If you want to make moral claims about the value of honesty, make moral claims about the value of honesty. Don't dress them up as pragmatic claims about the usefulness of honesty, because then if your claims aren't true the whole thing comes tumbling down.
Betrand Russell's Ten Commandments for teachers.
I find this to be of use not just for teachers but for rationalists in general. #8, especially, is an especially eloquent formulation of Aumann's Agreement Theorem.