Be true. Be true. Be true.

**WARNING: This post assumes that you are at least minimally aware of the story involved in THE SCARLET LETTER. How once upon a time there was a standard. How Hester Prynne was made to wear a scarlet A on her clothing because she had been caught in the sin of adultery. How her atonement made her stronger. How not confessing destroyed her lover. And how the desire for revenge changed her husband.**

The juniors just got done watching this production of THE SCARLET LETTER. Their teachers chose this particular version because it is pretty true to the book and because, nowadays, it is difficult to get kids to read a whole book. Any book. And one with archaic language is even harder.

The refrain from most of the kids, of course was,”Boring, boring, boring.” That sort of surprised me. Thirteen years ago, when I went back to school for my teaching credentials, my reading teacher was fond of telling a story about a boy who read at third grade level but wanted to read the story about the “ho”(hope I spelled that right–what he meant was whore). That boy, even though he had a hard time with reading, could relate to someone who had made a mistake and had to take the consequences of their actions. So what has changed?

It sort of scares me to think that it’s SOCIETY that has changed that much, although I think that maybe that’s the case. In Ohio, I worked in a parochial school, but the parents weren’t at all shy about asking for favors for their kids. This type of conversation was fairly typical:

“Kyle really didn’t have a chance to study for that test. That’s why he flunked it. Why don’t you let him take it again.?”

“I can’t do that. What about the people who already got As? How fair would that be to them?”

“I won’t tell if you don’t tell.”

I was silly enough, at that stage of my life, to think that a parochial school should be different but, looking back, I think that my experience there was just foreshadowing for what goes on in the public schools now. Parents are quick to come in and “cuss out” administrators and/or teachers, and kids are not shy about telling you that that is what is going to happen.

I would like to say that such parental visits don’t change anything, but sometimes they do. Sometimes the changes are honestly made out of a desire to help a kid. Sometimes, most people involved think that the best help for the kid would be to take the consequences for his or her actions. You didn’t study? Then flunk the test. You missed forty-two days of school? Then sorry. You DON’T pass.

If there is anything to be gotten out of THE SCARLET LETTER, I think it is that there are always consequences to your actions, and that if you don’t pay them up front, you will still pay them. Hester Prynne actually became stronger because of the letter that she had to wear. It became so much a part of her identity that, even though she was free elsewhere, she chose to go back to the community that had made her wear it. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister, was destroyed by guilt. And Roger Chillingsworth was destroyed by…what? Regret? Revenge? Maybe a little of both? He certainly did become someone who was quite evil, and he didn’t start out that way.

That’s not the moral that was quoted in the movie, though. The moral there was “Be true. Be true. Be true. ” Said three times why? Once for Hester, once for Dimmesdale and once for Chillingsworth? I don’t know, really. But I have begun to think that our society has changed so much that the kids who heard this story do not know what it means to be true. They come from a society where ethics are situational, where enough complaining WILL get you somewhere regardless of whether or not you are right. Regardless of whether or not you are deserving.

For all the complaining that is done about our schools, I think the reading of books like THE SCARLET LETTER is a good thing. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a Puritan and wear my sins in public for all to see. Yet I think that those actions, whether others can see them or not, will have consequences, and it serves me well to be aware of that. If we cannot teach the next generation that lesson any other way, at least we have the classics. For a while.

Let’s hope that’s long enough to teach the next generation that there is a standard to which one may hold true.