Over the 16 weeks of ethics class, there started to be a shift in my thinking.  I was able to grow in leadership starting with the relationships I built with my colleagues.  I can thank John Maxwell for that.  The principles and insight he shares through his and others’ experiences with leadership have helped to shift my thinking from a leader to a LEADER.  Maxwell’s second law, The Law of Influence, really hit home. I soon started changing my approach to my colleagues. I was using my influence to push for reform in my grade level. Maxwell says in this chapter, “To change the direction of the organization, change the leader”. (Maxwell, 2007, p. 7) This applies in two ways. The first, being the obvious choice is the replace the current leader with someone new.  This works in many cases, but you cannot just replace yourself in the classroom.  Instead, you must change the leader by changing yourself. I discovered that I needed to readjust my thoughts about running my classroom to improve my leadership role in that classroom.   

I also started to rethink some of my ethical ideas. I discovered that I am a mixture of both Utilitarian and Libertarian. I see how Jeremy Bentham’s idea of Utilitarianism makes sense with Sandel’s example of the beggar, “He acknowledges that some beggars would be happier begging than working the poorhouse. But he notes that for every happy and prosperous beggar, there are many miserable ones.” (Sandel, 2010, p. 36) While I agree that some of the wealthiest people are some of the most miserable, I do think that we live in a place that established itself on the pursuit of freedom, and to regulate the peoples’ businesses is to take away that freedom.  So I find myself debating more the topics we have discussed in class as well as looking for new quandaries. 

Resources 

Maxwell, J. C. (2007). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership: Follow them and people will follow you. Nelson Business. 

Sandel, M. J. (2010). Justice: What's the right thing to do? Macmillan.