Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading

Q1—Comment on the 6-year-old with a telescope and his interest in abstract ideas.  How unusual was he?  Have you encountered students with similar focus and reasoning abilities?  Discuss.

            The six-year-old only shows unusual characteristics if we consider the famous maxim “out of the mouths of babes.”  Sometimes our smallest minds contribute the wisest messages.  He simply shares the message that we need to learn from our mistakes and realize our abilities to grow both physically and mentally with every day we live.  Even though his line of reasoning may not have been completely accurate, he found the right words to glean the strongest message.

            A past student once taught me a lesson I will never forget.  She left a note after class one day that provided me with suggestions for toning down two disruptive classmates.  She implied that a new seating arrangement ( I generally allow high school students to choose their own seats.) and a new manner of verbal approach might make the entire room a better learning environment.  Now, I am the one who had been to college, yet she was the one to provide the wisdom.  Initially, I wanted to throw her note in the trash, but as I gathered myself together, I realized what a gift this was I’d been given.  I took her advice, implemented it, and found success with my discipline procedures.  Who says we cannot learn from those who we are supposed to be teaching!

Q2—Were you surprised to read that young children may be “ethically introspective citizens”?  Discuss.

            Absolutely not.  Children have the basic capacity to know right from wrong, good from bad, and so on.  In fact, they are less likely to be corrupted by some of society’s pressures and dictations; therefore, a child may be able to share ethics gleaned from honest thought better than some adults.  Robert Coles gives us each a lesson to remember in our daily lives, especially for those of us who see children on a day-to-day basis.

Q3—Do you agree that morality can be taught in all kinds of classes.  Give examples from experience.

            Morality can be taught anywhere and at any time, no matter what type or age-level of class we instruct.  In fact, my pre-school son can learn the same types of lessons my seniors learn.  In a recent lesson, my son was asked to reconstruct the bones of a skeleton using a model.  He proudly found the skull and backbone, and to the amazement of his teacher, counted the rib bones he needed to finish his picture.  But the lesson he learned went much further.  Eli finished early, and his teacher said he could find a toy to play with.  Instead, he asked if he could help his friends get finished.  Then, he showed his classmates the process instead of telling them what to do.

            I ask my senior writers to do this same process when writing a paper.  They exchange completed writings and peer edit, showing one another grammatical or structural errors that need correction before my grading.   The four-year-old and 18-year-olds all learn the same, valuable lesson here.  “Be responsible for your neighbor” means to these children help others and, at the same time, help yourself.  Morality centers on each of us being good role models for one another;  this lesson can be learned no matter what age we are.

Q4—What was meant by the phrase encountered in you required reading:  “We are all moral witnesses”?  Describe an instance in the classroom when you were a good moral witness.

            Being a moral listener means that as members of this nation, land and world, we are each responsible to take advantage of our heart’s messages.  Too often, we allow our conscious to take control of our actions.  We fail to truly ponder the consequences we might face when committing an immoral action.  In our hearts we know the right way to act or the best words to say, but we ignore those tugging strings and listen to an impulsive mind.  Knowing in our hearts the most beneficial way to witness—to ourselves and to others—is the first step of being strong moral witnesses.  When we act on this heart-felt impulse, we win the morality game.

            Students who fail to pass my class usually fail to complete their work.  It is my moral obligation as an educator to find every avenue in which these slackers can travel to success.  Recently, three 16-year-old boys stayed with me for three hours past the school bell on the day before the Christmas holiday.  I had taken each aside and showed them their incomplete work in my grade book.  “If we spend a little time when everyone else is gone,” I told them, “we can do this and you will pass the semester.”  Those three hours were not necessarily pleasant for any of us, but the pride I felt when they left ranks right up there in the highlights of my teaching career.  Three boys who would have flunked and possibly dropped out of school found success in my classroom.  Morality means making others see the goodness of life—on this day, I and my students did just that.

Q5—Define courage.  Tell of a youngster who has had the courage to stand up for his/her beliefs/values.

I agree with the teacher in the article on courage who defines it as “a determination, no matter the obstacles or dangers, to live up to one’s values rather than a capacity per se to face danger with apparent self-assurance.”  Recently, a senior girl witnessed a freshman boy writing derogatory comments with his pencil on the back of another student’s shirt.   The writer was laughing, as were his friends.  Yet, the boy wearing the shirt was embarrassed and scared.  The senior girl came to me and told me this story.  She wanted to do something about the situation because not only did she see it as wrong, but she also hurt for the young man being made into an object of ridicule.  She approached the freshman bully while he stood in the hall in the midst of his friends and told him that his actions were immature and unacceptable.  In this school and world, she said, people need to treat one another with respect regardless of their social status or popularity.

Q6—Comment on the discussion on Courage that took place during a 4^th grade history lesson, as outlined in the required reading.  Share an experience where your class spontaneously engaged in a moral analysis.

The old adage “out of the mouths of babes” definitely stands to be true.  These ten year olds were eager to feed off of one another and use their acquired knowledge about life to make mature responses to their teachers question about the Pilgrims.  I especially like what the fourth child, a boy, had to say: “’Courage is when you believe in something, you really do, so you go ahead and try to do what your beliefs tell you [to do]. . . .’”  Society needs to take lessons from the Pilgrims--and these fourth graders.

Recently in my creative writing class, I asked the students if they entered a local Wal-Mart and the cashier forgot to ring up one of their purchases, would they celebrate in the parking lot because they received something for “free.”  Most agreed that yes, we as a society seem to think we deserve to rip off others.  Some told stories in which they freely take from their part-time jobs items which they should not—like eating food without paying for it.  One young lady returned to class a few days later, telling how she made it a point to return to a store which had accidentally discounted an item that was not on sale.  She told about the sheer joy she felt by doing what was right, and her elation was evident when the manager thanked her for her honesty and allowed her to keep her discount.  Honesty pays—we need to teach our children to believe and act on this maxim.

Q7—How is a good person described at the end of the required reading involving A Bronx Tale?

A good person maintains an awareness of others while juxtaposing his or her own ethical tensions encountered every day of life.  Doesn’t each of us intrinsically want to be known by others as a good person?  To me, this requires being cognizant when moral messages flash before our eyes.  When we see the moment to take advantage of this type of learning, we need to take what we can and share it with others.  Then, we not only become a good person because we ascertain morals and learn from them, but we also share with those around us the lesson we’ve learned and our goodness spreads all over the world.

Q8—What should a teacher do when she/he sees a student trying to get another student in trouble or somehow disrupting the class?

A teacher should take action.  Yet, vocalizing her complaints with the student or pointing out the disruption will only add to the negativity of the situation.  I like to pull the student aside at the end of class and conduct a conversation that puts the trouble maker in the hot seat.  I might say, “Tom, I heard that you were quite vocal in class today, and were eager to see if George would be disruptive with you.  This does not seem like appropriate behavior, especially for a young man who has the knowledge to pass this class academically.  What are you going to do to fix this problem?”  If Tom chooses to remain a problem for me and his peers, I will have to resort to another tactic.  Yet, I never point out the problem orally in front of the rest of the class because this usually encourages troublemakers to make more trouble.

Q9—The Harry Singer Foundation pilot project, Dream Machine, White Hats and Problem Solvers are based on the premise that students have the capacity to act responsibly, interact with adults in the community and make mature decisions.  In light of the article by Shannon Brownlee regarding the development of the teen brain, do you think the Foundation may be giving teens too much credit?

            If you are looking for a negative response to this question you have certainly asked the wrong teacher.  In my mind, giving teens too much credit can never happen.  In fact, we simply cannot lift them up enough.  Aren’t we all motivated by that which inspires us, encourages us, and “asks” us to make ourselves better?  Then providing positive reinforcement in any way can serve to boost a teen’s self esteem, making this world a better place to be. 

            Brownlees suggests that the teen brain “doesn’t function like an adults’” and is, in fact, “closer to a child’s brain than an adult’s.”  GREAT!  It still has the possibility to be molded and encouraged by an adult’s brain that was properly stimulated when it was young!  Brownlee’s research deserves credit, but not in my class!  So Yurgelun-Todd says teens might not have the “proper hardware” for good judgment;  in the teens I have the distinct pleasure to see each day, I have had plenty of opportunity to witness superior judgment.

            My hat is tipped to organizations such as the Harry Singer Foundation who recognizes teens for good thinking and achievement.  If we all lived in a pessimistic world such as Shannon Brownlee paints, we would never want to get out of bed each morning.  In my opinion, teenagers are some of the best people to be around and learn from.

Q10—If you think your students are capable, will you engage a group in one of our pilot projects?  If not, why not?

            I would be honored to engage my students in one of your pilot projects.  Medicine Lodge, Kansas has some of the finest teens you’ll find!  (Do I sound like a biased mother or what?)  My students show the ability to utilize complex thinking skills and good oral discussion techniques.  They are respectful and considerate (most of the time).  They will tackle projects in my classroom with vigor.   Our school recently formulated a goal to increase our problem solving skills curriculm wide.  We would truly benefit in layered ways from being a part of this pilot project.

If I had answered this question no, I would not be qualified to call myself a teacher.  I must constantly look into a variety of avenues to make my classroom a better learning environment for my students and myself.  I appreciate organizations like yours that make this learning easy to take advantage of!