Whenever this film is used in a classroom setting, the following suggestions will help students get the best of the film. In addition, exploring attitudes toward truthfulness in personal relationships is an appropriate topic for both health classes and ELA classes. The writing assignment suggested at the end of the unit exercises important skills in the ELA curriculum, writing a persuasive essay and a memoir.
Using "Dear Frankie" to Explore Honesty in Family and Personal Relations
Before showing the film ask students to think about the following questions as they watch the movie: "Is deception ever justified in human relationships? If so, when?" Tell the class to be prepared to write about that question after they have seen the film.
Then play the movie. At a natural stopping place after the audience knows that Frankie's natural father, Davy, is dying, ask the following questions: "Do you think that Frankie has a right to know his father? When Frankie learns the truth, will he be upset that his mother prevented him from ever knowning his father?"
When the film is completed, ask students to write a sentence or two containing their own definitions of "truth" and "honesty." Have students share their definitions with the class and discuss them in an effort to come up with a concensus definition. Here are definitions adapted from Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary.
Truth is most often defined as "the body of real things, events, and facts". It is also seen as a "transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality."
Honesty is most often defined as "fairness and straightforwardness of conduct" or "adherence to the fact". To be honest is to be free from fraud or deception.
After students are fairly clear about truth and honesty, engage in a discussion about whether the value placed on the concepts of truth and honesty are absolute or situational:
Absolute values are those that an individual adheres to no matter what the consequences.
Situational values shift depending on the consequences.
Poll the class and then challenge the adherents to each proposition. Examples of possible challenges are set out below:
- For those who believe in absolute truth: What would you do in a situation in which a lie could save the life of a family member or friend? What about stealing to provide food for a starving family member or friend? Was Frankie's mother wrong to try to protect her son?
- For those who believe in situational ethics: How do you prevent your own interests from creeping into the decision making process? Didn't Frankie have a right to see his father once before the man died?
Ask students what they think of this resolution of the problem, a concept which can be called "the rule of the most honoring choice":
When there is a conflict between our own values or between our values and those of others affected by the decision, we should then choose the alternative which honors the most important long term values for the most (stakeholders) (people, animals, the environment), giving reasonable priority to the stakeholders to whom we owe duties of obligation or loyalty.
The rule of the most honoring choice seeks to answer one of the most fundamental issues of ethical analysis: what do we do when our values are in conflict. The proper application of the rule requires a decisionmaker to accurately forecast what will occur, clearly understand what we and others value, rank those values, and balance the possible good against the possible harm. For more on this topic, see TWM's article on ethics, Making Effective and Principled Decisions. For a film which can serve as the basis for an entire unit on ethics, see Learning Guide to "Pay it Forward"
HTML for the above
<a name="ExploringHonesty"</a>
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<blockquote>
Whenever this film is used in a classroom setting, the following suggestions will help students get the best of the film. In addition, exploring attitudes toward truthfulness in personal relationships is an appropriate topic for both health classes and ELA classes. The writing assignment suggested at the end of the unit exercises important skills in the ELA curriculum, writing a persuasive essay and a memoir.
</blockquote>
<div align="center"<strong>Using "Dear Frankie" to Explore Honesty in Family and Personal Relations</strong>
</div<BR>
Before showing the film ask students to think about the following questions as they watch the movie: "Is deception ever justified in human relationships? If so, when?" Tell the class to be prepared to write about that question after they have seen the film.
<br<br>
Then play the movie. At a natural stopping place after the audience knows that Frankie's natural father, Davy, is dying, ask the following questions: "Do you think that Frankie has a right to know his father? When Frankie learns the truth, will he be upset that his mother prevented him from ever knowning his father?"
<br<br>
When the film is completed, ask students to write a sentence or two containing their own definitions of "truth" and "honesty." Have students share their definitions with the class and discuss them in an effort to come up with a concensus definition. Here are definitions adapted from <a href=" Online Dictionary</a>.
<UL>
<br>Truth is most often defined as "the body of real things, events, and facts". It is also seen as a "transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality."
<br<br>
Honesty is most often defined as "fairness and straightforwardness of conduct" or "adherence to the fact". To be honest is to be free from fraud or deception.
</UL<br>
After students are fairly clear about truth and honesty, engage in a discussion about whether the value placed on the concepts of truth and honesty are absolute or situational:
<UL<br>
Absolute values are those that an individual adheres to no matter what the consequences.<br<br>
Situational values shift depending on the consequences.<br<br>
</UL>
Poll the class and then challenge the adherents to each proposition. Examples of possible challenges are set out below:
<ul<br>
<li>For those who believe in absolute truth: What would you do in a situation in which a lie could save the life of a family member or friend? What about stealing to provide food for a starving family member or friend? Was Frankie's mother wrong to try to protect her son?</li>
<br<br>
<li>For those who believe in situational ethics: How do you prevent your own interests from creeping into the decision making process? Didn't Frankie have a right to see his father once before the man died?</li>
</ul<br>
Ask students what they think of this resolution of the problem, a concept which can be called "the rule of the most honoring choice":
<blockquote>
When there is a conflict between our own <a href="standard-ethics-questions.htm#values">values</a> or between our values and those of others affected by the decision, we should then choose the alternative which honors the most important long term values for the most (<a href="standard-ethics-questions.htm#stakeholder">stakeholders</a>) (people, animals, the environment), giving reasonable priority to the stakeholders to whom we owe duties of obligation or loyalty.
</blockquote>
The rule of the most honoring choice seeks to answer one of the most fundamental issues of ethical analysis: what do we do when our values are in conflict. The proper application of the rule requires a decisionmaker to accurately forecast what will occur, clearly understand what we and others value, rank those values, and balance the possible good against the possible harm. For more on this topic, see TWM's article on ethics, <a href="..standard-ethics-questions.htm">Making Effective and Principled Decisions</a>. For a film which can serve as the basis for an entire unit on ethics, see <a href="pay-it-forward,html"<em>Learning Guide</em> to "Pay it Forward"</a>
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<div align="center"<strong>Discussion Question</strong</div>
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If Lizzie had applied the rule of the most honoring choice when deciding to start responding to Frankie's letters to his dad, she would have weighed the value of honesty against Frankie's need for a father and his need to be protected from the fact that his own father had assaulted him and caused him to become deaf. However, if she did the full analysis, she should have thought about what this deception might to do to Frankie's trust of her and several other factors. Applying the rule of the most honoring choice, is there anything else that could have weighed on Lizzie's decision? Do you think she made the right decision? <font color="006600"<font class="italic">Suggested Response:</font> There is no one correct response. Good responses would add the issue that Frankie may decide later that he would have wanted to meet his father, no matter what the man had done. Good responses will point out that Lizzie was lucky that the stranger that she selected to act as Frankie's father was not a sexual predator, but instead turned out to be a very nice man. Students may come up with other factors that Lizzie could have taken into account. Creativity is to be encouraged.</font> <a name="projects"</a>
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<div align="center"<strong>Assignments, Projects and Activities</strong</div>
<br<a name="ASL-deaf-culture"</a>
1. Have students write a persuasive essay taking a position on the question, "Is deception ever justified in human relationships? If so, when?" The essay should include an example taken from incidents in their lives or the lives of others in which a deception worked or didn't work for the good of all. See TWM's <a href="guides/narrative-writing-lesson-plan.doc">Narrative Writing: Teaching Students to Write a Narrative</a>.
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2. Debates can be planned, using the technique known as the Great Divide, in which chairs are arranged so that all of the students on one side of the argument sit opposed to the students on the other side of the argument. Students can get up and change sides whenever they become convinced of the superiority of the other position. Many times, most of the students will wind up sitting on one side or the other. Topics for debate are suggested below.
<UL<br>
<li>Parents must always tell the truth to their children.</li>
<li>There are values greater than the value of truth and lying can be justified when it serves a greater good.</li>
<li>The "rule of the most honoring choice" does not improve the ethics of decisions made when people use it; it is just a way for people to justify doing what they want to do.</li>
</UL<BR>
See Discussion Questions #s <a href="#question7">7</a>, <a href="#question13">13</a> - <a href="#question16">16</a> and <a href="#question20">20</a>.<br<br>