a park and I didn't wanna go home. Then I ended up getting really cold and I just told my mom that I was coming home because I didn't want to sleep at my friend's house anymore. Then, as I was walking home, she saw me and I said I had a ride home when I didn't. I got caught in a couple of lies because I kept changing the story..I finally learned my lesson. I was grounded for awhile too, I learned that I should of just been honest with her, I wouldn't of gotten in as much trouble as I did. Lying will not get you far in life. If I was faced with being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship, I would choose to tell the truth because after facing what I did, I'd know to tell the truth. Plus, if I lied and got caught by that friend, I would of lost them for good..rather than losing them for a couple of weeks for telling the actual truth. In conclusion, no matter what situation you're in, you should always tell the truth. I can garentee that you'll make it further in life than you will with lying. For the people that lie, I wish them all luck, because they won't make it too far.
ReplyDeleteHonesty. Honesty is the quality or fact of being honest; uprightness and fairness. The three main things to a freindship are honesty, loyalty, and respect.without these componets especialy honesty there is no freindship at all. Honesty is the biggest part of a freindship, because the reason u have that freind is to share any and everything with no matter what. That freind is the only person u tell the real deal to. Without that one freind who are u going to tell anything to? So therefore your freind should be the last person ur not honest with.
ReplyDeleteAn example of how honesty works. Say you get introuble in school and get sent to the principal's office. principle asks you what you did do you lie or be honest?! Lieing will get you in more trouble than u already are when it comes down to it. Being honest won't get you out of trouble, But shows that you are living up to whatever you did and get you in less trouble. Well atleast that's how I do it.
If faced with the choice between being dishonest and potentially ruining a friendship or being dishonest and putting myself in an undesirable situation.I would pick eighter decsions. For me to ruin a freindship over something so minior which it most likely is. Is ridicoulus why lose the person you trust the most over the wrong words that come out of ur mouth!? I wouldn't put my self in harms way for sure. There's no absolute reason to be that dishonest. Matter of fact it wouldn't even come down to that with me. I tell the truth and only the truth, if you dont like it ohwell.
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ReplyDeleteHonesty is always the best policy in any situation given. It is important because you will have less to worry about and people will always trust you. For example, I had to get a progress report signed for language arts. But I was failing that class with about a 63 so I didn’t want to show my mom or dad. Then the next day my teacher was going around the class checking the progress reports making sure everyone got them signed. Then she got to me and she asked me where mine was and I told her “I left mine at home” and she said okay bring it in tomorrow. Then the next day arrived and she asked me where it was and I made up another excuse. This went on for about 4 days. On the fourth day my teacher called home and told my parents my grade and I got in a lot of trouble. So that showed me that lying is never an option you will always get caught. Also I have experienced a time when telling the truth led to getting in trouble either way. One time my dad found out that I wasn’t doing my homework. So I figured that if I don’t tell my dad my teacher would call him and tell him. So I thought by telling her that I haven’t been doing my homework wouldn’t get me in as much trouble. So I told her and I got grounded and yelled at. But if I didn’t tell him and my teacher called him I still would of got in a lot of trouble but by telling him I didn’t get in as much trouble as I would of got by not telling. So telling the truth is always the best option to always go, no matter what the outcome is.
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ReplyDeleteShe misplaced her friend's necklace. Had Mathilde Loisel come clean and told Madame Forestier that she lost the necklace; she may not have spent most of her life in debt. However, she chooses to lie to Madame Forestier by omission and live in poverty in order to replace the missing necklace. I think honesty is the best policy in many ways that I will explain in about three hundred words. If u want someone to trust you u don’t lie to them u tell the truth if you lie that shows u cannot be trusted. In the case of Mathild she had lost what she thought was a valuable necklace that was cheap she did not know so she bought I real one and gave it to Madame Forestier. If she told the truth to her friend she would not have been in debt for life trying to pay off the necklace. So in this case if she had told the truth then she would not be up to her head in bills. She was poor before this I can’t imagine what place there in now. Also in another story we read Alison Bergeron The handicap general lied to everybody and said learning and other abilities that another person does not have is illegal. Anyone that had these abilities would be handicapped. She lied to an entire country and got away with it. This is an example of someone getting away with lying to a lot of people. Honesty gets you places lying does not. Lying just gets you into a deeper whole when honesty could get you out of one. Now that a said my reasons I would like to see would other people wrote on the topic of honesty is the best policy. And how they responded to the topic.
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