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Preparing for Ethical Challenges Essay

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Preparing For Ethical Challenges A survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics polled more than 20,000 middle and high school students about moral standards. Almost half of these students reported stealing something from a store in the previous 12 months. In the same period, seven out of 10 cheated on an exam. There is more and more evidence of antisocial behavior than ever among our youth. Even our most academically talented students tend to let personal interest triumph over the common good. (Johnson, 1999) Where have we gone wrong? In the early 19th century ethics was as much a part of the curriculum as mathematics. Children were taught from readers that were filled with stories of honesty, self-reliance, and courage. The …show more content…

In other words, these students need to be taught life skills. First, our educators need to have a firm understanding themselves of what it means to be an ethical leader. A study by Barrett et al. suggests that teachers have an understanding of the underlying ethical principles of their profession but a set of principles should be compiled that follows the code of ethics for America Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. (Weegar, 2007) This national code of ethics would establish a standard for defining the expected ethical behavior of education professionals. Since the educators are the first line of defense it is important to protect the students against incompetent educators and/or educators who would not follow their code of ethics. It is important to develop a plan for re-enforcing ethics to students at the university level. But, here is my dilemma. While I fully believe the university has an obligation to further the students’ education in this arena. How does the university engage young adults and convince them that there is more to be learned? I wonder if, as a young adult , an ethical code is already set and, if it is, then how do the universities go about re-opening that door in order to pique their interest in the subject matter. I believe the task to be extremely difficult but, not impossible.

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