英国某中学允许学生为错误开脱
英国剑桥的珀斯中学学生犯错后不会立即受到惩罚，而是得到十秒的自我开脱时间，如果能在十秒内用巧妙的言辞为自己犯错找到借口，便可免受惩罚。该校校长称，不会允许学生谎话连篇，但无伤大雅的善意谎言是可以接受的。
Telling a lie can get you on Santa's naughty list, but it could get you on the Dean's list（优秀学生名单） at one British school.
Students at the Perse School in Cambridge, England, can avoid punishment for minor offenses, provided they can come up with quick, clever excuses for their transgressions within 10 seconds.
Headmaster Ed Elliott won't allow complete B.S., but "white lies" may be acceptable.
"It's a great lesson in life to talk your way out of a tight corner in a very short period of time," Elliot told the BBC.
Rewarding a child for lying may seem counter-intuitive, but Elliot believes he's fostering important communication skills.
"As head I like to play my part in creating a quick-thinking, communication 'savvy' generation, by giving students who have committed a minor offense 10 seconds to talk their way out of a punishment," he told the Cambridge News. "Many rise admirably to the challenge, and in so doing develop the charm and eloquence needed in the next generation of British entrepreneurs and wealth creators.”
The school's alum includes luminaries such as Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, but Elliott suggests his "lie-dea" may give current students the right verbal skills to succeed in the world, according to the Telegraph.
Some wags have protested that Elliott is merely training students to be politicians, Geobeats.com reported, but rhetoric expert Sam Leith thinks it's a brilliant idea -- no lie.
"You can see this being a really important life skill and actually politicians, some of them, are the absolute straight arrow, but often the ones who get further are the artful dodgers," Leith told the BBC.