This morning I made an immoral choice because of the potential legal ramifications.
I was on my normal public transit route to school when my bus broke down about 15 minutes into the ride. Luckily, I called a coworker and was able to hop a ride with her all the way to our building. Unluckily for the student who usually takes the bus with me from Center City is that due to current teacher political issues, we did not offer him a ride. Potentially, if we took charge and brought him with us we could have gotten in trouble for not having parent permission, signatures, etc. We would have been "endangering the health and safety" of a child.
Before I go any further, please note that this students gets to school quite early so all that needed to happen was the next bus to come around and get him to where he normally disembarks. He got to school with time to spare.
But take a moment to analyze the morality of this situation. Due to POLITICS and LEGAL ISSUES, we made the choice NOT to help someone who was in the exact situation that warrants it. I am somewhat ashamed of myself for my actions this morning but I also find myself between a rock and a hard place when these situations occur. If the current system of education is stomping on the creativity of our students by mandating testing in certain subjects and redistributing funding based on it, then at the very least it could provide a moral backbone.
Apparently that's not happening and I am partially to blame for not having a backbone of my own. Education is more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is providing the fabric of understanding for the world around us. We need a better method for doing that.
I was on my normal public transit route to school when my bus broke down about 15 minutes into the ride. Luckily, I called a coworker and was able to hop a ride with her all the way to our building. Unluckily for the student who usually takes the bus with me from Center City is that due to current teacher political issues, we did not offer him a ride. Potentially, if we took charge and brought him with us we could have gotten in trouble for not having parent permission, signatures, etc. We would have been "endangering the health and safety" of a child.
Before I go any further, please note that this students gets to school quite early so all that needed to happen was the next bus to come around and get him to where he normally disembarks. He got to school with time to spare.
But take a moment to analyze the morality of this situation. Due to POLITICS and LEGAL ISSUES, we made the choice NOT to help someone who was in the exact situation that warrants it. I am somewhat ashamed of myself for my actions this morning but I also find myself between a rock and a hard place when these situations occur. If the current system of education is stomping on the creativity of our students by mandating testing in certain subjects and redistributing funding based on it, then at the very least it could provide a moral backbone.
Apparently that's not happening and I am partially to blame for not having a backbone of my own. Education is more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is providing the fabric of understanding for the world around us. We need a better method for doing that.
RSS Feed
