Compassion

Journal 3-1

I. 
               Last week I was very curious about the number of people who thought that cheating was ethical. I wondered if there were any surveys or statistics to prove it? After much research, the answers have been found!

               According to a Washington Post survey, 64% of high school students said they cheated, and  93% of these said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character. A Rutgers University found in a survey of 4,500 high school students that more than half of students admitted to plagiarizing materials from the internet, 74% admitted they had cheated on exams or tests, and 97 % admitted to cheating on homework. In surveying faculty, they found almost 90 percent reported being aware of cheating occurring in their classroom, but almost one-third said they did nothing about it.

II. 
                This week in Ethic's Class, we discussed a variety of topics surrounding the "greater good". We spent some time studying the ethics of compassion, and we saw two different view points on the subject. Also, we learned about the "Prisoner's Dilemma" and played a game to showcase how events would turn out. All in all, it was a very interesting week.

                For the majority of the week, we talked about compassion. Compassion can be defined as a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. We viewed two different TED talks this week discussing this, and I thought they were both very interesting. One idea that was proposed was a "Charter for Compassion". The Charter has very good intentions; it tries to achieve peace for all people and between all religions. I do feel that it is a little unrealistic. It would be very near impossible to get all people to sign it and agree to admit wrong and promise to obey the Charter. Also we talked about the evolution of compassion by watching another TED talk. Personally, I thought that this talk was very hard to absorb and understand. I do think that the views presented were different and interesting, but I agree more with the Charter than the science.

                At the end of this week we also dicussed the "Prisoner's Dilemma", but we didn't really get a chance to discuss it thoroughly. I thought it was very interesting how everyone answered their questions. In real life, if I was being questioned by police, I would definitely cooperate with them, probably because I would be scared out of my mind.  In the game though, I decided to stay true to my partner in crime. In the end, we actually had the highest scores out of the class! By sacrificing some points to allow both to prosper, we both ended up winning in the end. I think that this situation would not work out in real life, because when criminal's lives are in danger, they do not think of others before themselves.

III. 
                 After talking about the "Prisoner's Dilemma" , I am very curious about the results. When it was studied, what were the results? Did people choose the same way that my group did?

Please stay tuned for the answer next week!

Sources

Boenisch, D. (2008, December 1). Is cheating ethical?. Retrieved from http://schoolhousetalk.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/is-cheating-ethical/ 


Clowes, G. (2004, February 1). Survey results: student attitudes towards cheating. Retrieved from http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/14378/Survey_Results_Student_Attitudes_Towards_Cheating.html

Compassion. (2011, January 31). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/compassion

King, M. (2010, October 5). Teachers, tests and cheating: where do we draw the line?. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200907/r399704_3044132.jpg 

The charter for compassion. (2011, January 31). Retrieved from http://signsofthelastdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/The-Charter-For-Compassion-One-World-Religion1.jpg

The structure of social networks. (2011, January 31). Retrieved from http://epress.anu.edu.au/cs/chap5Newth-final-10.jpg

To cheat, or not to cheat...

Journal 2-5

I. 
               Since last week's Blog did not have a question, there will not be an answer this week.

II. 
               This past week in Ethic's class, we continued our discussion of the new face of leadership. We also started our unit with case studies about cheating and rules. All in all, it was a very interesting, as well as enlightening, week!

               My favorite, and most interesting, part of the week was when we discussed the ethics of cheating. Ever since I was very young, I have had the ideas of "cheating is wrong" and "cheaters never win" permanently ingrained into my head. I still feel this way, but I was very interested to see that some people in the class did not! Some students were trying to justify it by saying that it was okay since everyone involved knew what they were getting in to. Personally, I do not feel that this is an excuse! Cheating is cheating is cheating. It does not matter whether it is a homework assignment, a quiz, a test, or exam; cheating is always wrong. It denies the leaner the chance to learn, and it mentally degrades them. It hurts the rest of the class and teacher as well. If there are any grade curves, the cheater's grades will throw them off. Also the teacher will get a false sense of how the class is doing. All in all, cheating has no benefits. It is bad for everyone!

               In class, someone mentioned that cheating was justified because the people involved knew the consequences and accepted them. We did not really get a chance to fully discuss this, and everyone did not get a chance to answer. As mentioned before, I feel that cheating is very wrong and unethical. If someone knows the consequences of their actions, they would realize that it is wrong! An example of this would be murder. Murderers know that it is wrong and understand the consequences, but these facts do not make it right! Another example would be the use of enhancing steroids in sports. The athletes know the numerous amount of consequences involved in their use, but this absolutely does not make it ethical! This list could go on and on! Just because someone knows the consequences of a horrible action does not justify it.

III.
               Since the ethics of cheating was a big part of last weeks class, I was wondering how many people actually think cheating is ethical? What are the statistics?


Please stay tuned for the answer next week!

Sources:

A rule of thumb for scientific papers?. (2009, March 16). Retrieved from http://startswithabang.com/?p=1638
  
Cheating. (2011, January 22). Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/cheating.html 

Hoffman, Dave. (2010, July 21). Could you cheat on an open-book issue spotter?. Retrieved from http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2010/07/could-you-cheat-on-an-open-book-issue-spotter.html
 
What’s wrong with cheating?. (2008, March 12). Retrieved from http://grizzlymedia.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/whats-wrong-with-cheating/

Change

Journal 2-4
 
 I.
            Several weeks ago I was very curious about the effectiveness of commercials. Historically, the most effective commercials have been ones that are simple, straight forward, and either have a touch of humor or discuss making the world a better place. Despite the hundreds of commercials viewed everyday, a very small number actually cause consumers to buy their product.


II.
               This past week in Ethic's class, we have spent a lot of time watching the mid-term documentaries and discussing the techniques used in all of them. Also we have spent time talking about a "new face of Leadership", and what we would change in the future.

               Probably my favorite part of the week was watching the documentaries. I loved seeing all of the different topics and finished products. I thought it was every interesting to see the variety and similarity of the topics. I thought all of the documentaries could be divided up into two different kinds: either a tribute or informational. Within these two topics, the documentaries could be divided up between funny and serious, as well as ethical and unethical. I felt that the tributes tended to be the more ethical ones, and the funny ones tended to be more unethical. While watching the documentaries, I was actually surprised at how well made most of the documentaries were! Most of them, with a little more editing and a viewing audience, could actually be made into real documentaries. I also thought that you could see how much time and effort a group put into their documentary by viewing their finished product. There were some that the viewers could tell had been thrown together last minute, while others had taken hours upon hours creating their's. All in all, I thought that the documentaries were great learning experiences that have taught the class a lot.

               
               Toward the end of the week, the class discussed the "new face of leadership". I thought that our in- class discussion was very interesting. I felt that it was very good to get new ideas out, because no matter how wonderful something is, it has to change over time. I thought that the class brought up many great ideas that could make the Leadership Center stronger. I do think that our discussion got a little heated when the center of attention turned towards the Leadership Council. I thought that the Council got very defensive and tried to throw down anything said after that. This was very interesting to watch. I thought some people's true characters came out that day. In my personal opinion, I feel that two major things need to be changed. One being the Council. I feel that the Council should practice better communication skills and be less seclusive. I feel that students that are not in the Council see more flaws, or areas for improvement, in the Leadership Program, and I feel that it would be best to look toward the basic Leadership population to get new ideas. Another area for improvement, which I mentioned in class, would be to give the Leadership Center "more meaning". This may sound harsh, but I by this I mean the following: to give the center more name recognition, more "meaningful" community service, and to make it more of a powerful community force that changes lives.
All in all, I feel that right now, the Leadership Center provides many opportunities to many students. I do feel though that some changes could be made to enhance the Center.

Sources

Documentary guy. (2011, January 17). Retrieved from http://twitter.com 


Leadership and other ramblings. (2011, January 17). Retrieved from http://leadershipramblings.blogspot.com 


Tart, Nick. (2009, August 15). Top 5 most effective commercial series on tv in 2009. Retrieved from http://juniorbiz.com/effective-tv-commercials

The center for leadership and international relations. (2011, January 17). Retrieved from http://web.me.com/sarah_mansfield/Leadership/Welcome.html