Daily life requires each of us to make decisions. Many of these decisions come with little or no thought, and some of these decisions can conflict with the expectations of others, the laws within our society, school rules, or our own personal values. How we negotiate these choices has an impact on our lifelong wellness, as well as our professional and personal relationships. Today’s world requires many skills, and ethical reasoning is more important than ever.

In Health, Ethics and Current Events, students will create habits and practice the skills needed for ethical reasoning and decision making. Although this experience may be just the beginning of a lifelong reflection and revision of personal ethics, it will likely serve each student well as they navigate and sort through life’s complicated temptations. Each student will clearly determine what is right, what is wrong, what is best, and what the difference is between the three. This course is one of two possible courses that serves as a graduation requirement for seniors.

COURSE PHILOSOPHY

Finding balance in one’s physical, mental, and social wellness is the fundamental foundation for a healthy life. Health Education, in addition to teaching key concepts or knowledge, must also teach a variety of skills students will need to negotiate safely and healthfully to promote lifelong wellness. This knowledge includes the most important and enduring ideas, issues, and concepts related to achieving good health. The skills include how to access reliable information, self-management, identifying internal and external influences and ways to respond to those influences, interpersonal communication skills, goal setting, decision making, and finally, advocating skills for oneself and others about health issues.

Personal and consumer health, mental/emotional health, injury prevention, nutrition and fitness, and substance abuse prevention, sexuality, and environmental health are key units that are targeted throughout the Grade 9-12 program. It is the combination of the knowledge and skills within these key areas which results in health literacy. A Connecticut state mandate requires substance abuse education each year, and HIV/AIDS education on a consistent and on-going basis.

A skills-based program is one that focuses on more than just repeating information. Students are coached so that they can transfer the knowing of information into usable skills. Students are taught how to personalize knowledge, believe it, understand its importance and personal relevance, believe in their own ability to act upon it, and then actually have the skills to act upon that knowledge when necessary. It is through small and large group discussions, role-plays, skits, and values-based activities that students process and internalize information that is presented.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How does a personal code of ethics enhance decision making and lifelong wellness?
• What must one learn to critically evaluate health issues?
• How can past ethical successes and failures help us in the future?
• How can internal/external influences contribute to a personal code of ethics?
• How do you determine valid sources of health information, products, and services and use this information to enhance wellness ethically?
• How does one’s ability to communicate one’s ethics impact overall wellness?
• How do one’s ethics influence one’s ability to advocate for personal, family, and community health?
• What role do ethics play in our personal, regional or global community? (
• How does one successfully integrate living by a personal code of ethics that differs from the personal code of others?
• Where does morality and ethical behavior come from?
• What are the skills and habits that prepare us to make ethical decisions in the face of difficult and tempting life choices?

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• How does a personal code of ethics impact decision making and wellness?
• What is my personal code of ethics?
• What is the difference between the right decision and the best decision?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• describe the most common ethical temptations.
• identify the cultural, familial, and religious influences on our principles.
• summarize the three-step process for creative ethical decision making.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• describe the potential consequences of the most common ethical temptations.
• compare and contrast prudential, legal, and ethical dimensions of action.
• make decisions by applying ethical distinctions.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• interpret the relationship between the three skills needed to make ethical decisions; finding the whole truth, framing issues as relationships, and raising the reciprocity bar.
• examine the distinction between positive versus negative ethics, action-based versus consequence-based ethics, and ethical reasoning versus rationalization.
• create a personal code of ethics.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• assess a variety of personal codes of ethics.
• evaluate case studies using one’s personal code of ethics.
• generate creative alternatives to resolve dilemmas.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What are the arguments for and against lying, deception, cheating, stealing, harming, and breaking promises in a school setting?
• To what extent do lying, deception, cheating, stealing, harming, and breaking promises have an affect on personal and academic wellness?
• What is the impact of academic and athletic cheating on an individual and a school community?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• identify examples of lying, deception, cheating, harming, or stealing on campus.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• describe how the domino argument applies to lying, deception, cheating, harming, and stealing.
• summarize the motivating factors for why people lie, deceive, cheat, harm, or steal.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• predict the possible consequences for lying, deceiving, cheating, harming, and stealing on both personal and academic wellness.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• defend a personal decision for or against lying, deceiving, cheating, harming, and stealing.
• apply a personal code of ethics to situations involving lying, deceiving, cheating, harming, and stealing.
• evaluate the Academic Integrity Policy for Ridgefield High School.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• To what extent do companies have the right to modify foods for our consumption?
• What are the arguments for and against the use and exploitation of the natural environment ?
• What personal role do we all have in the environmental wellness of our planet?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• describe the most common environmental ethical issues.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• describe the pros and cons for using animals for food, hunting for body parts, or for use in scientific experimentation.
• compare and contrast the effect of a vegan diet’s impact on our planet to that of a meat eating diet.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• examine the influences in our society and on our planet that are behind the exploitation of our natural resources and endangerment/extinction of animal species. Summarize the concept of sustainability and how it applies to our food and natural resources.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• assess the consequences of our current use of natural resources.
• evaluate your personal habits and how they help/harm our environment.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What is the appropriate balance between corporate and personal responsibility in the creation, advertising, sale, and use of both medical and non-medical drugs?
• What are the present laws in our country pertaining to drug testing, drug use, and social hosting?
• What impact does drug use and one’s personal code of ethics have on the other?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• describe how our society is impacted by both legal and illegal drug use.
• identify the brain differences between adults and adolescents in regard to drug use.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• describe the pros and cons of Connecticut laws surrounding the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
• compare and contrast our society’s laws regarding drugs to those of another country.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• examine the influences in our society that promote illegal use of drugs.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• assess the consequences of drug use on our health care system.
• evaluate your personal ethics about profiting from legal and/or illegal drugs in our society.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What does the term Bioethics mean, and what areas and issues does it cover?
• What are the rights and obligations of health care professionals, patients, their families, and the government?
• What are the ethical issues surrounding organ transplant, euthanasia, stem-cell research, cloning, and medical experimentation?
• What are the ethical aspects of allowing someone to die, mercy death, physician assisted suicide, and mercy killing?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• describe the Paternalism, Radical Individualism, and the Reciprocal views of what the relationship between health care professionals and patients and their families should be.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• explain the difference between Allowing Someone to Die, Mercy Death, and Mercy Killing.
• identify the pros and cons for stem cell research, organ transplant, and human experimentation.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• summarize the aspects of the Hospice approach to the dying individual.
• take a perspective on confidentiality in patient-doctor relationships and guilt and innocence in treating patients.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• evaluate the ethics involved in allowing someone to die, mercy death, and mercy killing.
• judge our current laws on stem cell research and other controversial treatments.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• How does a society’s beliefs about marriage, adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, prostitution, abortion, and pornography influence a person within that society?
• How does one’s personal choices surrounding marriage, adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, prostitution, abortion, and pornography influence one’s personal and lifelong wellness?
• What are the arguments for and against sexual freedoms, and how do those arguments compare with your personal code of ethics?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• summarize the purposes of human sexual activity.
• identify the societal influences on sexual morals within a variety of cultures.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• distinguish between the rights of the individual and the rights of society when considering sexual freedoms.
• compare and contrast the pros and cons of legalized pornography and prostitution.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• examine the connection between prostitution, crime, and social diseases.
• summarize the arguments for and against premarital sex.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• assess our current laws around same sex marriage, prostitution, abortion, and pornography.
• evaluate the ethics involved in a real-life sexual scandal in current events.
• judge alternatives to abortion.

Note: Parents may request exemptions for their students from the Human Sexuality Unit. Students will be given an alternate Health research assignment.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What are the rights and obligations for business people, employers, employees, consumers, and the government?
• How does discrimination, reverse discrimination, affirmative action, and sexual harassment impact the working world?
• What guidelines are necessary for ethically proper advertising?
• How can the public’s right to know versus an individual’s right to privacy be balanced in ethical journalism?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING The student will . . .

• summarize the general meaning of business and media ethics.
• identify the ethical issues in advertising, business, and media.

DEVELOPING AN INTERPRETATION The student will . . .

• distinguish between the philosophy of consumer beware versus corporate responsibility in advertising.

MAKING CONNECTIONS The student will . . .

• examine how rights, obligations, justice, truth telling, and honesty apply to business ethics.
• describe the cause and effect between events of our past and our current laws on affirmative action, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

EXAMINING THE CONTENT The student will . . .

• assess the impact of unethical behavior within business or the media on our society.
• evaluate the impact of the media and how the media affects our lives and our wellness.