The 4-Way Test and You

South Hill Rotary Club/District 7600
Steven Swank, Third Place
Grade 7, Park View Middle School
Teacher:  Ms. Van Dyke

So have you ever heard the quote,” Actions speak louder than words?” What does it mean to you? First is truth. It is also known as being truthful. It means to tell the truth under any condition. It means to be honest to one another. Showing that you are responsible and can be trusted. You can show honesty by telling people the absolute truth. If you broke something, be honest and tell the person; that goes for if something happened at school, home, or anywhere else. You may get into trouble, but it won’t be as bad if you told them a lie. If you tell a lie, it will most likely make you or them mad. One time I lied to my mom about lighting then dropping a candle onto the floor and it burning the carpet. I didn’t want to tell my mom about it because I thought she may be furious about it because the carpet was almost new. But she found out and I now know that telling the truth is better than lying.
Second is friendship. Friendship means to be a good friend. Friendships’ being is being kind to others and respecting their privacy. It means to treat a friend or family member with the kind of respect you would want to be treated with. Friendship can also mean showing sportsmanship when playing a sport. Under the condition while playing, if someone is hurt, you should help them. If you are winning or losing, don’t get mad; keep trying your hardest. If you are sad, feeling down, or depressed, a good friend would help you get back on your feet. If your friend is sad, emotional, or whatever the cause may be you should help them. It doesn’t matter who is depressed, you should try your best to help anyone to feel better. A good sign of friendship would be my mom. She always puts my sister and me first. She does that because she loves us and likes to see us happy.
Third, I would like to tell you about goodwill. You may be thinking about the goodwill store where you donate things and get tax refunds. Goodwill deals with generosity. It means to be kind and nice to people. You could donate things for good causes. You could donate things around the world, or just in your local area. You could donate to charities all around the world. You can share offerings when you go to church,
help families that are homeless or live in bad conditions, or even children whom live in orphanages.
Fourth and last, I would like to tell you about fairness. Fairness can have many different definitions or meanings. One can play fairly with others. And share things such as toys or food. This is what the 4-way test means to me.

The Four Way Test and Me

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Brandon Poorman, Third Place
Grade 3, Primary Division
Mrs. Darway, Harloe School

If everyone in the world were truthful, fair, shared good will, and did
what was beneficial to others, I think this world would be perfect. If
each person in the world could follow at least two of these ideas it
would be a thousand times better. We should all remind each other to
follow the Four Way Test to make our world a better place.
It is always good to tell the truth. If you don’t, not only will you get in
more trouble than you would have, but the next time no one will believe
you. We should always be fair because if people feel like things are
fair, they will feel that they are getting what they want and everyone will
have fun. If people feel that nothing is fair and they don’t have a
chance, they won’t try to be better or be good to others. You should
also have good will toward other people and treat them kindly. If you
aren’t kind in the way you treat people, you won’t have any friends.
Friends are important to have fun in our life, so it is important to have
good will toward others so they will have good will toward you. When
we make decisions about what we are going to do, we need to be sure
that it is beneficial to others. If we do, other people will feel good and
they will do good things back.
So please, follow the four way test when you make decisions every-
day. If you do, you will be one happy and special person and the world
around you will be a better place.

The Four-Way Test and Ethics

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Ben Zwarg, Third Place
Grade 6, Intermediate Division
Mrs. Hayes, Ocean View School

Ethics is the act of making decisions because they are RIGHT and
not just because they are required or expected.  Sometimes this re-
quires making hard decisions.  This is where the Four-Way Test can
help you out in deciding the RIGHT thing to do.
Last weekend, I promised my grandma that I would go to lunch with
her and help her clean up her motor home.  After having baseball
practice for 2 hours that morning, I didn’t feel like doing anything the
rest of the day.  I called her on my cell phone and told her I didn’t feel
like meeting her.  She was very disappointed in me.  I told her I would
call her back.  I didn’t feel good about not keeping my word.  My belly
felt weird.  This is when I applied the Four-Way Test.
Step One of the Four-Way Test is, “Is it the truth?”  Yes, I was not
honoring my commitment I had made to my grandma.
Step Two is, “Is it fair to all concerned?”  No, it was not fair to her
because she had scheduled her day around meeting me.  She could
have been doing other things instead of waiting for me.  She was
counting on enjoying lunch together and getting some work done.  I
was letting her down.
Step Three is, “Will it build good will and better friendships?”  No,
because when you don’t keep your word, you don’t build people’s
confidence in you.  People will not “forgive and forget” if you haven’t
proven yourself to be trustworthy.
Step Four, “Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”  No, if you are
always not doing what you say you are going to do, people will stop
wanting to be around you and you will not have any friends.  People
do not like to feel like they are being taken advantage of.  They also
don’t like to waste their time.  No amount of reasons or excuses
change the fact that you either kept your word, or you didn’t.
So, after thinking all this over, I decided to call my grandma back
and tell her I had changed my mind.  At first, she acted like I had
blown my chance to meet her.  I had let her down and she was not
going to give me a second chance.  That’s when my mom stepped in
and told her that I was just learning how important it is to keep my
word and how my decisions affect others.  She changed her mind and
we had a great lunch and worked hard that afternoon.
Even though I didn’t feel like meeting her, I did it because it was the
RIGHT thing to do.  Sometimes, doing the RIGHT thing isn’t always
the most fun but it is worth it.  It made me feel better.  Also, my
grandma knew that  I respected her and that I am trustworthy
Applying the Four Way Test made me think about how my own
actions affect how other people think of me and how I feel about my-
self.  I will use this Rotary test to help me say and do the RIGHT thing
in the future.

The Test of a True Friend

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Anna Miller, Third Place
Grade 8, Middle School Division
Mrs. Fierman , Judkins Middle School

“You’re out Anna! You’re out!”
The girls that I thought were my friends suddenly were my enemies.
They ganged up on me to make me lose the basketball game, and
now they were saying mean things and making fun of me. One of my
best friends, Chloee, had a new friend and now that new friend was
trying to take her away from me. Even Chloee was following the
crowd and yelling at me. I felt hurt, embarrassed, and alone.
Suddenly I heard a voice say, “You guys aren’t being very nice!
Anna, you can come and play with me.” It was my friend, Amelia.
She wasn’t playing the game, but she saw what was happening. She
came over and stuck up for me. I felt so much better. I was amazed
that my friend had so much courage to stand up to a group like that.
This happened three years ago and I still remember it very clearly.
At school I learned about the Four Way Test. It is something that
we should think about when we are trying to make a decision about
how to treat others. Before we act, we should ask ourselves these
four questions: Is it the truth? Is it fair? Will it build good will and bet-
ter friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? I don’t know if
Amelia knew about the Four Way Test, but she acted like she knew.
Is it the truth? A true friend is honest. Amelia showed that she was
a trustworthy friend by sticking up for me. The other girls made me
doubt that I could trust them because of their mean behavior.
It is fair? Amelia saw that the other girls were not playing fairly.
They ganged up on me and they cheated just to get me out. She was
not afraid to tell them that they were treating me unfairly.
Will it build good will and better friendships? The girls who ganged
up on me damaged our friendship. After that I could never be sure
that they were truly my friends, but Amelia showed me that she was a
good friend. She built good will, because she did what she thought
was right and not what everyone else was doing. After that our
friendship was stronger because I knew that she would always be
there for me when I needed a true friend. I have drifted apart from
many of those untrue friends, but Amelia and I are still very close.
Will it be beneficial to all concerned? I think that Amelia was benefi-
cial to everyone because she showed how good friends treat each
other. She helped me by making me feel better and by showing me
that I really did have a good friend.

The Four Way Test can sometimes be hard to follow. It means that
you have to speak up when you see people doing something wrong.
That can be very difficult to do, but Amelia did it for me and that is
why after all of these years I still remember what she did and I still
consider her my best friend.

Divine Friendships

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Cheyenne Bartlett, Third Place
Grade 9, High School Division
Mrs. Bishop, Arroyo Grande High School

George Eliot once said, “Perhaps the most delightful friendships are
those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet
more personal liking.”  These delightful friendships adhere to the 4-
Way Test.  The 4-Way Test consists of four questions, ”Is it the
truth?”  “Is it fair to all concerned?”  “Will it build good will and better
friendships?”  “Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”  If everyone ap-
plied these questions to their life, most everyone would have better
friendships.  The 4-Way Test encourages relationships, increases
trust and helps alleviate problems.
This test is promising to relationships if we share the truth with oth-
ers.  First of all, Kahill Gibran quoted, “Truth is a deep kindness that
teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the peo-
ple the same happiness.”  Truth needs to be shared with other people
so they can have happiness also.  If we keep that happiness to our-
selves, our happiness will not rub off on anyone.  Second of all, it is
one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults.  “So
to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him and to
speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship,” said
Henry Ward Beecher.  True friends tell each other everything, even
faults.  It is helpful to the relationship if they are truthful, that way the
friend can fix whatever is wrong.  In conclusion, truthful friends make
for a better relationship.
The 4-Way Test also supplements trust through the truth and listen-
ing.  For example, David Hume once said, “Truth springs from an ar-
gument amongst friends.”  If a dispute arises with a friend, eventually
the truth will start to show.  Arguments usually include what people
don’t like about each other and that must mean the truth.  For in-
stance, Rachel Naomi Remen once stated,  “The most basic and
powerful way to connect to another person is to listen.  Just  listen.
Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our at-
tention…A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to con-
nect than the most well-intentioned words.”  If one just listens to their
friend it will show that they want to hear what the friend has to say.
Silence shows that there is a desire for a better friendship.  Therefore,
if one is to aspire for a better relationship, they need to speak the
truth and hear what the other person has to say. to them so they can
fix it.
If a friend is being gossiped about or insulted by others, this test will
help.  To begin with, Ecclesiastes 6:14 states, “A faithful friend is a
strong defense; and he that hath found such a one hath found a treasure.”

Friends who are very allegiant will stand up for you in a
bad situation.  If they are true friends they will not have to question if
they are doing the right thing. Similarly, as in a personal experience of
mine, a person once came up to me when I was younger and insulted
me saying that I had something wrong with me, but my friend stepped
in and told him that he was rude to say that.  Even when I was being
insulted, she did not just stand there and watch, she actually did
something about it.  From then on our friendship has been abiding.
Henceforth, true friends will assist you in your times of trouble.
As a result, although friendships require many things to make them
a lasting correspondence, if you desire to have a better relationship
with someone, you will apply the 4-Way Test to your life and you will
have surpassing friendships.  The 4-Way Test can help in many dif-
ferent ways to build up friendships and trust.  Don’t wait to be a better
friend.  “The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.  I
have no wealth to bestow on him.  If he knows that I am happy in lov-
ing him, he will want no other reward.  Is not friendship divine in this?”
Henry David Thoreau.

The Four Way Test and Me

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Kara Scott, Third Place
Grade 11, High School Division
Mrs. Hoover , Arroyo Grande High School

To be honest, I have never even heard of the Four Way Test. About
three days ago my literature teacher assigned the class an essay on
it. It was a mandatory assignment that I didn’t even plan on writing. I
have always questioned my actions, of course, but never in this way.
How was I supposed to write a past experience on something that
never happened? I wasn’t going to make it up, and I’m not a very
good writer. I just figured I would get an alternate assignment or
something, until last night. I was put in the perfect position to put
these questions to use.
I am sixteen years old and I usually consider myself to be a fairly
responsible person. I wasn’t getting along with my mother last night
and I was feeling trapped. I needed to get out. A couple of guys
called me and invited me to a party. Now, I’ve never really been the
partying type, but when I realized that nothing exciting was going to
happen that night, I accepted the invitation. Once we got there, a
dark-haired girl introduced herself. Her name was Jennifer. I shook
her hand and told her that it was nice to meet her. She immediately
asked for my ID. Nervously, I informed her that I didn’t have it on me.
I told her she had nothing to worry about and that I was definitely
eighteen. All I wanted was to have a good time, yet I felt very low and
disgusted in myself for lying to her.
I asked myself, “Is this the truth?” No, I’m sixteen years old and I’m
a junior in high school. I get good grades and I do my chores. I
wouldn’t be caught dead at a party, but I couldn’t tell her that. She
handed me a cold beer out of the bathtub, which had been filled with
ice and a couple of twenty four packs. I started to drink it, though I
hated the dry, tart taste. Then I questioned myself again, “Is this fair
to all concerned?” Of course not, I am a minor at a party with people
over the age of twenty-one who I have never even seen before. I was
putting not only myself in a bad position, but everyone else also.
Then, a guy that was at least six years older that I am, sat by me. At
first, he asked me to do things I wasn’t comfortable with, but I wasn’t
paying attention so he started telling me. I assured him that I didn’t
want to. He kicked everyone out of the house and told me to dance
for him. I said no countless amount of times, but he insisted. He
yelled at me, and asked me why I even came. He wouldn’t leave me
alone, and then he pulled me off the couch to make me dance. I sat
back down and thought, Would it build good will and better friend-
ships?” No, the only kind of person you are going to meet at a place
like that is somebody you don’t need to.

Finally, I got up, but not to dance. I grabbed my cell phone so I could
ask my boyfriend to come get me, though I knew he’d be disap-
pointed. The man took my phone and wouldn’t let me leave. I
pushed him back, pulled my phone out of his hands, and headed for
the door. He tried to grab me, so I yanked my arm back and hit my
elbow on the wall behind me. I opened the door as fast as I could
and slammed it shut as I stormed out. As I walked away, I knew ex-
actly the kinds of things he was saying about me. I sat on the curb
out front, where I could still hear the shaky sound of his intoxicated
voice, and the bass of the stereo in the background, shaking the win-
dows of the house. The music was so loud I almost couldn’t hear
myself think. I slid my phone open to dial my boyfriend’s number
when I remembered something. I still had one question left. I picked
at the rubber on the bottom of my shoe and I thought, “Is this benefi-
cial to all concerned?” Yes, there was no doubt in my mind. I knew
at that moment that I needed to do at least one thing right for the
night. I dialed the number as fast as I could until I heard his worried
voice on the other line. I waited in the cold, midnight breeze when he
pulled up in the driveway. I didn’t tell him what happened, and he
didn’t ask. He knew I didn’t want to discuss it. As I got out of the car,
I kissed him and told him how much I appreciated it. I snuck inside
and slid into my bed. I was disappointed with myself, but I learned
from my mistake. I woke up this morning feeling nauseous, but I
couldn’t miss the bus. I drug myself out of bed and threw on some
clean clothes. Now I’m sitting here, as tired as ever, writing this es-
say in Saturday school, a well deserved punishment.

(Untitled)

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Jeff Mooney, Third Place
Grade 11, High School Division
Mrs. Hoover, AGHS

A wise man once said, “stick to your guns”. Although this phrase can mean many different things, I believe that it has a universal meaning, that is, don’t ever let any situation make you forget your morals. The 4-Way Test is so similar to the quote, that I couldn’t believe I was going to have the chance to write about something I have such a passion for.

If only the government had known about the 4-Way Test during WWII. In school, we are learning about the camps that the Japanese Americans were sent to. The government assumed that many of the Japanese Americans were spies. They were taken from their homes, and only allowed one bag for their possessions. Many people became sick in the camps because of the horrifically terrible living conditions.

The 4-Way Test would not have been a good prevention plan, but a perfect one. Is it the truth? No, none of the Japanese Americans that were thought to be spies were ever proven to be. Is it fair to all concerned? Once again, the answer is no. It is completely immoral and unjust to pull someone from their home and send them to a camp. In many cases, the Japanese Americans lost all of their possessions, including their homes, even when they were let out of the camps. The third question of the 4-Way Test, “will it build good will and better friendships?” The decision to put the alleged spies in camps did not cause good will or create better friendships. The only thing it did, in the form of relationships, was stir up racist feelings from both Americans and Japanese Americans. The last question, “will it be beneficial to all concerned?” No, absolutely nothing was solved by putting innocent people in prison camps.

It is such a sad thing, because if the government had only applied the 4-Way Test, the whole situation could have been avoided. I know that I will be more careful with my decision making in the future and be sure to always keep the 4-Way Test in mind.

My Long Lost Friend

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Tavis Cote, Third Place
Grade 2, Primary Division
Kathy Metcalf, Branch

Hi, this is me—Tavis. I am an eight year old boy in second grade who was asked to do this 4-Way Test Essay for his homework. I have tried to come up with a topic for several days and I finally have one.
This story is about two friends who have known each other for a long time. We started out as buddies from the time we were three years old. Since we lived close we played a lot together. But when we started kindergarten, my friend became good friends with another girl. They started hanging out together. For a while the three of us would play after school. We played during vacations as well. Then, I met new friends too and we started hanging out.
We all got along okay until something happened. It was so long ago, I am not sure exactly what it was that happened. I just know that when the two girls were together, they were unkind to me. I found myself sometimes being unkind to them. It reached a point when I thought my former friend was my worst enemy. We no longer played together. We called each other names and almost never spoke . This went on and on and on. Eventually, we just ignored each other even though we lived near each other and went to the same school.
It seems that with time we have both gotten past our original fight. Like I said, I can’t even remember what happened. We have started being kinder to each other. We sometimes can play now. Just the other day, I played with my friend and the other girl. They even left me a nice note. It makes me feel better that we have started to get along again. I hope we can remain friends.
I plan to keep playing onward and eventually I hope we will reach the friendship that we had when we first met. I will use kind words. I will play with her more often. I will try to find things we can do together.

Doing What’s Right

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
John Mattimoe, Third Place
Grade 6, Intermediate Division
Mary Hayes, Ocean View

My friend Brett wanted to join my Destination Imagination (D.I.) team. Destination Imagination promotes creative thinking; you must think outside the box to solve a challenge. My teammate Kyle and I didn’t want him to join the team.. We thought he always argued and we didn’t want to give him a chance. Brett was always playing and we felt he would never pay any attention to our ideas. Brett was a one man team.
When he asked us if he could join the team we always said that we did not want any more people. We could have put him on the team, because we only had four people and we could have had up to seven. We just did not want Brett on the team.
It was not fair for him. He wanted to be on the team so badly, and we acted like we did not care about his feelings at all.
This did not build a better friendship. Brett was my friend, and I treated him like I wanted him to be miserable; friends never do that.
We could have benefited from letting Brett on the team. Brett was very creative, and he was a very talented, funny actor. He also is a good musician and a good singer.
The following year we imagined us being in Brett’s shoes, and we let him on the team. We know what Brett went though and what we did. We all promised never to do that again.

Facing Reality

Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cities
Jennifer Farias, Third Place
Grade 8, Middle School Division
Barb Babka, Judkins

It was a bright sunny day and I was getting ready for school. As I got to the entrance of Oceano Elementary School my mom said bye and left my sister and I at the door. I was really excited because it was the last day of school before Winter Break started. During lunch recess my friends and I were talking of what we would do, everybody was talking at once. One of my best friends, Alexa, was really nervous for our math test.
The bell rang and it was time for the big math test everyone had been worrying about for the past few days. As we walked in the classroom Alexa said to me, “Look, there’s Ruby and Ashley”. Ruby and Ashley were the meanest girls in the sixth grade. Halfway through the test Ruby raised her hand and told our teacher, “Alexa is copying my test!” I couldn’t believe it. I knew Alexa wouldn’t do anything like that! It wasn’t the truth; Ruby just said that to get Alexa in trouble.
After class our teacher held Alexa in. Alexa looked really hurt and said, “He believed Ruby, and gave me an F.” I was really angry. I grabbed Alexa by the hand and told her, “Come on, we have to do something about this. It isn’t fair that Ruby gets away with everything and you get blamed for something you didn’t do.” Then I stopped walking and asked Alexa, “Did you really cheat?” She replied, “No, I didn’t and even you know that I wouldn’t do something like that.” I nodded and kept walking.
Ruby and Ashley were playing on the basketball courts. Ruby looked at us and said something we couldn’t understand. When we got to Ashley she said with a mean attitude, “What do you guys want?” I stared and said, “Ruby needs to tell the truth; she knows that Alexa didn’t cheat on that test.” Alexa stepped up and said, “I kept my eyes on my own paper the whole time.” Alexa and I walked off proud because we had faced the meanest girls. On our way to our classroom Alexa said, “Thanks for sticking up for me.” She looked up and hugged me, I hugged her back.
Unfortunately this problem wasn’t beneficial to anyone. After school I stayed to talk to our teacher. Alexa and I asked if we could see Alexa’s test and then asked for Ruby’s test. Then a grin appeared on Alexa’s face and I knew why. I told the teacher, “Alexa’s answers are all correct and Ruby’s answers are all wrong so how could she have copied?” Our teacher just looked and looked at the test over and over. I was right! As for Ruby and Ashley, they got in trouble for lying to the teacher and disrespecting their classmates. Our teacher apologized to Alexa and gave her test an A, which was the grade she deserved. Alexa and I are still close friends. I’ll always put my friends and family’s life before mine.