Ethical Dilemmas...

Ethical Dilemmas...

Sam Bevacqua, Year 11, Plenty Campus

Have you ever pondered an ethical dilemma?  The classic train scenario with a baby on one track and five elderly people on the other? The type of situation where there is not an obviously ‘correct’ choice, and you vacillate between alternating conclusions for hours.  One of the reasons this may happen is that you are facing a decision that has no ideal answers and you are being forced to accept an outcome that is, at its highest, only the least uncomfortable option.  

There are three primary characteristics of an ethical dilemma.  These include

1.       A choice between equally undesirable alternatives.

2.       A choice between different course of possible action; and

3.       Whatever choice you make, an ethical principle is compromised.

This Term, five Year 11 students took part in the Victorian Senior High School Ethics Olympiad. I was fortunate to be part of this team, working and growing with Luke, Sasha, Deanna and Tisya.  We spent over a term collaborating rigorously each week considering and applying our diverse thinking to these questions.

• Do listeners have a moral obligation to stop supporting the K-Pop industry if they know that performers are mistreated?
• To what extent should accuracy to the truth take priority over effective storytelling?
• When do people have obligations to disclose vulnerable information about themselves to their dates after prison time? (For example, mental health issues, difficulties with commitment, addictions, traumatic experiences, having children or financial difficulties)?
• Is it unethical to buy fast fashion clothing? What if fast fashion items are the only brands that one can afford?
• How do we judge whether a show’s depiction of an ethnic or religious minority is ethical? What role do the motives of a show’s creators play in evaluating this ethical conflict?

Coached and mentored by Mrs Brown, we practised creating holistic and ethically sound decisions that both built our capacity to make moral judgements in different areas, and to articulate our ethical positions with respect and clarity. Our weekly preparation sessions were like attending a gym, except for our minds. In short, we trained to become Olympic ‘Eth-letes’ instead of Olympic ‘Athletes! (not my proudest play on words). Closer to competition day we escalated this preparation to a full day session of ethical analysis to prepare for a marathon competition day – and Mrs Brown graciously provided hot jam donuts on the house, which made one of our teammates especially happy 😉! 

Competition day arrived on Friday 7 May.  The Olympiad lasted for a full-day event where we were paired with different schools to respond to the ethical scenarios presented to us.  While this may sound like debating, it is not the same as debating - which we abruptly learned - as we are not assigned a ‘position’ or ‘side’ on a topic.  We review a scenario and, as a team, work through the different courses of possible action and the moral and ethical principles at stake in the scenario before constructing and articulating an agreed upon position on the issues.  

We are provided with scenarios like shock speech, dating after prison, boundaries of creative freedom, minority stereotyping, the ethics of truth and ethical editorialising in documentaries. During the day, we rotated through multiple scenarios and competed against Senior Ethics teams from a diverse range of Victorian schools.

Our team performed extremely well. We benefited from our extensive practice, the naturally diverse range of views within our group, Mrs Brown’s helpful obsession with philosophy, and the focus our school has on developing ethical and global citizens.  In fact - when the outcomes were notified - we discovered we were one of only six Victorian teams to receive an honourable mention from the judges, along with other strong schools including Scotch College.

The Ethics Olympiad is a highly rewarding experience for developing critical thinking, expanding your views on the multifaceted consequences of available choices, and developing a better understanding of the way your ethics and values can function as a guide in almost any situation. 

Finally, the most rewarding experience was enriching and creating new friendships with other ‘Eth-letes’ and on this point alone I highly recommend Ethics Olympiad (occurring every Wednesday lunch) to everyone :) 

The Year 10 Ethics Olympiad

By Samira Scala, Year 10, The Ridgeway Campus

'The Ethics Olympiad cultivates the virtues central to democratic citizenship and prepares students to navigate challenging moral issues in a systematic and open-minded way.'

On Thursday 29 April, we attended an interesting all-day training session where we heard from Dr Matthew Deaton from the University of Texas, Dr Rachel Robinson-Greene from Utah State University and other incredible philosophers. 

Throughout the course of the training day, we learnt about ethical theories such as Utilitarianism and Deontology, which we will implement into our debates and which can also help us to improve our day to day lives. I’m looking forward to the competition and utilising our learning on the training day as well as being able to leave with a newfound understanding of ethics and ethical theories.