Over Christmas, my granddaughter wheedled me into watching The Lego Movie—an aminated film released in 2014 that I had somehow missed. When asked why I should watch it, Catie said she liked its message: that an ordinary person could make a real difference in the world. She got my attention. After a delightful romp through […]
As the anger and outrage for the latest school shooting has begun to subside into a search for strategies to reduce the number of deaths caused by people using firearms, the articulate courage of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School provides a flicker of inspiration in the shadows of grief. Turns out that […]
It all started innocently enough with a student inquiry about one of our simulations. The dilemma asked the learner to identify the most ethical option if a long-term, valued employee gets angry and throws a fire extinguisher at another employee while off his meds for being bipolar. The student made a good case for the […]
Many of us anxiously awaited the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. ___ (2018) decision, crossing our fingers that our particular position would be validated. Surely the Supreme Court would see that the principle of freedom of religion was more important than the principle of accommodation for all—or perhaps tilt the balance the other […]
I’ve spent the past week cruising the upper Rhine in Germany. At one of the stops, we not only had the chance to explore a Museum of Medieval Torture but also visit the dungeon of a local castle with its sampling of the tools used to encourage ethical behavior. In addition to the pillories (wooden […]
Over the past month, I’ve been privileged to visit more than five universities and speak with several hundred students and faculty about ethics and ethics education. No matter the size of the group or the announced topic, at some point the question was asked: What did you think about the hearing for Judge—now Justice—Kavanaugh? Did […]
We often hear from faculty members who assert that they don’t have to think about teaching ethics because their subject doesn’t include conversations about values. However, like it or not, every faculty member teaches ethics—either intentionally or unintentionally. All educators talk about the ethical potholes of their discipline, model a (hopefully) civil and respectful environment […]
With judicial nominee Neomi Rao walking back comments she made in college about date rape and a continuing conflagration over Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s pictures in his yearbook of a man in blackface accompanied by someone in a KKK robe, the conversation about how long someone should be held accountable for juvenile actions has roiled again to the surface […]
When people think of the importance of imagination, a myriad of creative opportunities come to mind—writing a novel, making a film, designing an engineering breakthrough. Very few of us, however, think about using our imagination to become more ethical. It turns out that in human development—becoming ethically mature—our imagination is our most powerful ally. Brian […]
Five hundred and five 2×4” tiles with pictures of young women and abstract teal art. Five hundred and five tiles—one for each person “the perpetrator” violated over a thirty-year period. The sheer enormity of the sexual assault overwhelmed me as I walked through the door of the Michigan State University Museum to visit their exhibit, […]