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After Action Report (continued)
Positioning also turned out to be very important from another aspect. At one point, a parent objected to the course, seeing it as a recruiting tool for the academies. Barbara showed her the curriculum with its emphasis on the histories, traditions, and honor codes of the academies. She explained the objectives of the course, and also pointed out that if the concern about her son opting to apply for one of the academies were real, then there were other courses he could take. The mother removed her objection, her son did take the course (and, interestingly, did indicate at completion a strong desire to attend West Point!).
Audience
The audience for this course was composed of intermediate school students. Further, they were students who had been tested and identified as exceptionally gifted-and-talented. That meant that they were an inquisitive group, and they are. However, one of the characteristics of gifted-and-talented students is that they do not care to participate in things where they do not see the personal relevance. Therefore, it was imperative that we strike a chord early with how ethical matters affect them personally. We did that by asking them about examples from their own lives where they had been injured by the dishonest behavior of others. That generated much discussion, as well as a follow-on discussion of how much more simple and pleasant life would be if everyone held to high ethical standards.
Many people have suggested to us that this course should be mandatory in every school across the country. Certainly, that is a wonderful ideal. We believe that we stumbled across a set of circumstances that provided an unusual opportunity. However, those circumstances need not be unique. They can be engineered in other locations.
Barbara and I have had much discussion about who should participate in such a course. Her concern is that, if presented to all under a "mandatory" environment (as has been suggested), that the effect would be to dilute the good for those who might otherwise be more positively affected. Certainly, in this class the students were among their own, where it was "cool" to be in the class, and then accept precepts of ethical behavior. But, we also observed ethical behavior spread outside the confines of that particular class, and into the main body of students (those not in the gifted-and-talented program).
My personal opinion is to teach ethics wherever a credible forum is provided. Some gifted-and-talented students will never be a part of such a course. Elective courses have the advantage of drawing in students who have chosen to be there. Elective courses sometimes have the disadvantage of being perceived sometimes as "easy" courses not to be taken seriously. How such a course should be done for best effect in any given locale will be determined by local conditions and objectives. However such a course is taught, care must taken so that impact is positive and that students not become inured to concepts of ethics as "a waste of time." (Continued next page.)
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