Lt. Col. Mary C. Thornton, CAP
Ethical Instruction
The subject of ethical instruction can be confusing when thinking of it. Just the word instruction is a noun meaning “detailed information telling how something should be done, operated, or assembled.”2 It’s interesting that most people when they get something to assemble will go and try to put things together without reading the instructions first. Now for the word ethical means “relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these.”3 So, in reviewing these two items Ethical Instruction is teaching with helping out to become well-founded in knowing what is right and wrong. This includes knowing one’s rights, knowing when committing to something that there is an obligation to finish and knowing what is fair or otherwise virtues. This paper will be delving into one type of ethical instruction and how it relates to character development. There are three types of ethical instruction and I will be concentrating on the Virtues ethical instruction.
There are three types of ethical instruction and they are Deontological, Utilitarian and Virtues. Below is a description of all three then the balance of the paper will concentrate on the Virtues.
Deontological instruction is basically a ruled type of instruction. I consider this type of instruction to be like following rules set up for an organization, church, schools, local city, state and nation. An example of this would be the Ten Commandments. Another area, some would consider, is health care. This would be you either tell them the truth no matter what they think. This is an area I don’t believe they think there is, what is called, the gray area. In conclusion for Deontological would be if you learn best and live more based on rules then this would be they type of instruction for you to teach by.
The second type of ethical instruction is what is called Utilitarian. Utilitarianism is what people refer to as efforts to maximize the overall good. This type of instruction is based on setting a goal and making a decision that the goal gives the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people. A recent example of this would be the decision of the government to mandate that everyone needs the COVID vaccine. The government mandated this because it would benefit the greater number of people no matter how or what the people believe. As we discussed in the previous class (07-Nov-2022), Utilitarian is what some people call “Group Think”. The rest of this paper will reflect the third ethical instruction and that would be Virtues.
Virtues guides behavior. The best way to describe this type of instruction is let people understand what they think God would consider “Good Behavior”. After explaining what you expect then you need to show them by your actions. If the lesson is on asking someone to help out with a chore, a good role model would put please and afterwards thank you at the end. If you demonstrate this often enough, others will, hopefully, pick up this up and then it becomes automatic. I would consider kindness a virtue and that could be helping out a neighbor, giving a hug if someone needs it and will let you give them one, it could be carrying a set of books when someone is struggling or even calling and letting someone know that they are still loved. I believe that virtues instruction is more an internal dialogue with one self. Reflecting on one self and understanding what values/virtues you believe in will help you better understand your belief system and it will make you a better instructor. In taking a survey of 10 people I asked then what they would consider Virtual instruction. Below are the responses:
- “Virtues Instruction is more demonstrating on what values you want someone to learn”.
- “Virtue’s instruction is teaching about God and how he showed kindness to all.”
- “Showing someone how you want to be treated is based on how you treat others”
- “Others used just one or two words: Kindness, Courage, Willing to show love and Patience”
Leading by example, I believe, is the best way to instruct virtues. I believe that a straight lecture will not let the young children learn about virtues; because learning what is right and wrong isn’t taught straight on lecture. In reviewing how I live my life and teach I believe leading and instructing by example helps young children (and cadets) learn the behavior on what is right and wrong. An example of a virtues would be a lesson of kindness with a sub category of respect. When we came to a lesson, in Character Development, on kindness I got the assistance of both the seniors and a couple of cadets. Before we delved into the instruction of the lesson, we set up a scenario for the cadets. I had two senior members (not in uniform) act like they were the maintenance workers of the building. The senior members came from a different squadron so the cadets were not familiar with them. One cadet threw things on the floor and the other cadet mocked the maintenance workers for their job. Once we were done with the sketch, we talked about what had happened and discussed how does kindness work in this scenario. We also discussed how does that fit into the core values of the Civil Air Patrol. Another discussion was what you knew these people would you treat them the same? After this discussion I had the senior members who were acting as the maintenance works come back in the room; but this time they were in their CAP uniforms. The shocked look on the faces of the cadets’ spokes volumes.
In living by example, it shows young children, cadets and even adults the values you believe in and it might even get people thinking of how they react to certain situations and will change some of their attitudes. In reviewing, if you are living on and showing people what your values are they will have a better understanding of who you are. An example of this would be if you need help with something saying a please before hand and a thank you after you receive the help that is a good demonstration. Below are just some Virtues lessons you could do:
- Trust
- Responsibility
- Humility
- Thoughtfulness
- Tolerance
- Compassion
This is how I try to incorporate the Virtues instruction with every Character Development class. Sometimes it is hard to live this way but keeping faith and doing one’s best is all one can ask from one self.