There are many great things about teaching high school students Ethics for 38 years. I learned so much about decision making, the nature of human beings, and how to live the good moral life from them. The students referred to it as full contact ethics for once you entered the room, you were going to learn about the various systems of ethical thought and how they apply to everyday life. I can’t think of an issue that we didn’t cover, and I am pleased to say that once the classroom was made safe for sharing their thoughts, they were amazed at how much they agreed and disagreed with one another. It is my job to create this safety by emphasizing civil discourse where you could not attack the person but you could disagree with their perspective.
Since ethics doesn’t happen in a vacuum, we had to talk about relationships and values. I have literally taught thousands of students. I discovered some fundamental truths. There were two things that most of the students agreed on that may or may not surprise you.
First, students are under constant evaluation in terms of appearance, what is cool at the time, and popularity to name a few. Their day is a constant evaluation. There were three feelings that they agreed that they we do anything to avoid. They are guilt, rejection, and vulnerability.
They were quick to add that so much of their energy, for the most part, was to set up their life so that they would avoid embarrassment. Think about how much of these ingredients are part of your and my life for students are an ethical microcosm of us. This helped me to understand a lot of their and my behavior.
Second, students say that they receive their values first from their parents or parenting figure such as a grandfather, a sibling, or a teacher. I met with older siblings of students who were taking care of all aspects of them. Some students also point out that they don’t want to live like their parents. Notice the parent is still the reference point.
Those character traits of who shaped our values and things that they would avoid reside in all of us as “our Inner child of the past”. How do they affect me today? How do they affect you today? Would you agree with these students’ observations?
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