Trustworthiness – Competence Plus Character

If you need to put your trust in someone, you want that person to have the skills to take care of what is necessary, of course. But you also need to believe that the person you are trusting will not let you down.

Having the necessary skills is competence. Not letting other people down is the character.

Let's take a wild example. You are standing at the window of a two-story building. You are trapped upstairs by a fire. There is someone standing below the window yelling, "Jump, I'll catch you!"

Number one, you want the person to be strong enough to catch you. That is the competence. You also want to be sure that once you jump this person will indeed hold out a pair of arms and catch you instead of stepping back and letting you hit the ground. (Okay, that would be really, really mean, but I told you this was a wild example.) That is the character.

Discuss other examples of competence combined with character in a person you need to trust.

Tommy the Trustworthy Turtle

Character Education Partnership

Genetics – Inherited Traits

Is your hair black, blond, straight, curly? Can you curl your tongue? Do you have big ears? Some of the answers to these questions will be the same for people who are related by birth.

Name other traits that we pass down from generation to generation.