The Pillar of Trustworthiness.

We have no choice in the matter, except to entrust control
over our power and our resources, to public servants.

It is reasonable to expect them to be trust worthy.
And to prove it.

Proof is as simple as providing honest accountability to some
agreed upon standard for trustworthiness.

The standard that is held up for millions of children in public
schools is the Pillar of Trustworthiness; found on the
national Character Counts! website. link (emphasis added)

TRUSTWORTHINESS

When others trust us, they give us greater leeway because they feel we don’t need monitoring to assure that we’ll meet our obligations. They believe in us and hold us in higher esteem. That’s satisfying. At the same time, we must constantly live up to the expectations of others and refrain from even small lies or self-serving behavior that can quickly destroy our relationships.

Simply refraining from deception is not enough. Trustworthiness is the most complicated of the six core ethical values and concerns a variety of qualities like honesty, integrity, reliability and loyalty.

Honesty

There is no more fundamental ethical value than honesty. We associate honesty with people of honor, and we admire and rely on those who are honest. But honesty is a broader concept than many may realize. It involves both communications and conduct.

Honesty in communications is expressing the truth as best we know it and not conveying it in a way likely to mislead or deceive. There are three dimensions:

Truthfulness.

Truthfulness is presenting the facts to the best of our knowledge. Intent is the crucial distinction between truthfulness and truth itself. Being wrong is not the same thing as lying, although honest mistakes can still damage trust insofar as they may show sloppy judgment.

Sincerity.

Sincerity is genuineness, being without trickery or duplicity. It precludes all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context statements, and even silence, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading.

Candor.

In relationships involving legitimate expectations of trust, honesty may also require candor, forthrightness and frankness, imposing the obligation to volunteer information that another person needs to know.

Imagine how different government would be, if public servants
were actually accountable to a standard as high as the one they
hold up for children.

Every generation expects the next generation,
to be the first generation to hold itself honestly accountable
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

The results are as disappointing as they are inevitable.