Our Blog - Primary Ethics

‘We need to do better for our children’s future’

Shane Arthurson with rules — Shane Arthurson with the ethics discussion rules

My first class of ethics for the year takes place this week. Reading the rules before this first lesson reminded me of some thoughts I had last year when I was visiting Parliament in Canberra.

By Shane Arthurson

I’m a volunteer ethics teacher at a school on Sydney’s northern beaches. My daughter is in Year 1 and I teach her class.

I am very proud and very happy to teach ethics. It’s a beautiful program tackling ethical dilemmas and teaching the children to stay curious and respectful as we debate, reason and talk to others about complex issues. It is right that we teach our young children ethics and with discussion rules such as these.

As a sad observation though, I was in Canberra last year with my wife who was part of a group petitioning for increased parental leave. Inside the Parliament, I couldn’t help but notice that question time violated all our ethics rules in the first few seconds. It was a horrific display of heckling, put downs, talking over one another… There was no orderly debate and no intelligent discussion about the matter, nor any progress or resolve.

Furthermore, I looked up and saw school children observing the leaders of our country behaving in such a manner. It didn’t shock me but it did disappoint me.

The leaders of our country are role models for our children, amongst other things, we need them to do better and to demonstrate behaviour we would be proud to see in our children. If we want a better society we have to act better. These children are tomorrow’s leaders and decision makers.

This behaviour does not add to social progress and actually takes us backwards.

All the more motivation for me to keep teaching ethics!

Ethics @Home bulletin for parents Term 1 2023

Our @Home bulletin 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!

Subscribe here to our @Home email bulletin.

Schools can take weeks to get organised and start their ethics programs for the year, so some won’t have commenced yet. However, we expect all schools which have enough volunteers to provide ethics to be underway by mid-March. Please contact us if you have any questions about your child and ethics.

Ethics Term 1 2023

Kindergarten: Questions and what is okay

The first topic of the year introduces students to asking questions. They think about and discuss: Why do we ask questions? Why might someone feel reluctant to ask questions? Is it okay to say that someone’s answer is silly or bad?

Later in the year, kindy students will consider topics on sharing, including others and causing harm without meaning to.

Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2: Empathy
The first topic of the year invites students to consider the importance of empathy. Students think about and discuss: Is it important to reflect on how others are feeling? How do you work out how someone else might be feeling? And is it possible to imagine how someone else feels if you’ve never been in a similar situation?

Later in the year, Stage 1 students will consider whether being fair means giving everyone an equal share and whether it’s okay to treat people differently because they are your friends.

Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4: Being greedy
The first topic of the year invites students to consider being greedy. Students think about and discuss: What does it mean to be greedy? Is there anything wrong with wanting more money or toys than you can use? Is it okay to want to be the richest person in the world?

Later in the year, Stage 2 students will consider whether lying is always wrong and whether it’s okay for advertisers to use tricks to persuade people to buy their products.

Stage 3 – Years 5 & 6: Voting
The first topic of the year invites students to consider voting. Students think about and discuss: Is it okay to vote for someone just because they’re your friend? How should we balance self-interest and the needs of others when choosing who to vote for? For example, is it okay to vote for someone whose policies would benefit me but are not in the best interests of everyone? Should voting be compulsory or voluntary?

Later in the year, Stage 3 students will consider whether punishment is necessary to stop people from doing wrong and whether it’s okay to be vain.

Stage 4 – Years 7 & 8: You’re not the boss of me
The first topic of the year invites students to consider how much control they should have over their own lives. Students think about and discuss: What right do parents, adults and governments have to limit teenagers’ freedoms? Why do we have age limits in Australia? And is it okay to stop people from doing things because they might get hurt?

Later in the year, Stage 4 students will consider whether hoarding food and medical supplies is wrong and what makes a good apology.

Primary Ethics discussion rules

This year, the six ethics class rules have been replaced by five discussion rules. In this short video, trainer, ethics teacher and curriculum author Kelby Mason talks us through those rules.

First some important context: these discussion rules are for stages 1, 2 and 3 (which is Years 1- 6). They aren’t for Kindy or secondary students (who have separate rules and guidelines).

Why have we updated the rules?

We now call them discussion rules as they are primarily a roadmap for the type of discussion we want to see in all ethics lessons. This name will help students see how they’re different to the school rules and any classroom behaviour rules you might have.
We’ve reduced them to five to help students focus on what’s most important.
We’ve clarified the language to make it as meaningful as possible to today’s children.

The rules are displayed in every class and referred to regularly throughout the lesson.Why’s that?The rules are our important grounding tool and roadmap for helping create a genuine community of inquiry.

When teachers notice a student – or the entire class – veering off course, they can point their attention to the relevant rule and remind them to follow it. If necessary at any point, teachers can start a discussion about a particular rule and our reasons for following it.

What are the ethics discussion rules?

Only one person speaks at a time.
Pay attention to the person who is speaking.
Build on other people’s ideas.
Speak to other students, not just to the teacher.
No put downs.

‘Bump’ does ethics

A number of Primary Ethics volunteers and staff noticed during the New Year break that Bump, a popular Australian series which began streaming its third season on Stan on Boxing Day 2022, has incorporated an ethics lesson into its storyline.

So I tuned in.

By Susan Ardill, Communications Manager

Bump is a satirical comedy about two young people from very different families who have a baby together. In season 3, the parents, mother Oly and dad Santi, have separated but continue to co-parent. Their daughter is now in kindy at school and Oly is unhappy to discover she is being sent to scripture under the influence of Santi’s family. So when she bumps into another mother who is about to teach ethics, Oly asks if she can sit in and watch.

The Bump ethics lesson is situated firmly in comedic territory and serves the purpose of the episode’s overarching storyline, to highlight the differences in parenting style and family culture between Oly and Santi. The ethics volunteer is immediately set up as a ditzy caricature, confessing to being badly hungover and then not knowing how to respond when the children raise some difficult questions. So Oly responds to them instead – and in doing so, Oly (who does indeed become an ethics volunteer in a later episode) comes to some of her own realisations.

The appeal of the series, which bills itself as a comedy-drama, is in the way it addresses contemporary social life in Sydney, but with tongue in cheek.

Oly, on right, is unsure about the ethics teacher's approach.

Indeed, this scene held my attention – and not just because I’m an ethics volunteer.

Yet I am an ethics volunteer (and Primary Ethics staff member), so I immediately noticed what was unrealistic about this scene, as did everyone who mentioned it to us.

Unreal!

The unreality begins with Oly inviting herself along to the lesson! Our volunteers are all fully screened, trained and authorised by Primary Ethics, which is the sole approved provider to the Department of Education to teach ethics in schools. No other parent can come along on the spur of the moment – and then contribute to the lesson!
In a real ethics lesson, the teacher isn’t at the front of the class and the children don’t sit in rows. Instead, the children and teacher sit in a circle and build a community of inquiry together. Everyone can see everyone else and this helps with paying attention to whoever is speaking.
Teachers don’t ad lib or give their own answers to questions, as both the parents do in this scene. Our lessons – not just the stories that are told, but the questions that are asked – are fully scripted. When children ask questions in a real ethics lesson, they aren’t answered by the teacher, who keeps their views to themselves. Instead, the students are guided with further questions to respond to each other, build on each other’s ideas and answer each other’s questions. Of course, Bump is a tv show, so when the flummoxed teacher turns to Oly and lets her respond to the children, it’s a plot hook, but it’s important to state that this would never happen in a real ethics class.
One of the Primary Ethics discussion rules is ‘no putdowns’. When one of the children in this scene says to another “You’re an idiot”, the hapless teacher weakly says “Respectful discussion” – and nothing more. Ethics teachers are trained to manage situations exactly like this and have robust class management strategies to help students discuss and disagree respectfully. We also have a Classroom Support Team to help our volunteers with managing just this kind of classroom retort.

I like Bump and found this episode as a whole amusing. It’s good to see an Australian series which seems true to life for contemporary families – even though, as I’ve outlined, it’s not at all true to life when it comes to the Primary Ethics program in schools. I wouldn’t want parents – either those whose children already attend ethics or those who are contemplating choosing the ethics option – to come away from this episode with the impression that ethics lessons are really like this.

I hope it’s clear to the audience that in this scene, the emphasis is very much on entertainment.

To see a real ethics class in action, take a look here: https://primaryethics.com.au/about-ethics-classes/

By Susan Ardill, Primary Ethics Communications Manager

Kate Sawtschuk writes: When I decided to volunteer to be an ethics teacher at our school almost four years ago, I received a serious and foreboding warning from my then eight-year-old daughter: “Teaching kids is tough.” Luckily, I was not discouraged!

Since then, I have taught ethics classes across all ages at Denistone East Public School and am now the ethics coordinator. I could never have imagined how much I would learn and how many rewarding moments it would bring.

Previously, when I had seen Ethics listed on our school Scripture form, I thought it sounded like a class that taught kids about what was right and wrong and what they should think. When a friend of mine became an ethics teacher and actually described it, I found out this could not be further from the truth!

Ethics classes give children a chance to practise skills like taking turns to speak, listening carefully to other students and forming and expressing their own ideas. Lessons are designed to enhance critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills, helping children make decisions based on logic and evidence rather than out of habit or due to peer pressure.

Upon first hearing this, I had two thoughts. The first: I want my own kids to be in ethics classes! The second: I wonder if I could become a volunteer ethics teacher and be involved in teaching them and other kids? I felt it would be the perfect way for me to contribute to the school community, given my limited availability, and would also allow me to become more engaged in the education my children are experiencing.

I enjoy teaching ethics because I find the topics fascinating; the lesson materials really make me think (as well as the children). Over the years, topics I’ve taught include empathy, fairness, being similar and different, good reasons, voting, punishment and vanity. It is incredible to be in a role where I can be around children and hear what they think. Their insights and thought processes can be impressive, surprising and often hilarious!

For example, this year my Stage 3 class began considering the concept of a fair society. They thought critically about discrimination, equality of opportunity and the moral responsibilities of society. There was a lot of lively discussion and many moments when their depth of understanding and innate compassion made me feel very reassured that the future is in their hands.

My Stage 1 class have looked at the concept of pride: what it means, when it is okay and if we can be too proud. They love providing examples to explore the topics and building upon the ideas of their classmates. We have moved on to talk about what makes a good reason and the concept of laziness.

It’s not always easy, as my daughter warned, but I also love the challenge of engaging the kids and encouraging them to think more deeply about certain topics.

The classes provide a safe and friendly environment in which kids can express themselves and question ideas they may just normally take for granted – to think about the reasons they hold certain views or opinions and to listen and build upon the often differing views of their classmates. It’s skills for life, really!

The ethics classes are quite a different experience for kids because there is no right or wrong answer. I think they really enjoy being heard and feeling that what they think is important.

I cannot recommend volunteering to be an ethics teacher highly enough! It’s a fantastic and practical way to not only to contribute to and support the school but to also develop your own skills in facilitation, communication and active listening – and as a bonus, in the process you get to witness the next generation mature in confidence and wisdom. What more could you ask for?

So I encourage those who can to seize the opportunity that is literally a life changing experience for all those involved – parents and kids alike. Kate Sawtschuk

@Home bulletin for parents Term 4 2022

Our @Home bulletin 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!

You can subscribe to our @Home email bulletin here.

Below we outline the topics that classes would be up to if they started at the beginning of the year. However, not every school started their ethics program then – some started in Term 2, some in Term 3, even some this term!

So if your child says they aren’t talking about 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 4

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

Kindergarten: Owning up
Is it important to own up to a mistake if we do something wrong – like breaking a window? Why can it be difficult to own up? Why might we feel reluctant to own up? Can avoiding owning up mean we lose an opportunity to reflect and learn – and does that matter?

Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2: Ownership
What sorts of things can we own? Can we own a shell we find on the beach or a sandcastle? Can we own a picture of someone else? Can we own animals – like pets and wild lizards? If we make something, do we own it? And what about the smell of food – can we own that too?

Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4: Breaking a promise
What is a promise – and is it different from simply saying you’ll do something? Is it ever okay to break a promise? How important is trust in friendships?

Stage 3 – Years 5 & 6: Are some things just wrong?
How important is it to have consistent moral values? Are some things just wrong (regardless of whether some cultures think they’re okay)? If so, how can we tell what’s right or wrong in a way that’s independent of culture?

Stage 4 – Years 7 & 8: From moon trash to migrant horses
Is it always wrong to litter? What about leaving rubbish on the moon – is there anything wrong with that? Should we always try to remove introduced species like wild horses? Does it matter how long ago they were introduced? What does it mean to be a custodian of the land – and is it compatible with owning land?

Ima and Mia Strkljevic are a mother-daughter ethics-teaching duo. Mia is only 18 and was inspired to become an ethics teacher herself having seen her mother in action over the years.

Here are their stories and a photo from the compulsory post-class staff meeting at the local café.

Ima’s story: It all started in early 2017 when a friend posted on Facebook about how rewarding teaching ethics at her children’s school was. I immediately got in touch with her, got informed about the induction process and within several weeks had finished all requirements and was negotiating classes with my children’s school, successfully overcoming the school’s initial inertia. So that is when I introduced ethics to Blakehurst Public School. I also took on the role of ethics coordinator. My daughter had just started high school and I had a younger son in year 4.

Being a health clinician and public health researcher, I’d known the importance and power of critical reasoning and ethical thinking. In the past five years I have enjoyed teaching children of all ages and was able to see what wonderfully inquisitive, imaginative, capable and open-minded people primary school children are.

Although my daughter just missed out on ethics in primary school, she became actively involved in my preparation of teaching materials every week as well as our family discussions following my son’s weekly lessons. She expressed a desire to become involved with Primary Ethics as soon as she could, after realising how wonderful it would be to give back to the community where she’d once achieved so much.

I took on the role of regional manager in 2019 and was also coordinating and teaching in another school to keep their ethics program alive, but then was unable to continue in multiple schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic and family-related issues.

I have dedicated myself to the Primary Ethics program even though I am no longer teaching my own children as my motivation is not to teach my children, but to ensure that my local school continues to offer and provide this invaluable curriculum to new generations. I have also realised the power of volunteering – the multi-faceted benefits for both volunteers and the recipients. I have been inspired by my involvement with Primary Ethics to research and promote volunteering of professional skills by health professionals to develop interventions for healthy ageing and health promotion in older adults.

Mia’s story: When my mother started teaching ethics when I was in high school, I became interested in the content of the lessons and loved the concept of group discussion and building on each other’s ideas as a way of learning. As a successful debater and public speaker and currently a medical science student, I believe inquiry is an integral part of learning and a healthy, argument-based discussion is the only way to progress and develop.

I also admire the volunteering aspect of Primary Ethics. I’ve been involved in multiple projects as a high school student in teaching, community and charitable volunteering activities. I felt the need to support this valuable program and where better to do it but at my own primary school. Blakehurst Public School is my local primary school where my brother and I, together with our friends and neighbours, created lifelong memories and achievements. This is where I will always feel like part of the family, always welcomed and accepted with warmth and gratitude.

I hope that my example will serve as an inspiration to many more young ethics teachers to come.

@Home Bulletin for ethics parents – August 2022

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!

Subscribe to @Home here >>

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.

Take a look at the steps to becoming an ethics teacher >>

Managing anxiety in the ethics classroom

Is anxiety on the rise amongst our students? How should we as ethics teachers respond to incidents of anxiety or distress in our class – whether related to the topic under discussion or not?

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition for adults and young people alike. It was on the rise before COVID, but the disruptions of the pandemic, alongside a string of natural disasters, have exacerbated the stresses for many families, in some localities especially.

We are getting feedback via your very valuable post-class reports of some students being triggered by some ethics topics; or children coming into a class upset by previous incidents unrelated to the ethics lesson.

Here are some tips for maintaining ethics as a calm, supportive space for all students in the class, for looking after yourself and for managing specific incidents if they arise.

Prepare: Read, annotate and perhaps rehearse the lesson with your students in mind; think about classroom management in terms of your students’ wellbeing.
Maintain clear class routines and rules and a reliable, supportive, fair teacher persona: The ethics teacher has an important role in creating and maintaining a protective learning environment for every student:
– keep to calm, clear routines and rules (eg set up a routine for how the children enter and leave the space, regularly reinforce the 6 ethics rules)
– use grounding circuit breakers (eg deep breathing for 20 seconds; get them to focus on the external senses, such as ‘find something in the room that is orange’; make time for positive quiet reflection, eg ‘think about something you are looking forward to…’)
Stick to the script and use all the techniques of procedural questioning, with a focus on thoughts and reasoning rather than feelings.
– Eg, invite differences of thinking eg ‘what would be an argument for this?’ This creates a certain distance for the students from any potentially upsetting subject matter and is a valuable aid to self-regulation for them.
Think about your classroom management strategies in terms of the wellbeing of each student.
– Remember not to press any student to share their thoughts – being forced into the spotlight can cause anxiety. It’s fine if they just want to sit and listen.
– Be aware that putdowns can be subtle. Watch for any negative interactions between the students and use your behaviour management techniques to prevent or stop them.
– Again, if you notice heightened feelings, expressed verbally or non-verbally, use circuit breakers to bring the room back towards emotional equilibrium.
Know what to do if a student is explicitly distressed during the lesson.
– Acknowledge their emotion (‘thank you for sharing’ – this calms the amygdala) but don’t invite or press them to go any further.
– Don’t attempt to ‘explore their feelings’ or counsel them.
– Ask them if they want to stay or take a break. Alone or with a friend? Your school may have procedures in place (eg, a pass or time-out cards) which allow students to leave the circle or leave the lesson.
– Make sure that school procedures and any special needs of students in your class have been explained to you.
– Know what the procedure is for informing the classroom teacher, school SEE coordinator or front office staff if no one is in the room with you. If they are in the room, immediately refer a distressed child to them.
Let the Department teacher manage the student’s distress away from the class.
– Don’t take it any further yourself. That isn’t your role.
– Your responsibility is to continue the scripted lesson with the rest of your class – use a circuit breaker to help the others refocus when resuming the lesson, then remember to anchor….
If, based on what a child has said in your class, you suspect they are subject to abuse, you must later report that to the principal, as you have learnt in your Child Protection training with Primary Ethics.
Check in with yourself too – look after your own wellbeing following a difficult incident.
– While maintaining student privacy, you can talk generally to others about your own discomfort or upset.
– Contact our Classroom Support Team (via EVIE) for an empathetic ear and advice for the future.
In the following lesson, don’t refer back to the incident. Don’t draw any attention to the student who was distressed by asking them – or others – how they are this week.