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Ethical Dilemma
February 14, 2012
Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it.
-Eileen Caddy
-Eileen Caddy
"My daughter loves her preschool. So do my wife and I: It's affordable, its on our way to work, and it teaches Mandarin, her second language. Recently the school's co-owner and director was indicted for stealing a ton of money meant to feed low-income children at her other business. I wouldn't be shocked if the charges stick. How do my ethical obligations not to support a (supposed) crook square with my daughter's love of the school and its teachers, especially given the lack of equivalent options?"
After discussing the pros and cons of going and staying, Kaminer concluded:
"The problem is that you seem to think, however prejudicially, that the director did it. One of the most basic functions a school can serve is to help kids learn to think — for themselves — about the ethical building blocks of right and wrong. If you don't even trust this woman not to take food from a poor child's mouth, you shouldn't trust her to imbue the school, and your child, with sound values. Unless a new director is on the way, the very factor that makes it hard to leave the school — namely the eagerness with which your daughter attends to its lessons — also makes it important to leave."
Intellectual Emergencies: Some Reflections on Mothering and Teaching is a special contribution to the field by Lilian Katz. She has spent many years conducting workshops for teachers, parents, and students all over the world. During those workshops, she often refers to her son Stephen, and what she has termed the "intellectual emergencies" she experienced during the years he was growing up. Her responses to these "emergencies," the moments when he analyzed her actions and challenged her decisions as a parent and a teacher, are presented in this insightful, witty book.ExchangeEveryDay
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsShishu Vikash Kendra
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Dear
Child friend , Its a very interesting . Ethics can be taught in the pre school
institution . Play is the point of the ethics .
Nirmal
Defending the Early Years
Wellfleet, Massachusetts, United States
Very interesting analysis by Ariel Kaminer, who, by the way, is a woman, not a man.
Yorktown, VA, United States
I am reminded of the recent controversy between Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood was accused of misusing funds and maintains that once the investigation is completed, the organization will be vindicated. In the meantime, on the basis of allegations alone, the Cure Foundation dropped its support for Planned Parenthood, and then retracted that stance and the Komen for the Cure Foundation's director resigned. A huge problem in the electronic age is that media reports are faster than due process under the law. So the public jumps to conclusions based on a report of the allegations, not waiting for the actual findings. So too this preschool director is being judged before the findings are completed. So, the ethics of removing a child who loves her school is questionable. Teachers teach the children, not the director. Parents should play an even greater role in educating their children and if it turns out that the director is guilty, what a great opportunity for the parents to teach values to their children. I have to wonder, though, what and why a preschooler would even be aware of such adult controversy. Having worked in a preschool, I know that directors imbue policy and procedures. Teachers imbue values, and positive values encourage children to love learning. If this child is learning in a positive experience, then let her experience life as it is. The children who may have been deprived in the other food program would be avenged through the courts, not in this child's preschool. And hopefully a new director would keep those great teachers on staff.
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