Cover Up

Value: Honesty

Concept: Telling a lie seems simple enough to do. We lie to keep us from getting in trouble, to exaggerate something we did to make ourselves look better, to get others in trouble, to get out of certain situations, etc. However, one of the problems with telling a lie is remembering what we have said. The truth is easy to remember because it really happened. If we make up a lie to meet our needs in a certain situation, then we have to remember what we said later on if someone asks us about it. As we try to cover up our first lie we end up telling more lies. Now our story becomes even more complicated and we have to keep more lies straight. We have to remember what we said to whom and think about who might compare stories with each other. If we don't keep everything straight, someone will catch us in our lie and expose the truth. Rather than spend a lot of time and energy trying to cover up our first lie with other lies, wouldn't it be easier to just tell the truth? Once you have a reputation as a liar it is hard to get people to trust you. Trust is hard to get back once you have lost it.

Key Words: Honesty, Lying, Truth, Cover Up, Trust

Location: In your home

Time Estimate: 15 minutes plus discussion time

Materials Needed:

A container (such as a cooking pot or a bucket) that you can put six to eight inches of water in. It should be at least eight inches across

A quarter

10 pennies

Activity: Fill a container with six to eight inches of water. Begin the activity by placing a quarter on the bottom of the container right in the middle. Give the first person ten pennies. Explain that their challenge is to cover up the quarter with the pennies. The pennies must be dropped one at a time from a height of two inches above the water. After they have dropped all ten pennies, count how many pennies landed and stayed on the quarter. Estimate what percentage of the quarter they covered. Retrieve the pennies and let the next person have their turn. When everyone has taken a turn, repeat the process again to see if they can improve.

Discussion Ideas:

"What" Questions

How well did you do covering the quarter?

How many pennies did you get to land on the quarter?

How easy was it to get the pennies to land on the quarter?

What techniques did you use?

How successful were these techniques?

"So What" Questions

How can we compare this activity to trying to cover up a lie that we told?

Do you sometimes have to tell more than one lie to cover up the first lie? Why or why not?

How hard is it to remember which lies you told to which person? Explain.

How can we keep from having to tell more lies to cover up the first one?

How much control do we have over others passing on our lies?

Describe a situation where someone may have to tell more lies after they told the first lie.

What happens when someone catches you in a lie?

How easy is it to convince someone you are telling the truth after they have caught you lying?

How can you get that person to trust you again?

"Now What" Questions

Why is telling the truth easier than lying even if the truth may get us in trouble?

How does being honest help people trust us?