Teaching

“A little over 10 years ago, there was a call for ethics teachers. My kids had always been signed up for it, so I was certainly aware of the program and knew it was quite popular.” Craig Errey tells the story of his decade as an ethics volunteer.

I’ve always had a strong interest in this space because while at uni, I did a lot of philosophy – almost enough for a sub-major! At the time of the call for volunteers, it coincided with me having a bit more time and a need to focus more on my broader social contribution, so everything lined up and off I went to training!

When people ask, I summarise ethics as ‘social reasoning’. And that the purpose of the classes is not to tell people what to think, it’s really to just stop and think. Even if they make the ‘wrong’ decision, at least they stopped and thought about the situation before having a knee-jerk reaction.

In general, ethics classes are based on stories and scenarios followed by various questions to come at the problem from different angles, or changing some nuance about the story to prompt different conclusions or actions.

Becoming an ethics teacher is straightforward. I attended an in-person training event over several days, which was a lot of fun. Being a psychologist, I’m very familiar with the teaching and learning process, but there’re always things you can pick up, especially when it comes to the practical aspects of managing a classroom, which no amount of book-learnin’ can get you ready for.

But that’s not to say it’s hard to keep the class under a degree of control. The trick is to not let it get away from you – keep your hands firmly on the reins. Schools have built-in discipline measures, such as a set of stated values, an attention clap sequence and various reward systems, such as a ‘code card’ for when a student demonstrates a school value. These are your best friends!

In terms of how much time it requires, it’s pretty light. You need about 10-15 minutes before the class to familiarise yourself with the content. I use an iPad and have the curriculum materials on it which I can access in order to read out the lesson content and show pictures as necessary. Because I’m very familiar with the content, generally I don’t need as much prep. Others might need a bit more, but it doesn’t take long to get into the groove.

Having studied for a long time and written several deep and complex curricula myself, I can genuinely say that the Primary Ethics curriculum is one of the most well thought-out I’ve ever come across. It’s truly a remarkable piece of work by Sue Knight and the broader team.

Overall, ethics volunteerng is a great way to get involved and give something back. My kids have long since left the school, now being in fourth and second year at uni, so you can see ethics still keeps on giving for me. I hope it does for you, too.

Rupert Standley gained much more than he first expected when he became an ethics volunteer almost a decade ago. He credits his volunteering experience with helping him return to the workforce. Here’s Rupert’s story.

When my eldest started Kindergarten in 2017, I didn’t quite know what to expect from our local primary school – either for him as a student or for us as parents.

Not long after he started, an opportunity to help with reading classes opened up for parent volunteers, and I decided to get involved. To an office worker like me at the time, a classroom of kindergartners looked like organised chaos. But I loved it. I loved seeing the kids explore new topics and perspectives through the medium of books and games.

Two years later, another parent gently ‘encouraged’ me to get involved in ethics to help plug a volunteer gap at the school. Truthfully? I was reluctant.

But I thought back to those reading groups and figured this could be a great way to help my son, support the school, and even test the waters of becoming a teacher as I considered returning to work from my stay-at-home Dad duties.

At the time, I thought ‘ethics’ just meant debating which track a runaway trolley should take; I hadn’t given it much thought in a primary education environment. If I am being honest, choosing Ethics for my son was initially more about not wanting him to pursue the alternatives.

We were embracing critical thinking, largely through storytelling that the kids absolutely loved, and we were teaching the art of respectful disagreement. Since then, I couldn’t be more convinced of the benefits of the program.

Today, as a Coordinator, I work alongside eight incredible teacher volunteers. We cover every year group at our school. We are a committed group of parents and supporters who deliver classes consistently each week, supporting the program and one another where we can. We receive excellent backing from our school, and I am proud to say that the families who have selected the Ethics program for their children now represent a significant majority of our school community.

When I finally did return to the workforce, it was actually my experience as a Primary Ethics teacher and Coordinator that helped me land a job as a Road Safety Workshop Coordinator for high school students. It also gave me a profound appreciation for what our primary school teachers do every single day. I was in awe of them — even if I ultimately decided classroom teaching wasn’t my permanent calling!

I am incredibly grateful to Primary Ethics for the benefits it has provided me and my family over the years. But more than that, I am proud to be involved with a program that equips our young people with essential life skills in a familiar, supportive environment.

Rachel Linton has words of encouragement for anyone considering becoming an ethics volunteer – she says just ‘go for it’!

I first became aware of primary school ethics lessons around eight years ago, when my son was in kindergarten. Our school needed more ethics teachers and the ethics coordinator approached me to ask if I’d be interested in volunteering. I was curious to hear more, and after meeting with her, I was keen.

The community of enquiry process is probably even more important than the content of what we discuss, because it helps children learn to engage thoughtfully, respectfully and collaboratively.

Not every lesson goes smoothly and sometimes the discussion might go over some kids’ heads. But I believe that participating in these conversations supports children’s development over time. A moment that stayed with me: in the end-of-year lesson last year, one of the boys in my class said that before ethics, he used to “just do things” — now he thinks about them first.

The ability to think critically and engage in constructive dialogue is needed now more than ever. So for anyone considering becoming a volunteer ethics teacher, I say go for it. It’s a wonderful way to contribute to your local school community and to the positive development of the next generation – and you might just find you love it too.

Ched Smokovic believes ethics lessons give children “crucial skills” for the modern world. He’s in his seventh year of ethics volunteering at his children’s Sydney school.

Starting out…

My wife was reading Greenwich Public School newsletter, saw they were looking for volunteer ethics teachers and thought it would be a good change of pace for me – balancing the abstract corporate role I had at the time with a more down-to-earth, wholesome activity. It took a few nudges on her part, but looking back, she was absolutely right. As soon as I started reading about the Primary Ethics methods and goals, I found that it resonated with my deep beliefs on how children should be educated – by allowing them to think for themselves.

After I got in touch with the Primary Ethics regional coordinators, they explained the process, which seemed simple enough. I remember going to meet the coordinator for an interview, where we discussed my reasons for wanting to volunteer and my availability.

The online workshop that followed focused on the outcome – to have a well-behaved classroom that works as a team discussing the topic, thinking and broadening their minds. It covered everything from the Primary Ethics curriculum methods to behaviour management to working with children of different ages, child safety and support structure. The workshop was very thoughtfully prepared and delivered.

Six classes a week

I’ve been gradually increasing the number of classes I do every week. It started with two a week, covering just my kids’ classes, to now six a week – one high school class and five primary school classes, all spread over three days. My typical preparation consists of downloading the material from the Primary Ethics website and going through it the day before the class. The material is well written and describes in great detail how the class should be run, what the main points of discussion are, what is expected, how to run various activities, etc. It usually takes me 15-20 minutes per class to prepare.

In the class itself, we usually open by briefly reviewing the Discussion Rules (setting behaviour expectations such as ‘one person speaks at a time’) and then refreshing our memory on what was discussed last time. We then jump straight into each topic and tell a story or a scenario that we discuss and ask ethical questions around.

The curriculum covers a wide range of topics from fairness and justice, honesty and lying, friendship and loyalty, how we should treat animals, the environment, cheating, misinformation and what it means to be a member of society. What I find particularly well designed about the curriculum is that the topics are age-appropriate and relatable but never dumbed down.

Personal motivations

I started volunteering as I wanted to do my part for the community, wanted to get out of my comfort zone from a corporate role and, I admit, I was curious to see how my kids were doing at school and how different they are from the kids I know at home.

Although I do get most of those things, there is one thing I enjoy the most.

What’s in it for the children?

I always saw Primary Ethics lessons as a chance to show the young ones the wide variety of scenarios they will inevitably encounter in their lives and ask them ‘what do you think? and ‘what would you do?’ and more importantly, ‘why?’ There’s been many a time that as soon as I ask for the reasons behind their opinion, I can clearly see the student assessing their world view and either coming up with a very strong argument for, or acknowledging to themselves and others that perhaps their original thought was not the best and the group discussion made them change their mind.

One time when we were talking about what’s fair and unfair in society, the consensus in the class was that the laws are already set and the government already has rules for these things so there was little point in discussing them. When I mentioned that government consists of people just like us and one day some of them might be in the government and might need to decide on things like these, the discussion completely shifted and broadened and it was great to hear their uninhibited thoughts.