Friendship

What qualities make good friends?

I asked this question to both of my 5th grade classes yesterday and both came up with the same answers:

1. Loyalty
2. Honesty
3. Respect
4. Trustworthiness

When I asked what they meant their answers were:

"Loyalty means sticking up for me when somebody else says mean things about me."
"Loyalty means staying friends even after we have an argument."

"Honesty means telling me the truth - even if the truth makes me feel bad."

"Respect is, um, really complicated."
"Respect means not being mean."
"Respect means treating other people like I want them to treat me."

"Trustworthiness means doing what you say you're going to do."
"Trustworthiness means keeping private conversations private."
"Trustworthiness means not talking about me behind my back."
"Trustworthiness means not saying bad things about me just to stay friends with somebody else."

When we started talking about trust, it seemed like everybody had something to say. Without any prompting from me (though I did try to help clarify things), it was apparent that the kids felt that this was the most important quality for a friend to have. In fact, the the first thing a friendship has to have, they felt, is trust. If you have trust, everything else will follow.