Volunteering - Primary Ethics

Former student turns ethics teacher

Alexa Stuart loved her ethics lessons when she was in primary school. A decade on, the 18-year-old is back at her former school teaching a new generation of ethics students.

In April, I taught my first ever ethics lesson! I had a gorgeous bunch of Year 2 kids at Lambton Public School, and – despite my nerves – it went really well. But actually it wasn’t my first ever ethics lesson. My first was in that very same school, in 2012 when I was just eight years old.
Our school was one of the earliest schools in Newcastle to start teaching ethics so for the latter part of my primary school years I was able to attend ethics classes. I remember loving it so much, I think I used to annoy my friends because after class I would just want to keep talking about the ethical dilemmas. I had so much to say and there was never enough time in ethics, so I just kept talking as we went out into the playground. And then when I got home, sometimes I would keep talking about it to my family over dinner.

One of my most vivid memories of ethics was in Year 5 or 6 when our ethics teacher stepped out of the circle and allowed us to moderate the discussion ourselves. She watched us as we tried to navigate how to take it in turns without putting up our hands. We were forced to talk to each other rather than just the teacher. I remember feeling so mature and that our teacher really respected us and trusted us.

Ethics lessons were a highlight of primary school for me. Last year I graduated from high school, and this year I’m taking a gap year, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to volunteer and become an ethics teacher!

When I started doing my ethics teacher training, I started remembering a lot of the topics and scenarios that we did when I was younger. I remembered talking about palm oil and the orangutans, about performance-enhancing drugs and whether it’s OK to hunt sharks after they have hurt humans. Back then, I thought that if I just thought about it hard enough, I could figure out the “correct” answer to all these tricky questions. Now I realise that the whole purpose of ethics is to learn the skills of
critical thinking and ethical problem-solving that help you to come to your answer, not the answer itself. It’s about the journey not the destination.

When I went back to my old school for my first lesson, I spoke to some of my old teachers. It was lovely to see them again and chat to them about what I’d been doing over the past few years. It felt so strange and nostalgic to be back at my primary school and I was very nervous, but once in the classroom I was surprised at how well the students listened to me. I was a bit worried that because I’m so young I would lack some authority and I was worried that the kids wouldn’t be fully engaged. But I needn’t have worried because they all seemed to have a great time. A lot of hands went up whenever I asked a question and despite them being a bit wriggly at times, they gave some very thoughtful (and cute!) answers.

It’s been strange to experience the other side of ethics classes, this time as the teacher. Having to remain neutral and lead the discussion rather than contributing my own thoughts can be a challenge. I feel very lucky to have experienced ethics as both the student and the teacher, and now I’m trying to convince some of my friends to volunteer, it’s such a great experience for young people!

Next year I’ll probably go to university, I think I will do development studies as I’m interested in social justice, development and inequality. Hopefully I’ll still have enough time to keep teaching ethics!

‘My small way to make a big difference’

Thousands of volunteers teach Ethics every week – they get as much out of it as the children do.
Hear from six of them about why they do it and how you can become an volunteer ethics teacher too.

Watch it with captions:

Watch it without captions:

Complaint demonstrates overall success of ethics

It takes a village to raise a child – and many of those who enrich our children’s lives do so as volunteers.

P&C committees, canteen, reading groups, garden club, uniform shop, sport coaches, Scouts, Guides, playgroups – volunteers make a huge contribution to children’s lives and are being celebrated in Volunteer of the Year Award ceremonies held this month around the state.

“Yes we are volunteers, but we take this role very seriously,” said Suzan Fayle, who has facilitated ethics classes for the past six years at Orange Grove Public School.

Ms Fayle is one of 2800 Primary Ethics volunteers who help 45,000 students each week to think for themselves and develop the skills to disagree respectfully with others. Lessons based on philosophical ethics give children skills in critical thinking and ethical reasoning.

The children who complained about the teacher at Dulwich Hill Public School (“Ethics teacher stood down for saying Stolen Generations due to bad parents”, Sydney Morning Herald, September 9) used just those skills and should be commended.

“I’ve taught all levels and cannot recall a time where the script has allowed me to voice my own opinion. Our training is very strong on the point that the lessons are written by highly experienced educators and the lesson works without any extraneous input – or leaving anything out – by teachers,” said Ms Fayle.

Primary Ethics emphasises in all aspects of our training for ethics volunteers that their role is to facilitate discussion using the approved curriculum without omission or addition. Our shorthand for this is ‘follow the script’.

Two weeks ago we immediately stood down the ethics teacher when we were notified he had breached our policy that ethics teachers must not introduce their own opinion into discussions in ethics classes.

The requirement for volunteers to not voice their own opinion is clearly and consistently communicated in:

candidate interviews
initial online training
two-day face-to-face training.
signing the terms of engagement and agreeing to the volunteer code of conduct
continuing professional development
supporting resources such as the Ethics Teacher Handbook and Guidelines for Volunteers
our classroom support team services which routinely observe ethics classes and provide mentoring

Many of our volunteers are retired Department of Education teachers or those in part time positions (full time employees are not permitted by the DoE to volunteer) or have experience in early childhood, tertiary or workplace education. But as the role is to facilitate discussion among the students, it differs from that of a traditional teacher who is seen by students as the main source of knowledge in the classroom. Objectivity is a key criteria when determining suitability of candidates for the ethics teacher role and volunteers from a range of backgrounds are a good fit.

This incident is a rare occurrence among the 8300 volunteers who have been trained by Primary Ethics since the program’s inception in 2011, and Primary Ethics has acted quickly and in accordance with our publicly available complaints policy.

The benefit of ethics classes, and the efforts of our many terrific volunteers, should not be reduced to this flawed example by those who see ethics classes as an inconvenience to their efforts to remove Special Religious Education from schools.

The fact that these students were able to identify and challenge the comment of their ethics teacher is a sign that the program is working.

Why pilot ethics classes for year 7?

Primary Ethics is the single approved provider of special education in ethics (SEE) to NSW Department of Education public schools. While our primary focus is primary schools, we’ve fielded many requests over the years from high school principals, parents and students themselves, who have sought a secular alternative to Special Religious Education that helps young people make sense of the world. In those early years, it was not possible for us to act on those requests. 2020 will mark the tenth anniversary of Primary Ethics and we’re pleased that next year we will be able to offer high school communities the opportunity to participate in the program, when we pilot ethics classes for year 7 students.

An ethics program for year 7 students will:

support students to develop skills in critical thinking, respectful discussion and ethical reasoning – skills which are transferable to the key learning areas of the secondary curriculum
support students in making the transition from primary to secondary school,
assist with development of interpersonal and decision-making skills as well as the consideration of ethical dilemmas that can loom large in the adolescence years
give choice to families by providing a high quality and valued secular alternative to SRE
promote lifelong interest and learning through providing a foundation in philosophical ethics that may assist students to undertake philosophy as a secondary elective or as part of a tertiary course of study

By undertaking a pilot program for year 7 students in a small number of willing high schools, we expect to gain important insights into the secondary school learning environment. In particular, the pilot’s purpose is to assess variations in delivery at secondary schools, such as length or frequency of lessons, and also to ensure the additional training ethics teachers will receive is best practice for managing a community of inquiry with students aged 12 and 13. The pilot will focus on Year 7, but once established, the secondary program will be made available for stage 4 (both years 7 and 8) students.

The pilot program, and any subsequent classes that are delivered after its review, would only be run in high schools where there is an existing weekly or fortnightly special religious education (SRE) program.

The pilot will only be run in schools where there is:

school support for SRE/SEE
family support for SRE/SEE
trained volunteers available to facilitate the discussion-based classes

Current legislation gives parents of all NSW public school students the right to seek ethics classes for their children, and it would be unjust to deny parents the choice of SEE while SRE is present. In high schools where religious education is woven into the fabric of the school community, we cannot sit on our hands waiting for a change in legislation that may never come. There is an opportunity to provide valuable education for students, and Primary Ethics is dedicated to supporting parent choice wherever possible.

If, during the course of the pilot program or subsequent delivery of ethics classes, there is legislative or policy change around the inclusion of SRE/SEE in the secondary curriculum, we would negotiate with individual schools and the Department of Education on an outcome that best meets the needs of the students and considers the needs of the school community and Primary Ethics volunteers.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from high school staff, parents/carers of students who will be in year 7 in 2020 and existing or previous volunteer ethics teachers who are interested in participating in the year 7 pilot program.