I
just completed the graduate course Moral Philosophy and Professional Ethics at
Johnson State College. The guiding
question for this course was: how should we treat others? We used this question to direct our thinking
while completing our academic tasks.
Through
this course we examined many different ethical dilemmas most of which were
connected to education. We examined
these dilemmas using four different ethical lenses. Shapiro and Gross (2013) believe that these
four lenses are imperative for any educator to use when faced with a moral
dilemma. The four lenses are the ethic
of critique, the ethic of care, the ethic of professionalism, and the ethic of
justice. The ethic of care focuses on
relationships and how decisions will affect the other people that are
involved. The ethic of justice
emphasizes the truth along with current laws, rights, and policies. The ethic of critique stresses the ideals of
democracy and forces people to rethink important concepts. The final lens, the ethic of professionalism,
looks at maintaining stability and putting the student in the center of the
decision-making process.
One
of the projects that we completed was an inquiry project. For my inquiry project, I chose to do a case
analysis based off an incident that occurred at the school that I teach
at. The case was based on the question:
should the topic of homosexuality be taught at elementary schools? I analyzed this question using the four
different ethical lenses. This project helped me to realize that educators have
so many points to consider when making any professional decision and sometimes
there might not be just one correct answer.
Also, finding the best answer that perfectly combines all four ethical
lenses can sometimes be impossible.
When
I think back to the guiding question about how should we treat others, I really
believe that is my ultimate goal as an elementary school teacher. I know as a first grade educator I am there
to teach the basics of reading, writing, spelling, and math. However, I believe that I am really there to
teach my students how to treat each other.
I am teaching them how to stay calm, be flexible, use kind words, and
compromise. Those are the lessons I teach
to my students directly and indirectly everyday. These ideals that I teach my students seem
very similar to the beliefs laid out in our other assigned book, The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can
Teach Us About the Good Life by Puett and Gross-Loh. While academics are important, as humans the
real happiness in life comes from the connection we feel to others. To me, it seems that it is more important for
me to teach my students how to positively get along with others because that is
where they will find true happiness.
Their social skills will also be incredibly important in their
professional lives. The most successful
people I know are able to work harmoniously with their coworkers.
It
seems that this guiding question would be a good guiding question for our world
right now. I sometimes think that my
first grade students have better awareness of others and make better decisions
in their relationships than many of the adults in the world. We as a country have definitely lost sight of
what is most important and that is our connections with other human beings.
Puett, M., &
Gross-Loh, C. (2016). The path: What Chinese philosophers can teach us
about
the good life. Simon
& Schuster. ISBN-10: 1476777837. ISBN-13: 978-
1476777832.
Shapiro, J. P.,
& Gross, S. J. (2013). Ethical educational leadership in turbulent
times:
(Re)
solving moral dilemmas (2nd
ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN-13: 978-0415895118. ISBN-10: 0415895111.
