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ETHICSDISCUSSION:Talk with students about the difference between being assigned a job versus being selected for a job. Ask: Why isbeing “selected” thought of as more of an honor, if one cannot really refuse the selection?DEBATE:Jonas is most struck by the new rule that he is allowed to lie. Consider the following excerpt from the book:Finally he steeled himself to read the final rule again. He had been trained sinceearliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie. It was anintegral part of the learning of precise speech. Once, when he had been a Four,he had said, just prior to the midday meal at school, “I’m starving.”Immediately he had been taken aside for a brief private lesson in language precision.He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry. No one in thecommunity was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving. To say“starving” was to speak a lie. An unintentional lie, of course. But the reason forprecision of language was to ensure that unintentional lies were never uttered.…He had never, within his memory, been tempted to lie. Asher did not lie. Lilydid not lie. His parents did not lie. No one did. Unless…Now Jonas had a thought that he had never had before. This new thought wasfrightening. What if others—adults—had, upon becoming Twelves, received intheir instructions the same terrifying sentence?What if they had all been instructed: You may lie?His mind reeled. [The Giver, hardcover edition, pp. 70-71]DEBATEOPTION #1Divide students into three teams to consider the following: Why is permission to lie particularly startling to Jonas?How does lying affect others in the Community? Next, ask the teams to debate the following topic: Is there evera time in your own life when it is okay to tell a lie? And is there a difference between a big lie and a little lie?Team A will argue against lying; Team B will argue that lying is often harmless and necessary for good. Team C,a team of unbiased judges, will listen to the arguments of the opposing teams and conclude the debate by offeringa collaborative solution that integrates differing perspectives that were introduced.9

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