Whenever the word ethics comes up I always immediately begin to think of the part of Billy Madison where Mr. Gordan goes crazy because he can't answer a question about how business ethics are applied in today's society. It may be just because of this movie that the word ethics can be intimidating to me at times. After our class on Thursday I don't think it is as intimidating as I had pictured it to be before, because, I can now see that it isn't just a term used in only the business world. Ethics can be applied in our everyday lives because it is just simply the rules of conduct or a system of morals. Learning the actual definition of ethics really made me understand how common the word is which led it to be more applicable to my life.
I am really glad that we used what we had talked about in regards to ethics and the Hixson program in order to create our pledge for quality service because it will allow us to always have guidelines to help us make our decisions in the future. This pledge will also encourage us to find ways that we can better serve and promote the Hixson name as well as our own. There were many good ideas brought up to be put on this pledge, and those good ideas lead us to think about situations in which our ethics will be tested. Situations such as: being asked to purchase alcohol, pregnancy scares, illegal activities, and even relationships within the sections as well as relationships between mentors or mentors and students.
These are all hard situations to talk about. It does make it easier when we talk about them now in order to help us prepare for what we might need to do if we were to encounter these situations in the future, but at the same time, I don't think that talking through the situations will necessarily prepare us for the actual event. It is easy to talk through a situation but when you are actually placed in it sometimes it is not always easy to sit down, and work through it. In the end when these situations arise in the fall with our students, we will just need to keep in mind our pledge for quality service while trying to make decisions on how to deal with the situation. Along with the pledge, we also need to keep in mind how we are representing the Hixson program, ourselves, and our mentees when trying to make a decision. IN the end I think that working together as a team of 16 that we will be able to achieve and power through whatever situation we encounter, because as a whole we all have great sets of morals, if not, we probably wouldn't be where we are today.
Kudos for being awesome and having standards! :)
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lot to be said about talking about situations before class starts. I noticed you mentioned how you weren't sure that talking about them will actually prepare. I think there is some truth to that. When I first became a CA, we went through a very intense training with scenario practice. I won't say that prepared me because it didn't completely, but it still gets you in the right state of mind. Sometimes knowing about the possibility of something is half the battle. So while I don't know that talking about all of these will perfectly prepare us, I do think it is useful to do.
PS - I loved your closing thoughts in this post. Just remember that and you will be a great peer mentor.
Joshua