I was in the public library the other day reading through some old magazines when I happened on an article/editorial about a teacher in Piper, Kansas. According to the article the teacher was at the center of a major scandal involving her student’s grades.

  The controversy began when that teacher discovered that at least a fourth of her sophomore students had cheated on their botany project. She gave each of the cheating students a zero on their project.  This meant, of course, that each of them failed the semester. Parents were outraged and they complained mightily both to the teacher and to the school board.  At the direction of the school board, the principal ordered the teacher to give the students passing grades.

Rather than do that, the teacher resigned her teaching position. At least a dozen of her fellow faculty members planned to resign as well in protest. The school board responded by accepting their resignations and hiring new teachers.

One of the failing students told a reporter, “We’ve won!” 

  When asked why she went through with her resignation, the teacher responded by saying, “It’s not just biology we teach; you’re supposed to be teaching them a lot more than that. You’re supposed to be teaching them to be honest people, to have integrity, and to be good people.”

  At the conclusion of the article, the journalist made a simple statement, “I wonder if the parents who complained so loudly held any stock in Enron? Perhaps those men who caused the collapse of that company because of their dishonesty had teachers or parents who didn’t insist that they be people of integrity.

  In a few days we will mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. It is traditionally a time for “New Years Resolutions”.  I think it was Socrates who said that the greatest gift we can give the world and ourselves is a life live in honesty and in integrity. Not a bad idea for the new year.