Education

Jo: ‘Joy, amusement and the intangible benefits of volunteering’

Jo Gardner began volunteering as an ethics teacher at local schools on the Central Coast six years ago. She was motivated by a sense of wanting to give back, having a connection with the young generation and providing an option for parents who don’t want their children to participate in religious education. Jo says she has found “joy, amusement and all the intangible benefits of volunteering” along the way.

“Initially I saw an article about ethics classes in the local newspaper”, Jo said. “I’ve always had an interest in ethics and heard Simon Longstaff of the Ethics Centre speak on a number of occasions. The free training workshop with Primary Ethics was a wonderful experience and I’ve now learnt so much for myself about ethics and philosophy. I believe that critical thinking is an important skill for us all and being able to, in some small way, help kids develop these skills is a privilege.”

Jo teaches two classes a week and says it takes her about an hour to prepare for each, reading carefully through the lesson script which is supplied to her by Primary Ethics.

The best part of being an ethics teacher is the children. I am exposed to their wonder in life.

Jo Gardner – Volunteer Ethics Teacher

“I like seeing the kids thinking and then coming up with ideas… Their talkative natures with great explaining of their thoughts, sometimes a bit convoluted but always considered and revealing their willingness to think about ethical issues. Watching them have ‘aha’ moments and learning how to build on other children’s point of view. Also their willingness to disagree.”

Jo’s grandson has been in her ethics classes for the past two years. “I have been rewarded seeing him mature into a thinking, empathetic young boy. We’ve been able to discuss things in the lessons that would not normally come up in conversations between a grandparent and child.”

Jo says she would encourage anyone with a spare hour or two in their week to volunteer as an ethics teacher. No previous teaching experience is needed. Like Jo, you will get a lot out of it yourself, as well as contributing to the richness of your students’ lives.

Primary Ethics is delighted to announce the Kinghorn Volunteer Award 2023, which brings substantial prize money to go to the recipient’s chosen school, as well as public recognition and appreciation for the often-unsung efforts of our wonderful volunteers.

This award will honour an ethics volunteer who has strongly contributed to the success of the ethics program at their school – or schools. We want to acknowledge someone who is a team player, good communicator, supportive of other volunteers, reliable and committed to our program of ethics education.

The award is open to all ethics teachers, coordinators, regional managers and members of the Classroom Support Team (except Primary Ethics staff). Every volunteer can nominate other volunteers for this award – there is no limit on numbers of nominations. Only volunteers who have been active in 2023 are eligible to be nominated.

We are looking for someone who:

has made a significant contribution to our mission to deliver ethics education to children so that they can develop skills in ethical reasoning, critical thinking and respectful discussion
has conducted themselves in a manner true to our values of respect, integrity, independence, excellence and teamwork.

THE PRIZE

The winner has the privilege of directing $4000 towards the library service in the school or schools of their choosing. They will be awarded an engraved trophy and their school library will be given a hardcopy copy of Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, containing a bookplate with details of this award winner.

We will present the award to the winner at a ceremony in December 2023.

Make your nomination here >>

Nominations close at midnight on 22 September, 2023.

The winner will be announced in late November 2023.

WHY THE KINGHORN AWARD?

The Chair of the Primary Ethics Board, Bruce Hogan, through his Hogan Family Foundation, is funding this award in order to recognise the fantastic contribution of the Kinghorn Family Foundation to Primary Ethics.

Primary Ethics would not be where it is today without the Kinghorns. From 2013 to 2023, John and Jill Kinghorn’s Foundation provided significant funding to Primary Ethics. This generous funding directly resulted in the employment of urgently needed staff to manage and develop ethics programs and provide teacher training.

This Kinghorn Award recognises both the pivotal role the Foundation has played and the significant role of the winner in bringing our ethics program to more children in our state.

THE JUDGING PANEL

The judging panel will be comprised of:

The Chair of the Primary Ethics Board, Bruce Hogan
Two randomly selected volunteers – you can express interest in being on the panel on the nomination form
CEO of Primary Ethics, Evan Hannah
plus others tba

Now is the time to think, reason and if necessary discuss your reasons for choosing your nominee – and then go ahead and nominate them!

Freewheeling and provocative – the joys of teaching high school ethics

Rose-Anne Manns on the joys of teaching high school ethics.

‘Should we always apologise for hurting someone accidentally?’ I ask my Year 7 students at Lindfield Learning Village.

‘Yes’, says one boy. ‘Saying sorry will make them feel better – it’s kind. It’s a good life skill.’

‘Well, it depends’, says his classmate. ‘If it was just some random dude I hurt, then sure. But my mates and I never apologise to each other – we just laugh it off.’

‘But some of your friends might hold a grudge if you never say sorry’, a girl responds. ‘What if everyone did that? We’d all end up killing each other.’

I sit back and say nothing for a full minute or so. There is no need to anchor – they are all answering the question. There is no need to ask for reasons – they’re providing them. There is no need to open to others – they are taking turns engaging with each other, sometimes building on a classmate’s idea, sometimes explaining why they disagree.

Such is the joy of teaching my high school ethics class. Most of the time, I simply wind them up and let them go.

I have been a Primary Ethics teacher for 10 years, covering all primary stages, and this year I finally had the opportunity to teach at a high school. It’s the most fun I have all week.

The younger kids sometimes need coaxing to reveal their opinions, and often need a fair amount of structure to reveal them logically. Not so with my high school students – they are well practiced in articulating their views, especially those who experienced ethics lessons in primary school.

It’s not that I’m a passive facilitator. I always have my trusty facilitation skills flowchart on hand, checking that the group is raising a variety of views and that individuals are considering those different views. I throw in plenty of encouraging feedback when someone responds directly to what a peer is saying. I praise anyone who comes up with examples and counter-examples to make their points.

Although I facilitate the discussion with a relatively light touch, I nevertheless keep a tight rein on classroom management. Adolescence is a time when some young people feel emboldened about challenging authority figures, ethics teachers included. I have to remind a couple of them that the ‘no putdowns’ guideline applies to their teacher too, when I catch them rolling their eyes at me or mimicking me disrespectfully. Others need repeated assertive directions about not rocking back on chairs or keeping their hands to themselves.

They soon settle down and engage enthusiastically with the content, which creates another challenge for me. Because they are so eager to express their ideas, the conversation can feel somewhat freewheeling, even when we’re on script. For example, there were peals of laughter when, earlier in the year, they presented sometimes provocative beliefs on how old people should be before they’re allowed to vote, leave school, drive a car, buy alcohol (Topic 1: You’re not the boss of me). Weeks later, they had an extremely energetic debate over how far lockdowns should go during a crisis (Topic 2: Life under Covid-19).

Because the conversation was so animated, I wondered whether I was losing control, so I put out a call to the Primary Ethics classroom support team to ask whether I should intervene to create a more serious vibe. A helpful chat reassured me that if the class is on topic and behaving well, then I should just relax and enjoy it as much as the students clearly are.

And so I do. Happily.

@Home bulletin July 2023

Welcome to term 3 of ethics – we’re into the second half of the year already! And we still have new schools and new classes joining our ethics education program, so welcome to all the new parents.

Our @Home bulletin lets you know what your children are discussing in ethics. We hope they talk about it with you at home too – ask them about it!

Subscribe here to our @Home email bulletin.

The topics we show you below are based on classes which began at the beginning of the year. Please bear in mind that the further we advance into the year, the less likely these topics will be accurate for your child’s class. Classes started at different times (depending on when there were enough volunteers), some lessons go much slower than others, some schools skip ethics for the first and last weeks of the term and so on.

If your child tells you they are discussing a topic you don’t see in this bulletin, you can also look at the Curriculum section of our website to find it.

Ethics Term 3

Here’s a brief look at what your children could be exploring in their ethics lessons this term.

Kindergarten: Disagreeing
In Term 3, students in kindergarten will explore the ethics of disagreeing with others. They’ll talk about whether it’s okay to tell someone they’re wrong (and when it’s important to speak up). They’ll also think about the best ways to express disagreement constructively and kindly.
Later in the year, they’ll tackle topics like owning up and being truthful.

Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2: Is it important to understand the rules?
In Term 3, our Stage 1 students will explore some big questions about following the rules. They’ll talk about why following rules can be tough and whether it helps to understand the reasons behind them. They’ll also think about whether people who set rules have a responsibility to explain them.
Later in the year, students will consider questions about stereotyping and being good friends.

Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4: Intentions
In Term 3, our Stage 2 students will delve into the importance of intentions. We’ll encourage them to ponder how much our intentions matter. For example, when someone tries to do good but accidentally causes harm, should we focus on their good intentions or the unintended consequences? Similarly, if someone accidentally does something good, should we praise them for it?
Later in the year, they’ll explore questions related to beauty.

Stage 3 – Years 5 & 6: Stealing
In Term 3, our Stage 3 students will explore the ethics of stealing. They will talk about what sorts of actions count as stealing. For example, is it stealing to watch a fireworks display from afar without paying? They’ll also think about what, if anything, makes stealing wrong.
Later in the year, students will consider what responsibility society and individuals have to do something about homelessness.

Stage 4 – Years 7 & 8: Does it matter if everyone disagrees with you?
In Term 3, our Stage 4 students will ponder the nature of disagreement. They’ll discuss whether our opinions on matters like taste in food or movies can be objectively wrong. They’ll also reflect on whether discovering that lots of people disagree with us should that make us less confident in our position.
Later in the year, they’ll delve into how emotions can influence our decision-making.

Googling the high school ethics curriculum

Kelby Mason, philosopher, ethics teacher and trainer, was lead author for our high school curriculum, before we launched the high school ethics program in 2021. Here’s his writing process.

Q: What do the following have in common:

attractive people judged more trustworthy
what does nodding mean in Turkey
Roger Ebert idiot plot
shame culture guilt culture
apology displays in dogs
what is this thing you humans call friendship
influencers ruining nature
famous examples of not accepting an apology
indigenous Australians on importance of role models growing up
how far away is the heat death of the universe
what happened to Jeremy Bentham’s head [look it up yourself, it’s pretty interesting!]
famous female political prisoners
mismatched couples in ya fiction
average daily earnings Uber Eats
Trump tweet ‘we cannot let the cure be worse than the disease’
cross-cultural facial expressions
Paul Rozin glass of spit.

A: They’re all things we googled while writing the Stage 4 (years 7 and 8) high school ethics curriculum.

Since 2011 Primary Ethics has been teaching ethics classes in primary schools across NSW, with (as of 2023) 2600 volunteers in 500 schools, reaching 43,000 students weekly, from Kindergarten to Year 6. It’s quite a challenge keeping that machinery running each week, but at least once Professor Sue Knight had written an entire curriculum of over 100 lessons to cover all the primary school stages, we could relax a little, knowing that would be all the ethical thinking school students would have to do.

Yet it turns out that high schoolers face ethical problems too — who knew?! And, kidding aside, the ethical issues they confront are not the same as the ones facing primary kids. Plus, they can think bigger and deeper about the ethical issues we all face as individuals and as a society.

So we googled a whole lot of weird stuff (which didn’t all make it into the curriculum) and made a curriculum for year 7 and 8 students. These classes give students who’ve done ethics in primary school a chance to develop their critical thinking and group discussion skills even further, while thinking about issues that matter to them as teenagers and to society. And for students who didn’t have the opportunity to do ethics in primary school, it introduces the fascinating, puzzling and stimulating world of ethical thinking and discussion.

In high school ethics, students get to think and talk about a bunch of big important questions like:

Should we lower the voting age?
Is peer pressure always bad?
Who should decide how much time you spend playing video games?
If you could live forever, would you want to?
Is there anything wrong with leaving rubbish on the moon?
Can you put a price on human life? Are young people’s lives worth more than old people’s?
Does the environment have rights like humans do?
Does it matter if everyone disagrees with you?
And would you drink a glass of water with your own spit in it?

Yep, that spit one stayed in – believe it or not, the emotion of disgust is ethically interesting!

How is it ethically interesting? Well, you’ll have a take a high school ethics class to find out.

To find out more about our high school ethics program and express an interest, go here and click on the High School link top right.

Jane Hunter: Putting my values into practice as an ethics teacher

Jane Hunter is the Global Head of Digital Marketing for SFI Health – she’s also a volunteer ethics teacher. One of Jane’s workplace values is to progress human quality of life. She wrote this blog post describing how being an ethics volunteer chimes with that value.

Why is this core value important to you?
I think if we can improve the quality of people’s lives, bit by bit we can make the world a better place. There are so many ways we can do this, from donating blood to volunteering at a soup kitchen to helping kids to think and reason clearly. I think big picture, if people’s quality of life improves, humanity as a whole improves.

Building this value into our work culture is a smart move because it connects with so many.

What types of things do you do to progress human quality of life?
Outside of work, I volunteer with an organisation called Primary Ethics as a primary school ethics teacher for an hour a week and it’s one of the highlights of my week.

The lessons involve introducing complex ideas through storytelling around topics such as ‘Is lying wrong?’. We delve into sticky topics like this asking the kids to consider questions like ‘is it ever ok to tell a lie? Is withholding information the same as lying? Is it ok to tell a small lie to protect someone from feeling hurt?’ I guess it’s all about encouraging and developing skills in critical thinking.

I’m amazed at the capacity of eight and nine-year-olds to grab onto these very human conundrums and discuss them. I encourage the kids to think before answering, then to provide a reason for their point of view. I then open it up to others in the class who might have a differing view.

We also follow a set of rules for having healthy conversations, which I think are powerful skills to have all through life. These include building on each other’s ideas, showing respect for different ideas, tackling the ideas but not the individual, learning how to take turns at listening and contributing.

What type of impact do you think you’re having?
I hope I’m giving kids the opportunity to think about important issues, to build confidence in expressing themselves in a safe constructive environment and the skill to disagree respectfully.

It’s also a chance for the children to change gears and take a break from a world which can be very black and white.

The personal connections and circle we sit in encourage face-to-face conversations.

I think discussing these topics also gives the kids a chance to build interpersonal communication skills. I hope they learn it’s possible to be respectful when someone has a different point of view and that they model that kind of behaviour in the playground and later, online.

I was chuffed when an eight-year-old boy, who is normally quiet, walked with me as we left the class for a further conversation about the topic of ‘greed’. He was so engaged, he nearly missed his recess! It was a good feeling to see him thinking deeply about this and that the impact of the discussion might resonate beyond the classroom.

My daughter who is in the class keeps me well-grounded with lots of unsolicited feedback at home too.

Are the skills transferable to your workplace?
Absolutely. Teaching ethics and opening up the conversation to many viewpoints reminds me of the importance of keeping an open mind. This is critical in any global role because each day I interact with colleagues from different cultures, market conditions, life experience and personalities.

In the classroom, there is a good chance there are kids who are neurodiverse, just as there are sure to be neurodiverse people in any workplace. Improving human quality of life also extends to our colleagues through our considered interactions.

Teaching ethics has also honed my skills in facilitation and being agile. There’s no end to the tangents an ethics discussion with eight-year-olds can lead to or the general unpredictability of kids to keep you sharp! Having additional practice to think on your feet and find solutions on the go, even when things don’t go to plan, definitely has parallels to my work.

How does this relate to SFI Health’s culture and In Tune with You?
My first thought is that the business is in tune with me because teaching ethics is important to me.

I truly believe in the value of teaching ethics and knowing SFI Health was going to support me in doing this was really important to me. I think it’s impressive for a company to allow me time and space to do this, it makes a difference to me as an employee and how I feel about and engage with the company.

Focusing on this value I think demonstrates SFI Health is not only in tune with me, but with the greater good.

Empathy – an ethics class on Insight SBS-TV

What is empathy? Do we need to learn to be more empathetic? Can empathy be taught? The SBS program Insight dedicated an episode to this question, which aired on 16 May 2023.

Insight visited a public school in Sydney and filmed a wonderful Stage 2 ethics class on empathy taught by Primary Ethics volunteer Shing Ka, where students learn to consider other children’s feelings and motivations. It’s just a snippet of the whole 30-minute lesson but is a strong illustration of an ethics community of inquiry in action.

Ethics @Home bulletin for parents Term 2 2023

Our @Home bulletin for parents aims to let you know what your children are discussing in their ethics lessons this term. We hope they’re talking about it with you at home too!

Bear in mind that schools start their ethics programs at different times of the year, basically when they have enough volunteer teachers. The topics we show you below are based on classes which began at the beginning of the year. If your child’s class only commenced this term, you can also take a look at the Curriculum section of our website to see what they’ll be discussing.

Please contact us if you have any questions about your child and ethics.

Subcribe to our @Home email bulletin

Here’s a brief look at what your children could be exploring in their ethics lessons this term.

Kindergarten: Doing harm without meaning to
This kindergarten topic explores the ethics of accidentally hurting someone. Students think about and discuss: is it worse to do something bad on purpose or by accident? Should we be punished for harm we cause by accident? Does it matter if it was the result of carelessness or thoughtlessness?
Later in the year, students will consider questions about making things up and showing off.

Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2: When is it fair?
This Stage 1 topic explores the concept of fairness. Students think about and discuss: How can we divide things fairly? Does being fair mean everyone gets an equal share? When you make something, should you still share it with someone who didn’t help?
Later in the year, students will consider how we should treat pet animals.

Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4: Persuading

This Stage 2 topic explores the ethics of persuasion. Students think about and discuss: Is it okay to exaggerate or only share part of the truth when trying to persuade someone? And is it fair for advertisers to use tricks to persuade people to buy their products?
Later in the year, students will consider the ethics of getting even – does one bad turn deserve another?

Stage 3 – Years 5 & 6: Being vain

This Stage 3 topic explores the ethics of wanting to be better than others. Students think about and discuss: is it okay to want to look good and to want to look better than other people? How can one person’s vanity impact on the wellbeing of others? And how do you draw the line between reasonable and excessive concern for how we appear to others?
Later in the year, students will consider how to balance the needs of people they know and strangers in need.

Stage 4 – Years 7 & 8: Giving and accepting apologies

This Stage 4 topic explores the ethics of apologising. Students think about and discuss: What makes something a good apology? Do you have to accept a good apology? And is it ever important for a group (like a class of students) to collectively apologise for the actions of one of its members?
Later in the year, students will consider if being happy is all that matters in life.

EmilyMcGrorey ethics MamaMia — Emily McGrorey with the Primary Ethics discussion rules.

Newcastle ethics teacher Emily McGrorey has written about her journey to become an ethics teacher for the MamaMia website.

“[My daughter’s] teacher explained there weren’t any ethics classes running in her year level because they needed someone to volunteer to teach them. It was at that point that I thought, well, I’m someone.”

“To be honest though, I was quite nervous about the prospect of teaching. Until I had my own kids, I had very little experience with children and heading into a classroom to be the actual teacher all seemed a bit daunting. What if I couldn’t control the children and they revolted against me like some kind of chaotic scene from Matilda?”

Emily began teaching ethics during the lockdown year of 2021, so it was an on-again, off-again venture. She finally taught for a full year in 2022 – “and I’m pleased to report that the children haven’t staged a coup against me, yet.”

Read Emily’s full account, ‘I’m a primary ethics teacher. Here are the 5 biggest things it teaches kids.’

Category: Education