Prompt: Is it more important to follow the rules or to follow your conscience?
Background: This is the opinion essay from the Number the Stars chapter of Voices in Dialogue. In this book I had to pick a side after every story, not just write about it. I read the novel with Albert Garih’s “My Rescuers.” He was a Jewish kid in France, and ordinary families hid him. The book also made me think about a time at summer camp when a kid was being teased and I had to decide whether to say something.
I believe it is more important to follow your conscience than to follow rules. Rules are supposed to keep people safe and make life fair, but sometimes rules can be wrong or used for harm. Conscience, which is the voice inside that tells us what is right, helps us see when something is unfair even if it’s legal. History shows that following conscience is what truly makes people human.
In Number the Stars, Annemarie and her family broke the rules of the Nazi occupation by helping their Jewish neighbors escape. If they had followed the laws of that time, Ellen and her family would have been captured and killed. Instead, the Johansens listened to their hearts. They risked punishment because they knew saving lives was the right thing to do. Annemarie was only ten, but her quiet actions — carrying a secret handkerchief, lying to soldiers — showed that conscience can be stronger than fear.
The same kind of courage appears in Albert Garih’s “My Rescuers.” Ordinary French families like the Galops and the Ménétriers hid Jewish children even though they could have been arrested or killed. They didn’t follow the rules of the Nazi government. They followed their conscience. They chose compassion over obedience. These people remind me that true morality comes from empathy, not authority.
Some might say that rules exist for a reason, and that breaking them can cause chaos. That’s true when the rules are fair and protect people. For example, traffic laws or school rules help keep order and safety. But when rules become cruel or unjust, obeying them blindly only helps those who use power to hurt others. The Nazis had rules too, but those laws were evil. Listening to conscience is how people resisted them.
In today’s world, moral courage still matters. It could mean speaking up when someone is bullied, standing against discrimination, or helping someone even when others ignore them. Conscience is what connects us to kindness and truth. Rules can change with governments, but conscience is what lasts inside us. Following your conscience might be harder, but it is what makes the world more just and more human.
A Moment From My Own Life
When I read Number the Stars, I thought a lot about what courage means. Annemarie was just an ordinary girl, but she had to make choices that could cost her everything. It made me think about times when I’ve had to choose between staying quiet and doing what I felt was right. It wasn’t anything as serious as hiding a friend from danger, but one moment still stays in my mind.
In a summer camp, a student in my class was being made fun of for his hair. Everyone laughed, and I didn’t. My stomach felt like a knot. I wanted to say something, but I was scared that if I spoke up, people would start teasing me too. For a moment, I stayed quiet. Then I remembered how much I would hate it if no one defended me. So I told them to stop. My voice shook, but I still said it clearly. They stopped laughing. The boy looked at me and smiled, just a small smile, but I knew it mattered.
Afterward, I realized courage doesn’t always look big. Sometimes it feels like a tiny voice inside your chest saying, “Do it anyway.” That’s how Annemarie must have felt when she carried the handkerchief past the soldiers. Reading about her made me understand that being brave is not about never being scared. It’s about caring more about someone else than about what might happen to you. I still get nervous when I have to stand up for something, but now I remind myself of Annemarie. Courage isn’t something you are born with. It’s something you choose, again and again, when it matters most.
Related Reading
Books
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (another book about doing the hard right thing, from Part II of Voices in Dialogue)
- Antigone by Sophocles, a really old play about choosing between the law and what you think is right
Articles
- Albert Garih, “My Rescuers”, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2020
- “The Righteous Among the Nations”, Yad Vashem. It’s about people who weren’t Jewish and risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
- “Rescue in Denmark”, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
On this site
- The Night Before Escape, my Narrative Echo on the same book
- Silence Protects the Powerful, But Speech Protects the Truth (Animal Farm)
- After We Noticed, about speaking up when it would be easier to stay quiet
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