Moral Decisions

I would like to begin this topic by recalling an incident that occurred in my 2nd grade classroom, when one of my students stole a “toy” tablet from his classmate and I happen to witness him snatch it from her backpack during recess. His actions got me so conflicted and I wasn’t confident in what to do next. I literally went to my desk and sorted the incident out, my decision was to first and foremost confront him and let him know what I saw. I wanted to see whether he would deny or admit to it, before searching his backpack. Luckily, he admitted to it and gave me his reasoning, which was simply “I really want one and my parents say I can’t have one.” I asked him to return the toy back before his classmate came back from recess and discussed why his actions were wrong and that stealing is not a solution. Next, as a consequence to his action I asked him to stay in from recess the next day and write a letter to his parents, explaining why he needed this toy by listing his reasons and persuade them to purchase one. Then, to write a letter to his classmate asking her,if she would consider setting up a play date where they can play together and take turns using the tablet. 

Taking decisions in a educational setting affects and reflects on all the parties involved, primarily on the students, parents, and administrators. Dolgin generalizes that most adolescents and adults tend to rely on heuristics also known as the rules of thumb, or general strategies and principals usually set by society (p.135) However, it really important that teachers model for their students how proper and effective decision making happens. Students need to be aware not to act on things off of a whim but instead to go through the process to make appropriate decisions. Dolgin defines good decision making to be “a complicated process involving information search and processing to understand available options, as well as problem solving to find novel, or creative solutions. (p.134)” Also, according to Ross (1981), good decision makers must master 5 essential skills (p.134):

1. identifying alternate courses of action
2. identifying appropriate criteria for considering alternatives
3. assessing alternatives by criteria
4. summarizing information about alternatives
5. evaluating the outcome of the decision making process

These were the skills used to take the best decision I could with my students’ incidents. These skills are necessary to be taught in our classroom as they lay a foundation for many of the thought processes that students go through on a daily basis. However, we should not forget that good decision making must also be paired with a mature identity. According to James Marcia, a mature identity can only be attained when one undergoes crises and makes commitments. He categorizes identities into 4 statuses: diffused, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achieved. We learn that our objective as teachers is to help students in achieving their identities by defining their crises and develop strategies to handle them and commit to the decisions they agree upon (p.158). In the essay “Showing my Faith on the Outside” I would confidently place the 6th grade girl under identity achieved as her decision to wear the hijab was not made haphazardly and was based on her beliefs and exercising her faith; this shows a great deal of maturity and independence as well as a sign of effective decision making. Finally, we as teachers should recognize the importance of including topics such as decision making and identity formation in our curriculums in order to keep our adolescents on the right track and help them evolve.