1 . Integrity is the quality of being honest and strong about what you believe to be right. The concept of integrity has played a key role in moral philosophy throughout history and is promoted in all societies because of its importance to social relations. Individual integrity is vital to society, one that enables people to make use of their capacity for critical reflection, does not force people to take up particular roles and does not encourage individuals to betray each other. Besides, societies can be favorable to the development of individual integrity.

Individual integrity can lift up the spirits of the entire society. It can shape the lives of people living in a particular society, the lives of all fellow people and, in its broadest sense, even the destiny of a nation. By contrast, if those living in the society are corrupt, it could have bad effects, jeopardizing the healthy morality of the society.

On the other hand, a society can be favorable to the development of individual integrity. Society expects and requires integrity. A society consisting of people of integrity, and people who never compromise on their principles, could have a positive mark on the personal development on its members. Being a part of such a morally lively community could serve as a basis for absorbing traits of good character. This could be of a distinct advantage to any individuals in the society.

Nonetheless, some social structures are of the wrong sort for some individuals to pursue integrity. If that is the case, we have to ask questions about the moral nature of society first before raising questions about individual integrity. Questions about integrity may turn out to be about what kind of society it is, rather than about the relationship between individual interests and characteristics of a society. The pursuit of adequate individual integrity often depends, not so much on understanding who one is and what one believes and is committed to, but rather understanding what one’s society is and imagining what it could be.

Under no circumstances can we underestimate the importance of human integrity in a society. People, who are honest, trustworthy, compassionate and caring, are the factors decisive in the growth of individuals as well as the development of a society.

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8 . It was a reading class. While all her classmates were flying through the 2nd and 3rd books in the Harry Potter series, Skye Malik, only on page four of the first book, got impossibly stuck on the word “doughnut”.

Her unexpected difficulty with reading is called dyslexia. Skye got a professional diagnosis at the end of the 2nd grade. Knowing that other kids were going through the same thing made it easier on her somehow. What wasn’t easy, even after all the help she got from special tutors and reading programs, was fluent reading. What many people do without thinking—reading—she had to struggle with word by word, sometimes letter by letter. In class, she would hear the other kids flip through the pages on assignments and go on to the questions while she was still doing battle with the first paragraph.

She was as frustrated as she was discouraged. But she didn’t know of any other way until her 4th grade teacher, Miss Pollock, told her about something called Learning Ally.

Learning Ally is a non-profit organization that offers audio versions of books. A crew of volunteer readers has recorded 75,000 classic novels, children’s books, and school textbooks that help more than 300,000 students and adults with learning differences or who are blind. Now Skye could listen to the books with her ears and follow the words with her eyes on the page. Instead of having her mother read her textbooks to her, she could independently do her work. “With Learning Ally, I feel confident and capable and can easily keep up with my classmates,” Skye explains, “and I want other kids to feel empowered, just the way I did.”

So Skye, now aged 16, created The Paco Project which was named after her grandfather whose nickname was “Paco”. The Paco Project is a fundraiser and educational initiative focusing on giving students with dyslexia access to the same Learning Ally technology that changed her life.

Skye has realized that she is one of the lucky kids who have been diagnosed. She knows that educating teachers about dyslexia and giving students with the learning challenge the tools they need is a great first step in meeting dyslexia head on, and helping them be confident, capable students.

“Right now they feel stuck — ashamed, unsure and insecure about their school work. If I could help stop these students feeling this way, that would mean the world to me.”

9 . Many people have felt isolated and afraid during the pandemic this year, and the Weber family is no different. But 11-year-old Emerson Weber has a hobby that has turned into a remarkable antidote. Emerson writes letters — lots of letters. One day last spring, she even wrote to Doug, her mail carrier. “I want to thank you for taking my letters and delivering them,” she said. “You are very important to me.”

In no time at all, Emerson’s simple thank-you note was shared around the United States Postal Service (USPS). Many of the workers who read it wrote her back. Her father was so moved by the response that he took to Twitter to share his appreciation for the outpouring of love.

“Emerson, my 11-year-old, is on a bit of a wild ride with the USPS and our local mail carrier, Doug.” The next day after Emerson gave Doug the letter, a package arrived with two letters. Doug had shared Emerson’s letter with his supervisor, Sara, and they both wanted to share how touched they were.

The next week, they got a letter addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Weber”. It seemed that Sara had shared Emerson’s note as a “Token of Thanks” in the internal USPS newsletter, and there were postal folks that wanted to thank her.

That day, the family saw Doug getting out of the truck with two BOXES of letters from around the country. These letters were so deeply human. They were filled with family, pets, hobbies, community, and an overwhelming sense of kindness.

But there was something more in these letters. People felt seen — some for the first time in a long time. “I work alone in a small rural post office ...” “My kids all live far away ...” “Not a lot of people think about how hard we work ...”

One wrote, “I can’t tell you how much it means to read your letter ...”

With dozens of new pen pals, Emerson did what she does best.

She wrote.

She acknowledged that there WERE a lot of letters, but she read them all.

“I’m not sharing this because I’m a proud dad,” her father wrote on Twitter. “I’m sharing it because it is relatively easy, if we take the time, to give others the one thing they need to be well — human connection. Emerson does this boldly. Her lesson to me was simple: It’s the small things that matter most.”

Send a letter. Make a call. Take a step of boldness. For yourself or for others.

Living by the Rules

Almost every community in the real world has some form of rules. A community is a group of people who are united by a number of factors, including geography, language, and values that dictate acceptable behavior. So why do we have rules, and what makes people follow them?

Studies have suggested that the reason we don’t like cheating and rule-breaking is because fairness is programmed into our brains. Tricomi et al (2010) have found that the brain reacts in a particular way when we feel we are being treated unfairly. The study identified a reaction in a specific part of the brain when test subjects were given less money than others. A fair situation makes our brains respond in ways that lead to feelings of comfort and even happiness, but unfairness causes our brains to respond with negative feelings such as anger and pain. The study found that this also happened when subjects saw other people being treated unfairly. They concluded that fairness is a basic human need along with food and social contact.

Our sense of fairness depends on the influences in our culture, the situation we are in, and our own self-interest. If we have a feeling of fairness, it means that we consider different points of view. Regardless of the disagreement, people almost always need to compromise. But it can be difficult to arrive at a compromise when there are conflicting interests. This is why communities have rules that everyone must follow.

Social controls are an important factor in setting and following rules. They influence the way we behave, and can be internal or external. Internal controls come from within and are based on our values and fears. Most of us don’t steal, for example, because we believe that theft is wrong. External controls include rewards and punishments. They do not come from within but are implemented by an authority. Rewards are designed to encourage people to act in the interest of the whole community, while punishments can prevent people from acting against the community’s best interests, regardless of their values.

People need their communities to function smoothly. Because of this, humans most often behave in orderly and fair ways. If there were no rules, the majority of people would probably continue to interact positively, like the subjects in the online avatar study. However, there would always be a minority who would not, with serious consequences. This is why a society without rules is unlikely to become a reality any time soon—at least not in the real world.