Friday, November 2, 2012

Honor System

A girl dropped off her stuff--her backpack and her fundraiser bag. This is so normal as to be unremarkable, although most students keep the fundraiser bags with them. (Students are always selling something for one school-sponsored activity or other. They carry their bag of goodies with them and get sales from hungry classmates.)

The girl's belongings sat undisturbed all period. The bell rang. The class cleared out. And another girl noticed the fundraising bag. She was hungry and she wanted an item from the bag. (She was on her way out to lunch.)

I was not the keeper of the bag. But, I do keep an eye on things to make sure that students don't make off with property that isn't theirs.

I figured the girl would like to make a sale. Hungry girl took two items from the bag. Turns out the bag was labeled, so hungry girl knew who she would have to pay. She promised me that she would pay the girl when she saw her, and she was on her way.

Normally I wouldn't allow this, but I knew I'd have both girls in class after lunch. I made sure to ask the girl if hungry girl had paid her. She had.

It's nice to know that 8th graders can sometimes be trusted.

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