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Good deed is lesson learned
By DONNA WINCHESTER © St. Petersburg Times, published October 18, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- This is a lost-and-found story with three happy endings and a lesson learned about honesty. First, a kindergartener found a quarter in his classroom. Days later, he found a wallet stuffed with cash. Finally, someone else found his family's groceries when they were left behind in a parking lot in haste. Everything ended up with its owner. The tale begins in Leslie Black's classroom at Bay Vista Fundamental Elementary School. Five-year-old Antonio Maldonado found a quarter on the floor and turned it over to Black. The teacher told the class, "Someone will be missing this quarter," and asked each child if the quarter belonged to him or her. A shy little girl named Rachel admitted that when she went to buy her lunch earlier in the day she was short a quarter. "The children all cheered," Black said. "They were happy when they found out the quarter belonged to Rachel." Antonio returned the quarter to its owner and the two children went to the cafeteria to pay Rachel's debt. Black calls the incident a teachable moment. "They happen a thousand times a day," she said. "But you have to watch for them." She sees such moments as opportunities to demonstrate to her children what good behavior looks like. "You stop when that happens," she said. "You talk about it." Black, a teacher for 34 years, ardently supports the Commitment to Character program, which stresses responsibility, respect, honesty and motivation. The program began in 1995 when a task force of teachers, University of South Florida students and faculty, community members and ethicists met to discuss ways to encourage ethical character traits in students. The Pinellas County School Board adopted Commitment to Character as a voluntary districtwide program in 1997. "The program asks us to become intentional with our words," Black said. "Words give the children thoughts, and thoughts lead them to action." This particular teachable moment led Antonio to an important action less than a week later. On a trip with his mother to North Shore Pool, Antonio found a wallet in the parking lot. The wallet contained $464 in cash. Antonio's mom said the child didn't think twice about what to do. "He said, "Mommy, someone lost a lot of money and we have to return this. Someone will be missing it,' " said Jennifer Maldonado. "He never once hesitated about what was the right thing to do. He's a normal little boy who wants things like Pokemon cards and video games, but he didn't think of using the money to buy those things." Maldonado wasn't sure if Antonio understood how much money he had found. In his estimation, it was "a bunch and a million." She said Antonio was even more insistent about returning it when they found a medical card in the wallet. The card bore the name of the owner and her medical condition. Antonio became concerned that the woman might need the money for medicine. But there was no address or phone number on the card, or anywhere else in the wallet. Antonio and his mom decided to leave their names and number with personnel at North Shore and went home to wait for the phone to ring. Within 30 minutes, the call came from Nicole and Clark Swalm. The couple had traveled from Nokomis to St. Petersburg for the day to visit Sunken Gardens and had stopped at the pool to use the rest room. They retraced their steps when they discovered the wallet was missing and were given the Maldonados' phone number. Jennifer Maldonado said that even though their home is only 10 minutes from the pool, it took 30 minutes for the Swalms to arrive; they stopped on the way to buy a gift and a card for Antonio, and flowers for her. Nicole Swalm said she and her husband were very surprised at the child's honesty. "We told him he should be very proud of himself," she said. But Antonio's story doesn't end here. The day after he returned the wallet, he and his mother went grocery shopping. In the confusion of getting her food and her children in the car, Maldonado left a bag of groceries in her shopping cart. She didn't notice it was missing until they got to their next stop. Maldonado doubted that the groceries would be at the store when they returned, but she told Antonio, "Let's see if someone will be as honest as you." Antonio told her not to worry. He was sure that whoever found the groceries wouldn't take them, because they would know someone was missing them. When they learned that someone had indeed returned the groceries from the parking lot to the store, the mother was as relieved as the son. She used the opportunity as a teachable moment to let him know -- and to remind herself -- that there are other honest people in the world. "I told him it doesn't matter what the amount is," she said. "You have to return someone else's property." She used the moment to teach Antonio another lesson: "You do a good deed and someone will do a good deed for you."
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