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What Kind of Values does Today’s Teachers Must Have? Part 5

little piano playerIt is amazing to know another part of trustworthiness is “reliability.”

Reliability is when we make promises or commitments to people and even children that our ethical duties can go beyond legal obligations.  Have you ever promised a child something but never kept it and later that child still remembers that promise?   We certainly want to fulfill that responsibility for that child.  The child has ear-marked you as a teacher of reliability and depends on you!  This ethical dimension of promise keeping is important to carry out at making all reasonable efforts to fulfill our commitments.  It is also important to:

  • Avoid bad-faith excuses — be careful not to create justifications for escaping that promise!  You are a role model for children and others!
  • Avoid unwise commitments — Before making a promise to a child or others, consider carefully whether you are willing and likely to keep it.  Think about what may happen in the future for that promise or if it can lead to a difficult and undesirable commitment.  Sometimes, all we can do is promise to do our best.
  • Avoid unclear commitments — Since others will expect you to live up to what they think you have promised to do, be sure that, when you make a promise, the other person or child understands what you are committing to do.

What happened to Grace or Larry’s situations in part 4?

How would you solve Pete’s Scenario?

Betty is a unit supervisor in a mixed family safety district office.  Pete is a family service counselor in this unit and has been with the department for 1 year.  In this time, Betty has had many instances where she has not been satisfied with Pete’s performance.  Betty has decided that Pete’s lack of professionalism, sloppy work, and negative attitude are putting the Department and client families at risk.  She has followed all of the Department’s human resource procedures and is ready to begin proceedings to terminate Pete. When Betty makes her intentions to act known to her immediate supervisor, he tells her he will not support her decision to terminate Pete.  His feeling is that a warm body is better than no body in this time of high turnover.

Question: What is the right decision with Betty?

Part 6 is on Loyalty!

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