What Kind of Values does Today’s Teachers Must Have? Part 9

Fairness is our fourth ethical core value of trustworthiness and it is a tricky concept.  When people tend to disagree, they feel that there is only one fair position-their own.  However, while some situations and decisions are clearly unfair, fairness usually has an ethical thought that has a morally justifiable outcome rather than just a discovery of one fair answer.

Example: If you knew a woman who was pregnant and she had 8 children already which three were deaf, two blind, and one mentally retarded and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion from her pregnancy?

Immediately, you will make a choice.  It was probably a fair answer and that choice was made from within you with your belief!   Others also will have their fair answer and their belief.  So we have one person with their belief and a second person will their belief, they may conflict with each other.  Yes, it is tricky concept because people tend to disagree.

How did we get to sort out this decision?  We had a process of gathering and evaluating the information necessary to make a decision.  We needed to be open-minded and unbiased.  We did not wait for the truth to come out because we already had that belief instilled in us earlier in life to make that decision.   We were not thinking about the conflicts that may result out of this.

Our decision needed impartiality.   That is without favoritism or prejudice in our decision.  It also needed equity involved by not taking advantage of other people’s weaknesses or ignorance’s.

By the way, if you said, “yes” to the example above, then you just killed Beethoven!

Trustworthiness has a fifth ethical core value!  Find out next week!

Get caught up with the other eight parts by going to musicwithbill.com