Scouting, Volume 99, Number 5, November-December 2011 Page: 18
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ETHICS
What Would Socrates Do?
Help your Scouts learn the difference between good and evil.
Some heavy lifting required.
ANY BODYBUILDER will tell you that
muscles don't grow unless you put
them to work. Lift more weight than
you think is possible, and your muscles
will grow in response. Lift too much,
though, and you could hurt yourself.
Values work the same way. Kids
strengthen morals when they face
ethical decisions in learning environ-
ments. Scouting is a great atmosphere
for testing and teaching values.
An informal conversation around
the campfire can help youth reflect
on and transform the values they live
every day. With a little preparation,
any Scouter can easily lead effective
moral reflections.
It's as easy as 1-2-3, says Dr. Thomas
Lickona, psychologist and director
of the Center for the 4th and 5th R's
(Respect and Responsibility) at the
State University of New York College
at Cortland (cortland.edu/character).
1. Start with a
controversial problem
Instead of a classic ethical dilemma,
say, whether the United States
A
should have used nuclear weapons
during World War II, Dr. Lickona
recommends using a more down-
to-earth moral problem, such as:
"You know that gossiping is wrong,
but you're not going to get on
your soapbox and give other kids a
lecture. So how do you handle the
situation in a way that's cool?"
You'll find discussion starters
in the newspaper every day. Or, ask
Scouts to complete one of these
statements from Dr. Lickona's
book, Educatingfor Character: How
Our Schools Can Teach Respect and
Responsibility:
► I never know how to decide what
to do when ...
► The toughest decision I ever had
to make was ...
► I don't want to lose my friends,
but I disagree with them about...
2. Encourage fruitful friction
Moral reflections work best when
there's what Dr. Lickona calls "fruitful
friction'.' Otherwise, the group might
quickly achieve a consensus without
any mental heavy lifting.
Fortunately, a mix of moral devel-
opment stages (or viewpoints) are all
but assured in a group of varied-age
Scouts from different backgrounds.
3. Ask plenty of questions
Good moral reflection starts with
how well the facilitator asks questions.
According to one study cited in a
Center for the 4th and 5th R's report,
the facilitator's use of Socratic ques-
tioning was "the only teacher behavior
differentiating those classes that
showed significant moral reasoning
development from those that did not."
18
SCOUTING * NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 99, Number 5, November-December 2011, periodical, November 2011; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299176/m1/20/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.