Okay, here are some comments I made this week:
I have to invoke my background in literature to give an example of the point of morals. "Lord of the Flies" comes to mind. It's briefly about a group of boys on a deserted island who, with the loss of their moral compass (parents/society/English laws) descend into savage, bloodthirsty chaos. The moral of this tale is that the shape of society must depend on the ethics of the individual and not some set of political, religious, or any other kind of rules. Take the Mr. Heinz example from Kohlberg (1971). A druggist who can save the life of Heinz's wife with the drug he makes for 200 dollars and sells for 2000 dollars refuses Heinz's offer of 1000 now and the rest later. Essentially the druggist is refusing a profit of 800 dollars and allowing a person to die for an extra 1000 dollars. Heinz decides rather than to lose his wife over an amount of money (lower than the value he places on his wife's life) he will break a law (which he also regards as less valuable than his wife's life) and steal the drug. I believe Heinz did nothing wrong. I think ethically speaking the druggist is the villain and his greed should be far more punishable by law than Heinz's theft. The society I live in protects the druggist more than Heinz, and every year the laws of Canada are even more protective of such selfishness. It is the same in the US where 50% of people dislike the values of the country and 78% think they are getting worse. A change is needed to make these countries better and it will be necessitated through moral cognition (hopefully). That is what I see as the point of morals.
Anthony had posed the simple question, "What is the point of morals?" This was my answer. See the Heinz example in the Wikipedia link under "Examples of applied moral dilemmas."
This is excellent Daniel! While compiling answers to a survey for my group project I interviewed siblings who were quite different even though they were raised the same by the same parents too. My siblings are also a good example. In fact I have a brother with identical twins who are very different in many ways. In answer to the question, it's just reinforcement of the value of differentiation, a tool every good teacher needs in his/her tool box. As for your other question, I lived in Asia for over 20 years including China. I found that the societies we think of as more collective are being changed drastically by the same economic philosophies that made western societies individualistic and a lot of citizens hate it. I was walking with a Chinese friend in Beijing one day and remarked about how there was an automobile horn blown every few seconds at least. He told me that in China (modern China) the horn sound is not "beep beep beep," it's "me, me, me." In answer to your question I believe our cultures force values onto us, some good and some bad. It is up to the people's moral compasses and their Kohlberg Level III critical thinking about ethics to temper that cultural influence. I don't think my culture does a good job because we have left it to weak political representatives who rarely represent the true ethics and values of the people. But that's my opinion.
Daniel's two questions were, "With such difference in children raised the same, how should teachers approach students in diverse classrooms?" And, "What effect does culture have on our morality?"
A superb post and a great question Erland. I was talking to my sister about the Heinz example of an ethical dilemma and my brother-in-law, a really good hockey player in his youth, said that Heinz should go to jail before I even finished explaining the scenario. We were actually watching hockey at the time and there was a totally unintentional high stick that was penalized the same as if the offender had intentionally hacked the other player in the face. It made me think of how legalistic sport can be and how that could influence those who have played sports for a long time. I played sports for many years too but the advice that affected me was more like your statement about winning not being more important than our values of respectful and fair play. Much like the society I live in, I see sport actually going the OTHER way and teaching that nothing is more important than winning, so I applaud your efforts at keeping fair play in sport. Incidentally, when empathy and ethical reasoning were elicited from my bro-in-law, he changed his tune. As for your question, I had a recent occurrence in my school that was similar. There was a meeting in which the majority of the time was wasted (in my opinion) on matters of finance and funding that had little importance to the teachers while the issue of part-time teachers not being able to get into the school for night classes was not discussed. It is winter and some teachers were waiting 10-20 minutes in the cold for a security guard to open the emergency exit to let them in. Meanwhile all the administrators wanted to discuss was how much money they got from the government to finance our school. I knew it would have been considered bad form to bring it up at the highly structured meeting so I tangentially influenced administration through an intermediary. It's incredibly silly that it needed to be handled in this way but in the end it was dealt with. Management does not like to be told what to do by the teachers so they did not employ the obvious solution but their band-aid solution has proven satisfactory. Just another underappreciated social dynamic skill a lot of teachers need to have...
Erland's question was about balancing roles as teachers. Sometimes roles that are at cross purposes. Neutral roles and roles in which modeling of moral reasoning is involved.
As the vid and many great educators have pointed out for over a century, kids spend a lot of time at school so maybe the super significant development of ethical reasoning is a job that doesn't have to be left to just parents, church, and peers. So long as teachers avoid inculcation or indoctrination, they might even be the preferred purveyors of this cognitive quality. Children, educational studies have shown, are shaped more by arousing their curiosity than by external reinforcements like rules, lectures and orders. Although teaching seems to be a skill that a lot of people think anyone can easily do, this is something teachers work on to become better than the average bloke. But it's one of a thousand un or underappreciated skills teachers require and it's why we should all be making a million bucks a year.
I'm not sure why I chose this tack today, the first day of 2024. Perhaps it has to do with a couple of major choices that have been forced upon me by my culture. I've been working two part-time jobs and studying my 9th of 12 M.Ed. courses since coming to Calgary in September '23. I have barely made enough money to survive and the stress and strain has not proven to be worth the effort. I have had a toothache for about 2 weeks and I'm pretty sure I need a wisdom tooth pulled. I went to a dentist and was quoted a minimum of $300 to have that done. I guess I feel like Mr. Heinz although the dentist does not know my personal situation. I feel like breaking into the dentist's office and yanking the tooth myself.
The 300 or more bucks will set me further back in my bill payment than I already am. I don't have medical insurance from either of my jobs because I am part time. Probably the only solution to this problem I can afford would be to quit both jobs and go on welfare because Canadian social assistance will cover the extraction. Should there be medical insurance for part-time workers? Should the prices for dental work be less? Should the prices for EVERYTHING in Canada be less? Should I get an ice skate and knock my own tooth out like Tom Hanks in "Castaway?" All ethically debatable questions.
Maybe my hindsight isn't exactly 20/20 but I recall a Canada in which a cash-strapped person who needed emergency medical work done could find a compassionate medical professional to make adjustments. A druggist who would take the 800 dollar profit instead of the 1800 dollar profit he prefers. But I think those days are gone if they ever existed here.
How do I think it has gotten this way? I'm positive I know one major contributor to the ethical deterioration of Canada that is more to the point than just saying "capitalism run amok," but like the role of teachers having to remain neutral or silent when they have something that needs to be said, I'm feeling like I should not blurt out what I have seen happen over the years. I think you know if you have followed my blog or if you're my good friend. I just can't be too forthright at this time...
I am seriously considering quitting my teaching job and doing the warehouse work full time. That way I won't need to pay out of pocket for teeth getting pulled or my diabetes supplies. I have also not yet registered for course number 10 in my master's studies even though registration time has long passed. I may not go full time at the warehouse or take a break from school or just become a welfare bum, but if I DO resort to drastic measures here, you can be sure I'll blather on and on about it.
At any rate, happy new year everybody. Hope this is a good one for you all. This is not really the way I had hoped to start the year...
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