Each week we participate in a Character Education activity incorporating the Andy Griffith Show.  Here are some of our responses to open-ended questions concerning these lessons.

October 29, 2004
     After some children teased Barney with a poem, he was ready to quit his job as deputy because his self confidence was low.

       How important is self-esteem to a person?
       What effect can words have on people?
       Write a short paragraph describing a time in your life when words spoken had a positive or
       negative effect.  Explain the feelings that the people involved felt.

Student # 22: Self-esteem is very important because if you do not have any self-esteem somebody could get you to do drugs or break the law.  All this stuff can happen or even worse. Words can have lots of effects like when somebody says I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND ANY MORE !  That can effect more than anything . But if they do the wrong stuff and you notice that you don't get
in trouble any more you should be happy. When people say things and they give a negative effect that  gives you a negative effect it hurts.  I have had this thing happen to me when I was in 3rd grade. Someone called me "stuipd" and I felt like I was dumb. In my head I fought it and I won; but now I still fell it.

Student # 13: It is very important to have good self-esteem because if you don't then you can't acomplish much. As long as you have good self-esteem and believe in yourself you can do anything. Words can have great effect on people.  Words can ruin people's day very elsily. This is something that happend to me one day at school. Okay,  I wore some big shoes they were a bright stand out blue like when your computer is loading the blue at the bottem of your screen. Everyone was laughing at me because I have big feet for my age. So what!  When they laughed at me it hurt my feeling but I didn't let them ruin my day. That proves words hurt.

October 21, 2004
     In today's episode, a young couple comes to Andy to be married.  The couple's parents are in the middle of a feud that has gone on for generations.  The feud has gone on so long that the parents do not know why or how the feud started but believe that it must be continued because that's what their parents believed and taught them.  The young couple that wanted to be married did not believe that the feud should continue.   They were brave and went against what they thought was wrong.

Let's imagine that a friend told you that they did not like someone and wanted you to dislike the same person, but you didn't have a reason not to like them.   Would you do as your friend asked and dislike that person  just because your friend did?

Write a short paragraph answering the questions below:

How difficult do you feel it is it to think for yourself and make your own decisions?

Is it difficult to be different when your friends believe something that you think is wrong?

Student # 10: I think it is very important to make your own decision because if you didn't somebody could force you to do something bad. You should be able to make the right decision without somebody telling you what to do. To me it is not
difficult to be different when your friends believe in something that is wrong. For instance, if your friends are smoking and they want you to do it, and they said it was cool; would you do it?  Bad things happen when you make bad choices.

Student # 13: It is pretty difficult for people with trouble thinking but for me I can sometimes listen and follow in my friends' footsteps but then thats the wrong path. It is not very difficult because it's like I can see over my friends and sometimes I choose the leader path and thats a good thing.

Student #8: I think that it is not difficult because all you have to do is just think for yourself and make your decisions.  If I believe my friends are doing something wrong,  then I will report it to everybody. If I sense something is wrong I will pretend to do it and report it when I get enough information on the thing that they are doing to see if it is a law or not.  I will also tell other people to help me and I will try to spy and get tons of information on it and if I know everthing that I need to know then I will report it.

Student #4: I think it is sometimes hard to be different. It depends on the friend. If it was Brittney Spears, then it could be hard. But if it was your dad, then it would be really easy. It would be easy because he is your father and he loves you. Even though there had been a feud for generations there was still no reason for it. Again it is some times hard.  I think it could be easy. If one of your friends said that they don't like your shirt you should just say so!!! (unless you don't like it either!)
 

October 15, 2004
     In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Barney buys a car from a grandmotherly lady that he trusts. In reality, she belonged to a gang of car thieves that lied to innocent people and took their money.  The story has a happy ending for Barney but he learned a couple valuable lessons.  What are these lessons?  Write a short paragraph explaining what Barney learned that could be important to you in your life.

Student # 26: Barney's lesson was don't trust someone you don't know because that person can be good to people they don't know.  And don't be mean till you know them; so Barney learned two lessons. That lesson is important to you because everyone is not good. Some people will like to play tricks on you and that person might think it's funny.  When people do a trick on someone and that person plays a trick on the first person they will not think it's funny.  When you play a trick you are the only one who is laughing. That why I think this lesson is the most important.
 

October 8, 2004
     In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Andy tells Barney a secret that must be kept in order to keep people safe and to protect a gold shipment.

Write a paragraph answering the three questions below:

How important is it to keep secrets?  What were the consequences of Barney's actions?

Give two examples of when it is not ok to keep a secret.

Student # 16: It is very important to keep a secret. Like if you are 8 and liked a girl or a friend does.  If a friend told you and you told her, your friend might not like you for a long time.  The reason everybody knew is that Barney made his girlfriend guess what he had to do.   And she guessed right.  And then she told everybody.  Sometimes it's not ok to keep a secret.  Like if a kid stole $100, or if a kid killed another kid and you saw it; you should tell the police.  I can go on all day and tell you bad things that can get you in jail or juvenile.  And you should tell the police about any bad thing you see.

Student # 26: 1#  Secrets are really important because if your friend tells you a secret and you worry like Barney and tell everyone the person that told you the secret might not want to be your friend because you tell secrets a lot.
2#  I think Barney's consequences was that the other guy will not tell him secrets just for a little awhile.
3#  When your friend tells you to keep a secret like smoking under 18 because if they are smoking.  She or he might give you one but you have to say no even if its hard.  You have to say no because you need to help your friend not make it worse.  2. If your best friend tells you to blame your mistake on someone else it might be hard, but you have to say no cause if you tell her "yes", the person is going to find out.  .

Student # 4: It is very important to keep a secret. Well, it depends on what is. If you liked someone, and you told somebody and then they told someone you would get over it! But if you told something someone was really serious about like a truck full of gold then you would have really bad consequences! The consequnces of Barney's actions weren't that good.  They were that the truck got away! But if Barney hadn't told Juanita [his date] then the whole town wouldn't have found out!!! It is not ok to keep a secret in some cases. Like if someone hurt you but they told you not tell and you promised then you would have to tell. And if you saw one of your friends smoking but you didn't want to tell because they were your friend then you have to tell! And if someone was smoking anyway you probably wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway.

October 1, 2004
     In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Goober gets Andy's phone messages mixed up and Andy ends up eating three spaghetti dinners.   First, Andy goes to the Sprague house thinking that he was invited to dinner.  The Spragues didn't invite Andy to supper and have already eaten, but they don't want to hurt his feelings and so they eat a second supper with Andy.  Then Andy gets a call from Helen that he is late for supper with her visiting uncle.   Andy eats a third supper with them because he doesn't want to hurt their feelings.

This raises the question:
Is it okay to tell a white lie to keep from hurting other people's feelings?  Explain your point of view.

Student #6: I think that if it was my family or friends I would try to eat what was in front of me.That saying is true some people don't have food on the table at all so I do understand why he did not tell his friends that he had spaghetti two times that day.

Student # 8:  Sometimes if you tell a lie it is ok but if you tell a lie that is not white; then you are just doing it.   If all the people in the world told a lie then it would be a bad place.  People wouldn't have friends and you couldn't believe anything. Sometimes lies are for a reason; like if you don't want to hurt people's feelings or you would try not to get in trouble.  If you call people names then that is a big lie, couse one day you will think the same reason as me.  And that is why lies are allowed sometimes.

Student #26:  No, because if you hurt someone's feelings soon they will feel better then they will want to hurt someone else's feelings.  Then everyone will want to hurt feelings and everyone will end up in trouble by the teacher. Then when you grow up you will be a bad person. So it not ok to lie  just to hurt someone's feeling.

Student #4:  No it is not. If you want a friend then lie. It was nice that Andy didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings but if Helen and her uncle found out that Andy lied they would most likely be more hurt.  And also the Sprague family should't have lied to Andy.  If they didn't invite him why didn't they just say that????

Student # 9:  Yes, but mighty guilt might come over you in a bad way of feeling.  It is like the show, you don't want to hurt other's feelings unless you are trying to be mean.  If it is a friend, they might think you don't want to be friends any more, like if someone makes a mistake with a message you might have to mkae a tiny little lie.  Although some people may think it is not right to make a tiny little white lie, but don't make a big lie.

Student #12   No,  it's not ok to tell a white lie because you need to tell the truth even if it hurts their feelings. They can't get that mad. Some people will be happy if you tell the truth.
 
 

September 24, 2004
      In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Barney gives Gomer a ticket for making an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street.  Later, Gomer issues a citizen's arrest to Barney for doing the same thing.

This raises the question:
Should the rules apply to everyone?  Compare your life at school with what happened in this episode and explain your reasoning.

Student # 5: I think that the rules should apply to everyone not to just one person. That means teachers too. If the rules did not apply to the teachers then everyone would not want to obey the teachers. Then everyone would start to do bad things and they all would be making noises in the hall.  And if you did not obey the laws then everyone would start making things up and every one would be mad at each other.  Then everybody would start to do things that are bad . School is life,  you have to obey the rules and if you don't,  you have to do the consequences.  This might mean that you miss fun things like recess or you have to sit out in P.E. or you have to sit in the front of the room or you have to go to the principal's office.  At school is a lot like the real laws;  you need to be able to follow the rule to do anything. If you think that you are a good kid,  then you should try to set a good example for the kids in first, second and third grades. The rules can be real hard when you don't know what to do you may get in trouble some times and you may lose P.E. or  fun things,  but you should learn your lesson the the first time and if you don't you will have to  go  there over and over and over then the teachers will try something different.  If you still are bad you will have to do the same thing over and over and over, then they will make it to where you can not come to school and then you may have to do the same grade over again and some people will make fun of you and people will laugh at you and no one will want to be your friend and no one will want to do anything with you.

Student# 18: Yes, everyone should apply to any rules because it is just like school; you have to follow the rules. It isn't fair if someone does something wrong and doesn't get in trouble, and then you do something wrong and you get in in troble for
doing something wrong. It also isn't fair if  someone stole and they don't go to jail like they are told to do. And if there were no rules then our world would might be a crisis.

Student# 4: Rules should apply to everyone because if you were in Gomer's position wouldn't you do the same thing?  It doesn't matter who you are you should always be fair about things. My school life is the same and it is different from this week's episode. It is the same because if you do something wrong, then you get in trouble for it.  If a teacher's pet did the same thing later they would get in trouble. Or they should at least.  It's different  because if someone did something wrong they should get in trouble for it. If you were there with that person and the person said you were also doing it but the teacher saw that you weren't they would get in even more trouble for lying.

Student #22: Rules should apply to everybody.  Students and teachers can break the rules; they're mostly like Barney.  Students are mostly like Gomer because they mostly want to get even. I get in trouble sometimes. I  want to get back at my parents or argue thats mostly what I want to do.

Student#13: I believe that the rules should apply to every person, car, truck, van or SUV; except for an ambulance or fire trucks on emergency calls. Everyone should follow traffic laws or presidential laws as well.  At school you should follow the teachers' rules. They are not to be mean or make nothing fun,  rules are to keep everybody safe and happy.  That's why I think rules apply to everyone.
 

September 17, 2004
In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Aunt Bea makes a batch of pickles that taste like kerosene cucumbers.  These pickles make Opie sick and Andy and Barney do not like the taste of them. Andy and Barney come up with a plan to get rid of the pickles without hurting Aunt Bea's feelings.  Aunt Bea thinks that the boys love her pickles and have eaten all of them just as she has decided to put them in a pickle competition at the fair.   Andy finds out how much the competition means to Mrs. Johnson who has won the contest for the past 11 years and realizes that they cannot let Aunt Bea enter store-bought pickles in the contest.   Explain in a small paragraph what Andy meant when he said, "What is small potatoes to some folks is mighty important to others."

Student # 6: What  Andy  meant was that  some things mean a lot more than others do. So what he was meaning to say is he can't bear to have Aunt Bea win with store  pickles.

Student # 9: It means that people think that other things are more important than other things and some think that some things aren't that important than other things I think most things are very important.

Student # 16: In the Andy Griffith show,  Andy said " What is small potatoes to some folks is mighty important to others." That means pickles are important to some people. And to some people who do not care for pickles.

Student #  5: When Andy said, "What is small potatoes to some folks is mighty important to others", he meant that what was small stuff to some is very big to others.  It is like you like something that your brother or your sister don't like and they have to go to it.  They may not like it but they want you there to help all the way and if your sister has some game that you don't want to go
you have to go and your sitter says that she needs you there so you can help her all the way.  In the move, Andy takes some of Aunt Bea's homemade pickles and switches them with store bought pickles and then he finds out that Aunt Bea is going
to put them in a contest and how much it means to the person Aunt Bea is up against and that the only thing she lives for is the contest at the fair.  Andy decides that it would not be fair if Aunt Bea won the contest and then she would have cheated.  That is what Andy meant when he said "What is small potatoes to some folks is mighty important to others."

Student # 18: What is important to others might not be important to you. But you still should be respectful because you can still hurt their feelings. And then they might not ever do it again. Also things that are important to you might not be important to others and sometimes it is very important and they won't believe you.

Student # 3: Aunt Bea didn't care if Mrs.Johnson won the twelveth time in the homemade pickle contest because the rest of Aunt Bee's family liked her homemade pickles, but Mrs.Johnson did care if she won for the twelveth time because it make her feel proud of herself.

September 10, 2004
    In today's episode of Andy Griffith,  Andy and Opie's housekeeper, Rose, got married.  Andy's Aunt Bea came to take care of Opie and Andy.  Opie did not think that he could love Aunt Bea like he did Rose and he would not give her a chance.  Write a paragraph comparing Aunt Bea and this episode to the character and story, Big Al that we read  yesterday.

Student # 22:  Aunt Bea and Big Al are mostly alike and different. In Aunt Bea's case,  she's trying to make friends with Opie.  Big Al is trying to make friends with fish.  They are different because Aunt Bea made friends Opie by making him feel bad and Big Al made friends by saving fish.

Student # 12: Aunt B.and Big Al are alike because they both tried  to make friends but they both messed up. At the end they both made friends. They are different because Big Al tried to make friends with fish. Aunt B. tried to make friends with a boy.

Student # 13:  Big Al is a fish. Aunt Bea is a human. Big Al is trying to make a lot of friends. Aunt Bea is trying to make one friend.  Big Al saved his friends' lives.  Aunt Bea didn't save any one. Big Al was scary looking that's why nobody liked him. Opie didn't like Aunt Bea because she was not very playful.

Student # 7:  Big Al and Aunt B. are alike because Big Al  wanted to make a friend and Aunt B. wanted  to  make a friend.They both ended up with a friend.  Big Al and Aunt B. are different because Big Al wanted to make a lot of friends and Aunt B. only wanted  Opie to like her.  Big Al didn't have any friends because he looked scary and Opie didn't like Aunt B. because he thought she couldn't do anything  like Rose. That is how they are compared.

Student # 5:  Ant Bea and Big Al are alike because they both tried and tried to get someone to like them. Ant Bea tried to do things that Opie liked and Big Al tried to look different so the fish would like him. Ant Bea finally got Opie to like her when she was just about to go away. Big Al got all his friends when he saved everyone from the fishermen's net and all the fish were happy.  And Ant Bea stayed and everyone was happy.