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 Way Back When
Ben Franklin: Character Matters
In honor of the 300th anniversary of Ben Franklins birthday, Kidsville News! will run a five-part educational series based on curriculum provided by the Ben
Franklin Tercentenary. Join us February to June to learn more about this amazing inventor.
Benjamin Franklin and The Way to a Good Life
Born into a large family of Boston tradesmen, Benjamin Franklin learned early the value of education and the importance of personal virtue. As a young man, Franklins character evolved as he set out to improve himself and the world around him. At the age of twenty-seven, Franklin composed a list of thirteen virtues for living well. He carried the list in his pocket for many years and worked to live up to it all his life. The thirteen virtues that Franklin conceived were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. With your parent or teacher, find out the meaning of each of these. For children K-2nd grade, you might want to read A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David Adler.
What are some good character traits? Talk about these with your parents and friends. What does it mean to be a good person? What does a good person do? What does a good person say? How does a good person behave? Ask yourself these questions and try to live the answers. Remember, Franklin did not always live up to every virtue, but kept the list close as a reminder of his desire to live well. Benjamin Franklin began each day by asking himself, What good shall I do this day?
Benjamin Franklin and Learning a Lesson
Benjamin Franklin loved to tell stories. As an adult, he recalled incidents from his boyhood in Boston to illustrate moral points. One such story is The Whistle. The story relates how the seven-year-old Franklins delight in a new toy turns to dismay when he learns that he has paid far too much for it. Franklin crafted the tale into a moral lesson urging others to question the undue value attributed to material possessions.
Read The Whistle and discern the moral lesson illustrated in the story. Then think of a time when you learned a lesson from making a mistake and write a brief narrative describing the incident and the lesson learned. What is the moral point that Franklin makes by telling this story?
The Whistle by Benjamin Franklin
When I was a Child of seven Years old, my Friends on a Holiday filld my little Pocket with Halfpence. I went directly to a Shop where they sold Toys for Children; and being charmd with the Sound of a Whistle that I met by the way, in the hands of another Boy, I voluntarily offerd and gave all my Money for it. When I came home, whistling all over the House, much pleasd with my Whistle, but disturbing all the Family, my Brothers, Sisters & Cousins, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth, & laught at me so much for my Folly that I cryd with Vexation; and the Reflection gave me more Chagrin than the Whistle gave me Pleasure.
As I grew up, came into the World, and observed the Actions of Men, I thought I met many who gave too much for the Whistle. If I knew a Miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable Living, all the Pleasure of doing Good to others, for the sake of Accumulating Wealth, Poor Man, says I, you pay too much for your Whistle. When I saw a beautiful sweet-temperd Girl, marryd to an ill-natured Brute of a Husband; What a Pity, says I, that she should pay so much for a Whistle!
In short, I conceivd that great Part of the Miseries of Mankind, were brought upon them by the false Estimates they had made of the Value of Things, and by their giving too much for the Whistle.
The Whistle, written for Mme. Brillon
Passy: Benjamin Franklin, 1779; Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia
Information provided courtesy of the Ben Franklin Tercentenary.
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