Get Ur Ethic On

Raise your virtual hand if you love being ethical. I love thinking about ethics so much that I flew all the way to North Carolina to continue talking about ethically concerning issues. I'm part of the Ethics Bowl team at my school, which, and I mean to brag (jk), is the only nationally recognized team at our school. Ha! We've discussed topics such as genetic modification and terminating pregnancies based on abnormalities, the BDS Movement in Israel, believing in your friends, the social credit system in China, cultural appropriation (my favorite!), and adopting dogs. I absolutely love talking about things that concern ethics. On that note...

What are ethics? What are all those random terms that use "ethics" in them? Bioethics, food ethics, money ethics (yes that one's made up). Here's the dictionary definition: ethics are "moral principles that govern a person's behavior." So if I were to lie to a dementia patient or try to take advantage of them, I'd consult my moral code and act accordingly. Make sense? When deciding for yourself what is right or wrong, you get to disregard legality. Isn't that what everybody wants. Many western philosophers developed ideologies to generalize different ways of coming to an ethical conclusion (you decide if that's a good or bad thing). There's consequentialism, restorative justice, and, shout out to my ethics ballers there's divine command theory! Look it up. And that is your philosophy crash course. If you're interested in properly learning about philosophy, take a look at Hank Green's actual Philosophy Crash Course on YouTube. I recommend.

Our ride to the hotel was certainly interesting. Pouring rain, and the taxi driver used the windsheild wipers every ten seconds! On top of talking to someone on the phone. I'll refrain from complaining any longer.

The competition at the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC Chapel Hill was soooo fun and the perfect opportunity to look at UNC. When I went there I had no interest in applying, but I recently found their School of the Arts is one of the good ones. Might I also add, the trip was free! That never happens at our school. The guilt of a travel packed April is GONE.

The trip kicked off with a banquet for the directors and organizers to say a few words  to empower all these young minds. And it worked. I felt a little more ready after feeling not really ready at all. Our team had prepared practically the week before the competition and my friends and I were working pretty darn hard trying to put a document together that could fully elaborate on our stances. I even worked on the document in our hotel room the NIGHT BEFORE the competition, googling what exactly the BDS movement entailed. Despite scavenging for additional bits of information, I was going to relax. As my history teacher says, go for the experience, not for the outcome. We lost all the rounds we were in 😕. That mindset certainly helped us, no sarcasm intended.

Ignore the completely out-of-place name tag

There was this one round that I felt we should have won (sore loser talk). One of the cases we had to argue was whether or not there should be a simulated micro economy in elementary and middle school classrooms, where students earn money when they work hard and lose money when they don't. At some point, if you don't do your homework, and you don't have money to pay the rent for your desk, you become "homeless" and sit on the floor. The ethical concern is, how will this affect students who live in low income families or could be otherwise homeless?

Think about it...

The campus is so pretty! And is PACKED with pollen!

Our team suggested the system is beneficial because there is no put-in-place system in which wealthier kids inherit wealth and poorer kids inherit poverty. Everyone starts at the same base. Each child is delegated some sort of job in the classroom, whether its the board eraser or the line leader. Each kid has a responsibility and a part in the classroom. The classroom is a sanctuary for students with tough lives at home and implementing this system would ultimately prove to them that they are capable of doing whatever they want if they work hard. Not teaching kids of all socioeconomic backgrounds about the micro economy would in fact be a disservice. There is of course the problem of bullying when a child is "homeless", but bullying is a byproduct of school, not just this system, and that will be addressed regardless.

While it might be difficult for some kids, many topics are hard to learn; slavery for instance, but it needs to be taught, to keep the youth informed.

The other team opposed our stance and implied that poorer kids have no chance of doing well in school or being successful in life because their poor. I was surprised the judges didn't address that. I can feel the bias flowing through me as I write about the other team. That was one of my favorite cases to argue and it brings up a lot of questions about what schools can do to teach kids about spending and managing money, especially in a simulated environment. Many young adults look back and wish they knew more about how money worked before entering the real world.

Came across this in one of the school bookstores

Anyway that's one of my competition memories. Exploring Chapel Hill was fun; it's a very "collegey" town. We ate a restaurant called the Mellow Mushroom. Can you guess why that's what it's called? And we visited some school stores and we might have gone down the occasional ally. There was also a point where some of the ethics ballers (our nickname btw) rented some UNC Chapel Hill bikes, kind of like Lime Bikes, but not. There were some mishaps. But overall, such a great trip; returning was bitter-sweet (we had to go back to school on that EXACT day). Thanks again to my team for being so fun to be around and talk to! A good luck seniors with the next stage of your life!

Remember to be ETHICAL AT ALL TIMES!