In this week’s Thursday Reflection, pupils learned about the nature of truth. They discussed what the truth is, why it is important, and why it is important to be truthful. They were also given an etymological puzzle: how is the word true related to the word tree? All words tell a story. The roots of the word true can be traced back through history. A thousand years ago, the word true looked and sounded different. In Old English, the word treo was a noun that meant ‘good faith, truth, a pledge or a promise.’ But it also meant, ‘tree’ because some of the earliest expressions of the concept of truth were associated with the uprightness of an oak, the steadiness of a silver birch, and the fidelity of an orchard bearing fruit, year after year.

(cf. Cooke, G (2014) The Story of True, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFE3tYUdJU)

Paul Bryant
School Lay Chaplain & Head of Theology, Philosophy and Religion
Co-ordinator of SMSC