ethical dilemmas

                                                                     THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Archer  was facing a dilemma. It was spring term, senior year and he was getting a new car. It doesn’t sound like a dilemma but things weren’t that simple. Archer and his parents had a  great relationship.  He respected them a lot and felt they returned that respect. They had their problems now and then but were always able to listen to each other and talk through those problems. Back during Archer’s sophomore year, his mom and dad told him that if he maintained a B or higher in his classes and followed the rules of the school and the family and never got involved in anything illegal, they would  buy him a car  for graduation. Supposedly Archer had done just that and his proud ...

                                                                THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Kevin is a talented basketball player  whose high school team made it into the playoffs and all the way to the city championship game. As a result, Kevin had to miss his school’s baseball tryouts and a couple of weeks of practice. So, he was grateful when the coach gave him an opportunity to come out for the team anyway. Kevin’s older brother had been on the varsity team for four years, so the coach knew the family and assumed Kevin would follow in his brother’s footsteps. But Kevin had  never played  league baseball before and had no expectation of getting a lot of playing time. Besides, the team already had a solid lineup of experienced players; he would just have to be patient and  earn his position...

                                                        T HE SITUATION (present this to your students) Sam knew something was weird  the second he got to class on Tuesday morning. He saw kids whispering and pointing at him. Some were looking at him funny. He sat down next to his best friend and picked up the graded report the teacher, Mr. Crosby, had graded over the weekend. Sam looked at the ” A-“ and forgot about the rest of the class for a minute. He had worked hard at that report and was thrilled it had paid off. He looked up and saw a bunch of kids  staring at him . While the teacher cleaned up the white board, Sam whispered to Dylan, “ What’s going on?” Dylan, looked down and said quietly, “Conner told everyone you copied your report from the internet.” “  But, that’s a lie! ” Sam said. “I never cheat and everyone knows it.” He ...

                                                             FAIRNESS: Teacher’s Pet This is #6 of an ongoing series of discussion starters from the case files of Charis Denison. The situations presented are very real and are changed monthly. Please try them out with your students and share your results with us. You can find our complete archive of dilemmas  here. THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Lea is a sophomore  in high school and a member of a local theater group in a nearby city. She likes school, but her passion for singing and acting is huge. Lately there has been talk going around that some members have been exempt from auditions for the last few productions. Leah knew in the “real world” that can happen sometimes. Some productions have such huge numbers of applicants and so little time that the mo...

                                                        CLIQUES & BULLYING This is #4 of an ongoing series of discussion starters from the case files of Charis Denison. The situations presented are very real and are changed monthly. Please try them out with your students and share your results with us. You can find the complete archive list  here. THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Julia was in 6th grade  and had been at her school since kindergarten.  Her two best friends were Wendy and Erin. Erin was the most popular girl in the class and all the girls saw her as the leader. One morning Julia arrived at school and Erin was acting weird. When Julia said hi to her, she didn’t respond. She just looked away and smiled at a group of girls in the corner of the classroom. It didn’t take long for Julia to figure out that...

                                                          CHEATING – Who Gets Hurt? This is #3 of an ongoing series of discussion starters from the case files of Charis Denison. The situations presented are very real and are changed monthly. Please try them out with your students and share your results with us. You can find the complete archive list  here. THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Brendan was in third grade when he was caught cheating on his math quiz.  He had been doing poorly in math and his parents had threatened that if he didn’t raise his grades they wouldn’t let him play on the baseball team. So he cheated. When the teacher asked him about it, he denied it at first, but finally admitted to writing down the answers ahead of time. A parent conference was called and Brendan had to sit with his parents, the teac...

                                                              LOYALTY This is #1 of an ongoing series of discussion starters from the case files of Charis Denison. The situations presented are very real and are changed monthly. Please try them out with your students and share your results with us. You can find the complete archive list  here. THE SITUATION (present this to your students) Jeff and his best friend, Steven  go to different high schools. They’ve been friends since third grade, but since Jeff transferred to another school for 10th grade, they’ve started to grow apart. One Saturday, Steven asked Jeff if he would drive him into the nearest city. He didn’t have his license yet and said he thought it would be fun for them to hang out. Jeff felt uncomfortable saying yes because he’d only had his license for six months...