Paper #3- Final Draft

Looking at our K-12 education system in the modern day, one might say there are many changes that could be made to benefit our students in public education. Since students generally go to college, or start a career in the real world after high school, ethics classes should be infused in the grade school curriculum, and then taught as stand alone class in high school. A class in ethics would teach the students how to treat each other respectfully as human beings, how to communicate with each other, and what proper ethical decisions to make during a real life situation. Requiring ethics classes in school would make our schools much safer, and make students realize that they need to respect each other. It seems like these days, our schools are continuously stuffing information into the student’s heads. Generally high school students take classes in math, science, language, and history, but nowhere in the school curriculum is there a class where the students can communicate and express their feelings through talking with each other about ethical concerns.

     Making our schools safer, more comfortable environments is the first step towards creating a more educated, and driven youth for our future workforce. If teachers incorporated proper ethical challenges in to everyday lessons like arithmetic and social studies, having ethical standards would come naturally to the students as they move on in school. “Ethics, as an educational life skills component, is essential in teaching tolerance to young children. The ability to use logical reasoning skills in common situations encountered by young children will promote open-mindedness in children and prepare them to be better decision makers in the future.” (Allen-Kyle, 2011)

     Teaching ethics to young children doesn’t have to be as obvious as presenting them with real life situations, and then helping them make logical decisions. In order to teach ethics in grade school, you need to start at the very beginning by pulling out ethical decision- making examples in everyday lessons. If students grow up learning what is morally right or wrong in a situation from the very beginning, it will help those students resist peer pressure and effectively make their own decisions in the future when they move on to high school and college. Teachers could cover everything from ethics on the playground, to basic ethical decisions made by our countries leaders in history. By providing them with basic examples all throughout their education, students would be more open-minded, and more accepting of change.

     Ethics is something that should be introduced at the youngest age possible. As the students mature and move further along in school, the focus on ethics in the classroom should grow more intense in preparation for moving on to high school. Once students get to high school ethics would still be enforced through every subject, but high school students should be required to take a stand-alone ethics class for all four years. In this class, students would be presented with many different real life situations, and would be forced to collaborate as group in order to look at the situation from all different perspectives. This would make high school students work as team, much like you do when you have a job in the real world. An ethics class in high school would be the best kind of education to prepare students for going off to college, and having a successful career later in life.

 As John Gatto said in “Against School”: “School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children again…if children could be cloistered with other children, stripped of responsibility and independence, encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear, they would grow older but never grow up” (Gatto, 2003)

     Social Media is probably the biggest, most dangerous thing that students are exposed to in the modern day. From a research study in 2012, Lauby states: “active social networkers show a high tolerance for activities that could be considered unethical.” (Lauby, 2012) As students are getting into social networking at younger ages, they need to become aware of what is right, and what is wrong. Students are often over-exposed with wrongdoing on the Internet and they need to realize that what they see isn’t always what is ethical. But this issue can be taken from a different standpoint, What if schools actually used social media as a teaching tool? Sites like Facebook and Twitter are where many ideas start to surface these days. There are so many people dedicated to staying connected, and this creates a place where differing opinions can be expressed, and critical thinking questions can be raised. Students are able to establish a community online, and express their opinions in a way that makes sense to them. This isn’t saying that physically getting together as a group is less affective, but social networking provides a comfortable environment where students are able to put their thoughts out there and get an opinionated response from others. Many different examples of ethics can be pulled from social networking, and this would prove a good teaching tool for ethics teachers.

     The idea that parents and teachers educate the younger generation about ethics is no longer relevant in the twenty first century like it was in the past. “In the early days of our country, teaching character education was uncomplicated by separation of church and state issues” (Clouse, 2011) Schools have cut programs in humanities to focus more on the “important” subjects, and most teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching the students about ethics anyways. If it isn’t improving test scores, why would schools begin to invest money into this sort of thing? Well, its more simple then you think. Even though schools may not see results right away, including ethics in the schools curriculum will be very beneficial to the schools graduation rates, and success of the students. Since students would be given the chance to collaborate, think, and make decisions as a group it would establish learn term relationships, and trust within classmates.  These values are very important when these students go to interview for jobs. They will know how to communicate, and they will know how to present themselves in certain situations.

     “Philosophers believe that ethics should not be treated as something remote, to be studied only by scholars locked away in universities. We believe that teachers need to know how to teach ethics and instruct their student’s on ethics so that a foundation of ethical behavior is established in our future citizens” (Pass, 63) Pass says it well, it’s important to shape our younger generations for the working world, so they will make the right choices when they are faced with difficult decisions. By providing basic ethics lessons through grade school, and then opting for more advanced ethics classes in high school it will shape our future citizens and prepare them for their future careers in modern society.

References:

Allen-Kyle, Portia. "Is Preschool Too Young? (PART 4) - Teaching Ethics to Young Children." Examiner.com. N.p., 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

Gatto, John T. "Against School." Against School - John Taylor Gatto. Wes Jones, Sept.- Oct. 2003. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.

Prestwich, Dorthy. Character Education in Americas Schools 14.1 (2004): 1-12. Institute  of Education Sciences. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2013.

King, Edith Myrtle. Fifty Hints and Helps in Character Education,. Painesville, O.: Educational Supply, 1931. Print.

Pass, Susan. "Exploring Teaching Ethics in Social Studies." Exploring Teaching Ethics in Social Studies 21.2 (2006): 62-78. Print.