After reviewing the PBS Frontline documentary, A Class Divided, Professor Stephen Ambra led a class discussion on bigotry and intolerance. However, it was a conversation I had at the break with one of the students that led to a special written assignment. Sitting in the back of the room, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion, this student confided that the subject of...

One of the aspects that comes from walking into a class of total strangers for the first time is expectations. I expect that because most of them are young, that they have relatively normal lives absent any grave or impactful issues. I could not be more wrong. The level of candor reflected in most papers was not only unexpected but demonstrated a...

The New Hampshire Technical Institute is a small community college tucked into the historic town of Concord. NHTI is also the home of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center – a remarkable resource for both students and visitors. This is the third year I have had the opportunity to co-teachContemporary Ethical Issues with Professor Stephen Ambra. The intensive class runs seven hours a day for five...

Apology and Forgiveness, Rights vs. Responsibilities, Television and Responsibility, Confirmation Bias, Justice vs. Compassion, Freedom vs. Responsibility, Ethics vs. Morality, Us vs. Them — those were just some of the issues discussed on this site over the last year. Some of the questions raised: The Best Man?, Do Facts Matter?, Is Honesty the Best Policy?, Good for the Soul?, Is...

There will always be senseless acts of violence in a free society, but… …when will we develop the social consciousness that says, we will not allow tragedies like Newtown, Connecticut to happen again and again? When will we act like the adults and parents we want our kids to be? When will we demonstrate the fundamental respect for each individual,...

I realized that in today’s fast-paced, scandal-driven, ADD-addicted, multi-platform media age, everybody offers awards but me! No longer. Owing to the ‘true’ American spirit of our fast-paced, yada, yada, yada age, I hereby offer The (First Annual?) Ethics Stupid Turkey Awards. Honorable mention: * Rudy the Parrot. C’mon folks, are we really that desperate to “Find out what’s happening,  » Read more about: The Turkeys are Here!...

Spoiler Alert: The following commentary contains absolutely NO shameful or shocking ethics scandals! Every day, we open newspapers, (on iPads, Kindles, etc.) to read, principally, bad news. Cable channels assault us with every angle on all manner of fraud, corruption, deceit, bribery, and the old reliable, sex scandal. But good news is out there. The Ethisphere Institute is an international think-tank based in New York whose...

Fifty years ago, I came to Mr. Freeman’s freshman Algebra class struggling to understand little x’s and y’s. The Cuban Missile Crisis came into all of our living rooms at a time when the term “Special Bulletin” meant something more significant than “Breaking News.” For thirteen days, two nations stood on the verge of nuclear war and while I was...

Who knew the legendary star of screen and Republican conventions was into the great ethical conundrums of the universe! In the years that Dr. Sara Anson Vaux taught religion at Northwestern University, never once did she consider that underneath Clint Eastwood’s gruff veneer was… a gruffer layer, but… underneath that was the heart of “…an ethicist, a theologian even.” Vaux recently published a...

Some students today are getting so good at rationalizing it’s scary. “You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.” “When it came to French class, where the teacher had literally taught me nothing all year, and during the final the students around me were openly discussing the answers,...