DENVILLE Plop! Plop! Plop!
First-graders at St. Mary’s Prep here dunk a quarter in a bucket of water that sinks to the bottom and follow it by dropping in several pennies, one at a time, in attempts to cover up the 25-cent piece. Students were asked to consider not any scientific principle of motion or the monetary value of the coins, but something that the eye cannot see: the Catholic value of honesty that the experiment was imparting. The quarter represents a big lie that caused a significant ripple effect, while the pennies — which never could cover the quarter completely — showed that small lies cannot cover up bigger lies, said Laura Roberts, St. Mary’s first-grade teacher.
“Honesty means not lying and being kind to teachers and to other students,” said Amelia Quinn, a first-grader at St. Mary’s who helped with the experiment.
On the morning of Friday, Jan. 13, the first grade and every grade at St. Mary’s tried its hand at the honesty challenge — called “ ‘Water’ You Covering Up?” and part of the Morris County school’s focus this month the value of honesty. This month’s observance marks the halfway point of St. Mary’s celebration of its Year of Values campaign. It helps make Catholic values real to students by engaging them in an array of hands-on activities across the curriculum, including reading, writing, art, research and science projects. The initiative started in September with respect and will conclude in June with forgiveness and compassion, said Peg McCluskey, Ed.D., and St. Mary’s principal.
“This [campaign] is a celebration of Catholic values that represent St. Mary’s. We want to help instill these important values in our students,” said McCluskey, who noted that the Year of Values invites each class to select a value, which it will introduce to the entire school during a specific month. “This makes values tangible. Our students take ownership of them. They will remember them,” she said.
Each class sets the example of its value for the school, creates a large display that represents that principle for the halls of St. Mary’s, and develops an activity like the honesty water challenge to share with the other classes. Each month, a student from each class is named Student of the Month for demonstrating that specific value — an honor that includes their photograph on the main bulletin board and either a homework or ice cream pass. St. Mary’s marks the conclusion of each month with a dress-down day, when students are asked to wear the color that corresponds with that month’s value, McCluskey said.
So far, St. Mary’s has focused on the following values: respect in September by the eighth grade, kindness in October by the second grade, gratitude in November by the fourth grade, generosity in December by the kindergarten, and honesty this month by the first grade. Devised by third-grade teacher Elisabeth Buska, the Year of Values continues with responsibility in February with seventh grade, determination in March with third grade, patience in April with fifth grade, humility in May with sixth grade and forgiveness and compassion in June with the pre-k and transitional kindergarten, McCluskey said.
The first-graders introduced honesty by lining up in front of St. Mary’s student body in the gym with each student holding a card that displayed one letter of the word of the value. Then each student read aloud information about the principle, such as “Honesty is being true in everything you say and do.” The presentation continued with a verse from John 8: 31-32 that ends with Jesus’ teaching, “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Then, the first-graders sang a song, “Honesty is True” with the lyrics, “Never tell a lie. Show family why they can trust in you.”
After the assembly in the gym, each grade returned to its class to tackle the values challenges, which often are the product of collaboration between grade levels. For instance, the first- and fourth-graders worked together to count out the quarters and pennies for each class to use for the honesty water challenge, said Roberts, who noted that the activities encompass many curriculum areas.
“The younger and older students enjoy working together,” said Roberts, who added that for the value of respect, eighth-graders divided into teams to visit the other classrooms to read to students from a book about the subject, followed by discussion. “This [campaign] has been beneficial and meaningful for students. They have made so many connections [with values and their daily lives],” she said.
One of the eighth-graders, who read a storybook about respect to the other classes, was Jordyn Baham. “We talked to the kids about what respect is and gave examples that we wrote down on cards, such as saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you.’ ” Baham said. “It reminded me that we all deserve respect.”
Listening to the story that day — a funny tale about cats, first-grader Brayden Astorino remembers singing a song about respect and talking about examples of it, such as helping his little brother.
“I learned that respect is respecting myself and being nice to people,” Astorino said.
A hallway next to St. Mary’s gym testifies to the major art projects that classes created for the Year of Values. For kindness, second-graders fashioned a brown tree of paper with red, yellow, and tan leaves that represent many of the kind acts that they have done. For respect, eighth graders cut out giant paper letters of the word and drew examples such as a person caring for his pet dog. For gratitude, fourth-graders wrote poems, including one that described the value as “being grateful for having family and friends.”
Looking ahead to the conclusion of the Year of Values at St. Mary’s in June, McCluskey noted, “We want our students to demonstrate these values inside and outside of school at all times. They should always be respectful and honest and forgiving in their efforts to help make the world a better place.”