Craig and I are at our son’s third-grade parent-teacher interview. We sit on the miniature chairs, our knees just fitting under the laminex desks. The classroom is festooned with pictures, paintings, geography and maths projects, hanging from every wall and pegged on strings crisscrossing the air above us. But the central sign hangs in pride of place off the teacher’s desk. From my perch on the low chair it is exactly at eye level, and it is what nine-year-olds most need to know, possibly what we all most need to know: “INTEGRITY: Doing the right thing even when no one is looking.” Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s wife, called it ‘honesty.’ Orwell called it ‘decency.’
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