Our @Home bulletin aims to bring you up to speed with what your children are discussing in their ethics lessons this term – they might be talking about it at home too!
Below we outline the topics classes would be up to if they started in Term 1 and haven’t had any delays. In reality, this is rarely the case. This year has been a challenging one for us (and for schools in general), with many ethics programs only commencing in Term 2. So classes at your school might still be discussing the second term topics.
So if your child isn’t familiar with the topics below, please take a look for what they are discussing in the Curriculum section of our website.
What they’re talking about in ethics – Term 3
Here’s a brief look at what your children are diving into in their ethics lessons this term.
Kindergarten: Disagreeing
Is it okay to tell someone you think they’re wrong? Are there good and bad ways to go about voicing disagreement? Are there times when it’s really important for us to tell someone they’re wrong – for example, when someone might get hurt? One of the goals of this curriculum is to support children in evaluating their own ideas and the ideas of others. To evaluate an idea, it’s valuable to consider the arguments of those who disagree. This curriculum therefore frames (respectful) disagreement as an important part of the collaborative process that underpins ethical inquiry.
Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2: Courage or being brave
What does it mean to be brave? Are you brave if you are fearless? Or is it when you act despite being afraid? And is being courageous a desirable thing? Should we all strive to be brave?
Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4: How should we treat living things?
Is it okay to chop down a living tree? What about poisoning some caterpillars that are killing a tree – is that okay? Is there a difference between how we should treat insects – like caterpillars – and other animals – like dogs? And when deciding how to treat different animals, does it matter how long they live? How big they are? How intelligent they are? How few of them are left?
Stage 3 – Years 5 & 6: Drugs in sport
Athletes do lots of different things to get an advantage, but what counts as an unfair advantage in sport? Loading up on carbohydrates before a race? Drinking coffee? Training at special high-altitude camps? Wearing a special swimsuit? Taking performance-enhancing drugs?
Stage 4 – Years 7 & 8: Friendships
What is the value of friendship? Is it better to have a few close friends than lots of casual friends? Do we have a responsibility to stay someone’s friend? Is peer pressure always bad? What about when we encourage someone to do a good thing?
A new award for ethics volunteers – please nominate someone you admire!
We’ve launched a fantastic new award, which brings substantial prize money of $4000 to go to the winner’s chosen school and public appreciation for the often-unsung efforts of our wonderful volunteers.
We invite you to nominate someone you admire – an ethics teacher or coordinator – for the new Kinghorn Award (or more than one person, as there’s no limit to how many people you can nominate). This award will honour an ethics volunteer who is an inspirational role model for other volunteers – and for their school and community.
Read all about it and please nominate the inspirational ethics volunteer at your child’s school >>
There’s no ethics without parent volunteers!
The best way to make sure there’s an ongoing ethics program which reaches all ages at your children’s school is to volunteer yourself.
Or you could suggest volunteering to a friend or family member. Volunteering with Primary Ethics can start at age 18 and is a valuable experience for tertiary students.
It’s not too late in the year to start – or you can get ready for next year. There are a wide range of online times and days to choose training courses from.