>> I worked in a restaurant where they served veal.
And just personally, to me, that was so wrong.
I was a waitress, and I couldn't do it.
It was my job. I was being paid to serve veal.
For some reason, I just didn't want to do it.
I couldn't do it.
I wanted to tell people we were out.
I had to quit. I couldn't work there, so I had to get a different job.
For some reason, that's a big issue to me.
I think everybody has certain ethical dilemmas or beliefs, maybe not as prominent,
but I think they'll do anything to act upon those beliefs.
>> When I see people cheat in my class, I am shocked by that because for me,
I'm a hardworking person, who does my best, does my work, doesn't cheat, asks for help when I need it.
Then, when I see them cheat,
I'm like, that's totally wrong, because I did all this hard work to get this grade.
And somebody who didn't do anything and cheated got a better grade than I did.
>> Nowadays, a lot of people, at least young people, they don't have the ethics that were taught 40 years ago.
>>We carry the same ethics as we were taught, but since society tolerates more, we tolerate more and our morals kind of drop.
That'll probably continue to happen from generation to generation.
>> I think I'm a normal person. Sometimes I lie. Sometimes I don't.
Like everyone, I do bad stuff, you know. I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect.
>> I believe the subject of ethics has been made a bit too complicated.
I view it very simply.
Ethics is what you do when nobody's looking.
It's what you do when you're by yourself.
It's what you say to yourself in the mirror when you look at yourself in the morning.
>> Knowing the difference between right and wrong,
whether you call it ethics, values, morals, character or scruples,
teens these days face some tough choices.
In fact, a recent study shows that more than half of the high school students surveyed believe that
a person has to lie or cheat in order to succeed.
At the same time, those same students unanimously agree that ethics and character are very important.
>> Ethics is not a coat you take on and put off.
When I say that, I mean that it has to be there all the time,
you can never walk away from ethics.
You can never play the game today and then not tomorrow.
>> If ethics were a coat you take on and off, it would just be a lie.
It would just be eye service for everyone else, everyone that sees you.
Ethics has to be something you do every day.
It has to be what guides your decisions.
Ethics is, hopefully, a coat you wear all the time.
>> As a teenager, I think you strive to be liked and to be popular, so I think
sometimes they get pushed on the back burner, because you fall into peer pressure.
And you want to do what everybody else does,
so that they like you, and you become popular and everybody else likes you.
So, you don't tend to care what's right or wrong.
>> Nobody's perfect. But I think that initially,
once you make the decision to be the best person you can be and to make right decisions,
I think that ethics play a very large role in the daily decisions you make as well as just monumental decisions.
>> Simply because you can do something, and maybe get away with it, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do
and that you succumb to whatever outside pressures there are.
>> I guess the saying that comes to mind is "Actions speak louder than words."
I think that if you're saying that you believe something,
and maybe people around you know how you stand on a certain issue,
and then you go and act another way.
Like say you tell everyone, "I don't drink. I don't believe in that."
Yet, you do sometimes go to the parties, and you do get involved in the drinking crowd.
I think it somewhat makes you sort of a hypocrite,
because you're saying one thing and acting another way.
>> So, right is acting on your core values, and wrong is the failure to act on those core values or to uphold them.
We talk about that as being a little bit easier to figure out than right versus right.
When we talk about right versus right,
we're talking about two of those core values that are coming into conflict.
So, it's a different, a more complex and difficult decision,
because both sides are right and you have to find your way through that.
>> Ethics, to me, is a foundation on what you base all your decisions
and all your choices that you make in your life.
Every choice I make, goes through a filtering process of ethics, of morals, of values that I stand firm on.
It starts with integrity.
>> When I talk to young people, I suggest to them one thing.
Again, it's certainly not an original thought,
but it is that they have to be true to themselves.
That once you start to slip down the slippery slope of compromised ethics,
I tell them there's no coming back up that slope.
>> I see kids who are involved in neglect or abuse situations.
Those are the types of cases I see as a juvenile court judge.
Morality, ethics. How does that play into what I see?
Unfortunately, it's pretty void of morality, ethics.
>> Short-term gains don't get you anything.
As a business man, if you lie to me now, or if you treat me without ethics,
I won't do business with you again.
Because, I need to know that I can trust you.
I need to know at the end of the day that what you tell me is true.
>> Aristotle said, which is, "Virtues are not mere thoughts, they're habits."
We're trying to develop the habit of thinking critically and morally,
whenever you have the opportunity and you have to make a decision.
So, that's why we do workshops, because we're trying to set up opportunities
for kids and adults to start thinking ethically and practicing ethical decision making.
>> I know what I'm doing right and wrong.
Sometimes, you feel when something is wrong.
Like, you do something bad to somebody else.
You know, you hurt their feelings.
So, you know it's wrong.
>> I think telling right from wrong is basically
trying to figure out whether the values that you believe in are being upheld or not.
But, for all of us, there's sometimes those gray areas
where we're not sure, if we're about to do is right or wrong.
So, these are tests that particularly help younger people to focus in on
whether the choice I'm about to make is a good idea.
So, we use a legal test, because we want kids to check,
"Now, am I going to end up going to jail for this?
Am I taking into account the consequences?"
We would never use that as the only test.
Particularly, given that a lot of social progress has been made by people
pushing back against rules that were in place and were not fair.
The gut feeling test is very interesting.
We can hear a lot from kids about that.
They'll say, "Gee, I couldn't sleep at night. I was breaking out in a sweat.
My knees were shaking. I was feeling sick to my stomach,
but I went ahead and did it anyway because everyone else was doing it."
>> I remember it was a history test.
And I had planned to cheat. I had prepared myself to cheat.
But as I was thinking about pulling out the piece of paper,
sweat started to build up on my head. Beads were falling on the paper in front of me.
I never pulled that cheat sheet out, because there were a lot of factors going on
that said to me, "You don't do this."
>> The front page test is one of my favorites, because it helps kids to defend their point of view.
The test goes, if the choice I'm about to make comes out in the newspaper tomorrow, will I be able to defend it?
>> Honesty and ethics are not complex subjects.
I use a simple test all the time. It's the "Grandma" test.
Which is, would my grandmother approve of this behavior?
I think that, again, we'll all be put in situations where we have to think about what is the correct thing to do.
But if you use the grandma test, I think you'll more than likely do the right thing.
>> I would know that I'm not ethical if my grandparents, especially my grandfather would say,
"Ashley, that's not the right thing to be doing."
>> And finally, the role model test is, you know,
if you are lucky enough to have somebody in your life who you really can trust to be an ethical person,
then you just ask, "is that person likely to do what I'm about to do?
I like to tell parents and remind teachers,
"You could be the primary role model in those kids lives.
Never underestimate your power to set a good example."
>> I believe that everything that you do should go through a filtering system of moral integrity,
in how you look at yourself at the end of the day.
Did I do the very best job I can?
I think, sometimes in society today--
To me, a win--I tell a player a win is doing the very best you can every chance you get.
To me, that's a win.
>> Often, teens are torn between doing the right thing or cheating to succeed.
Staying tight with their friends or pleasing their parents no matter the cost.
In a recent study, the Josephson Institute of Ethics found that during the past year...
>> There's a lot more pressure on us than there was for our parents.
It seems like it's a lot harder to get into colleges.
I think it almost divides friendships, a lot of times.
>> It's an easier way out. People always go for the easier way out.
Cheating is it, or plagiarizing, or anything like that.
Whatever's easier at a certain time. They don't think about the future.
It's all in the present time. What's going on now?
What do I want to do now? How is this going to help me now?
>> Well, my family, we came from Thailand. When we first started out here,we were pretty much low income.
And my parents have taught me that through hard work, you could rise up through the American dream
to the middle class, or even higher.
I guess, they just taught me that hard work can get you where you want to go.
But, you get jaded in school, because you see some kids,
they cheat their way through everything, and they still,like, they get higher than you by cheating.
So, you're at a moral crossroad.
Should you keep going straight and follow what you've been taught?
Or, should you cheat and go the easier way?
>> Cheating's gotten so common that, a lot of times, we don't even know when we're cheating.
Let's say, we have a test at school and we take it first hour,
and we share what the questions are on the test with someone that's taking it seventh hour.
We're really telling them what is the test knowledge, that we did not know before we did it.
So, in fact, we're helping them cheat and we don't even know it.
>> So, people in society think,"I need to cheat so I can do better than the people who are cheating."
Like, you have to cheat to keep up with the people who are cheating.
>> It bothers me, because you know you work hard for something you really want,
and then you see your dreams just vanish when you see somebody, like, is cheating.
You know, maybe they have the same goals, but they go for, like, the easier way to find them.
I don't think it's fair.
>> Cheating, whereas you're copying other people's homework, has become so, like,
an everyday thing that people don't even consider it cheating anymore.
>> Like for me, I don't like working in group projects,
or anything, because I always end up doing most of the work.
To me, I feel like they're freeloading, cheating off me, and using my ideas.
>> Just so many Web sites, that it's so easy to copy and paste, and take credit for what's not yours.
>> I feel really bad for the people who did their best,
but they didn't get as good a grade as the people who cheated.
For those people who cheated, I feel really sorry for them, because they're going to have
a future where they don't get to cheat.
And if they do cheat, they're going to get caught.
Once they get caught, it's the end of everything, and they start all over again.
>> They have the option of telling the truth.
This person was cheating.
Or, they have the option of remaining loyal to that person, in which case they wouldn't say anything.
That's a truth versus loyalty dilemma.
A lot of adults don't want to hear about that,
because they want kids to tell the truth all the time.
So, in a lot of our workshops, at least what I try to remind people
is that there are some developmental aspects to this.
When you're a teenager, your relationships and your friendships
loom as large as your commitment to honesty.
>> Young people often run into what they believe is a dichotomy
between personal loyalty and telling the truth.
But in the ultimate analysis, if you are a real friend, you will not let your friends cheat.
Just as we suggest friends don't let friends drive drunk,
I suggest friends don't let friends be unethical.
Because, if they're unethical with someone else,think about it,
they'll be unethical with you as well, at some point in time.
>> With the media spotlight focusing on the ethical shortcomings of politicians,
corporate giants and professional athletes,are teens today rationalizing their own behavior?
>> I think sometimes being a teenager,especially in our society today, is really frustrating.
Because, like, not in general, but there's a lot of adults that are really hypocritical.
>> We've been trained from birth that money is power.
You get more money, you can get whatever you want. The more money, the better house.
The more money, the better husband or wife. The more money, whatever you want.
So, the more money you have, the better you can get.
And if you cheat to get it, who cares, you've got the money.
>> If you don't treat people with a certain amount of personal dignity,
if you don't see them as human beings, you're not going to get very far.
You can talk about the end justifying the means.
You know, if you hurt people, if you rip off retirement funds,
that hey, look at you, you have this perfect life now.
It doesn't matter anymore, because when it comes down to it,
if your morals have become so corrupted that you follow this path that leads you to
a point where you've hurt other people, or other people have lost things,
just so that you can gain and make yourself feel better,
then you've obviously come to a point where society's morals don't affect you anymore.
I mean, people usually don't consider themselves to be a bad person.
But there's some point where your morals can become so jaded and self-serving
that they're not morals anymore, they're just aberrations, almost.
>> I think when you've crossed the line is when you hurt other people.
That's when you've crossed the line.
>> If you don't cross the line, then you're not going to get anywhere.
Like, I mean, I don't say that like you should cheat,
but it's just like, you've gotta be realistic and realize that people do cheat.
That's why some people are higher.
I mean, granted, some people do, like the old-fashioned way, considering it's uncommon now to get to the top.
They know they're crossing the line, but they're going to to get to where they want to be.
>> Society forgets to realize that it's society and adults that made us the people we are.
It's the people we see. It's the things we watch that make us the way we are.
Yet, they're ready to look at us and blame us and condemn us. They made us.
Our actions are based on what we've been taught.
>> Kids may have some pretty strong negative role models in the media.
Certainly, there are lots of examples right now of people doing the wrong thing.
Some of them are getting caught and maybe some of them aren't.
>> Clearly, the media would like to paint a picture that success at any price is okay,
that success trumps ethics.
I think by and large that that is an incorrect view of life.
I do not believe that most people share that opinion.
>> If you want to stop all the stuff in our society that's going on, you have to start punishing people,
like high-profile people like sports athletes, CEOs or government officials.
That's the only way that the younger kids are going to look at it and be like,
"Oh, we can't do that because look at what happened to that person."
>> The important part of all of that is not so much where you get, but how you got there.
If you have to go to the point where you reconcile in your mind that for me just to get
to this point is the success, there's something wrong with that.
It's just as important, and I would submit to you more important, how you got there than just getting there.
That's easier said, because we have a dog-eat-dog world.
>> Cheating is a part of our society, not just in sports, but I don't condone it.
I want to win games fair and square, with class and with integrity.
I think we have good role models. There's no question about that.
We also have some bad ones.
But I think part of the problem is that parents should be the role model for their children,
not some sports figure.
>> It's easier to hit like 5 or 4 home runs in a game if you're taking steroids. It makes it easier.
I think our society likes to have things the easy way, and that's why we cheat.
>> Old athlete greats in any sport, like Barry Sanders or Walter Payton, Hank Aaron,Babe Ruth,
any of those athletes deserve to have their records kept.
If they do count records made while on steroids,
there should definitely be the use of an asterisk,
and then stating later that these records were broken while on steroids.
>> My dad once told me when I was a kid, that you don't get something for nothing.
I've kind of lived my life that way.
No matter what you do in life, you have to pay a price for it.
If you take steroids, you're going to pay a price.
The people that have taken them, have paid it physically.
They've paid it emotionally now, because it's been broadcast.
They're embarrassed by it and have certainly been tarnished by that image.
>> With a America's pop culture providing so few quality role models,
should schools take it upon themselves to provide ethics education?
A few schools in Wisconsin are doing just that.
In Fond du Lac High School, students are introduced to
the Institute for Global Ethics Curriculum over the course of several workshops.
>> What we're promoting in schools is what we call ethical literacy.
Ethical Literacy, we think--we want to be a dimension of every part of education.
We want people to be teaching toward graduating good kids, not just smart kids.
We've learned the hard way, that smart kids without any ethics can be a liability to society.
I would also go further and say kids need a good, positive sense of purpose.
If we're not talking about developing their ethics, we're really dropping the ball on that opportunity.
>> McGee Elementary School in Two Rivers is partnering with the Manitowoc County Extension
to present the Boomerang Program, which features high school students as mentors.
>> I'm working with the kids in the elementary school about character education ethics,
because I think it's an important thing for them to learn.
I love working with kids, because I want to be a teacher some day.
I thought it would be a good jumpstart for me to get into the classroom.
They're just things they are going to need to know throughout their life.
And I think that as we get to high school, the kids right now
don't have some of that stuff. They're kind of lacking in it.
If we start out at an early age, the better they're going to have a chance
to have the ethics in high school and throughout the rest of their life.
>> Okay, so you should be responsible at home and at school, because it will affect your future?
Okay.
I guess if I said anything else about ethical behavior, it would be that I think
it's really important to have and that I'm glad we're teaching these kids now.
I guess I wish that all kids could start younger, so that they would have
ethical behavior when they reach high school, because it's so important.
If you don't have it when you're young, you're not going to have it when you're older.
>> We have a tendency, especially recently with the character education movement in the United States,
to push a lot about core values. You should be honest and you should be respectful.
But we are not ready with that next step of helping kids to grapple with what to do
when two core values come into conflict.
We conduct workshops, because part of our mission at the Institute for Global Ethics
is to promote ethical behavior through practical action.
>> If you talk to most teachers, principals, social workers,
they will tell you, without exception, that they can identify a kid at risk right away.
We can tell you that this child is going to have problems.
His brother had problems, his sister had problems,
same parents, they're going to have problems.
What do we do once we identify that child? What is our responsibility?
Well, hopefully-- And there are things going on now to try to address that,
to try to be more proactive with kids before they come to me at children's court
for abuse and neglect, or for that matter, delinquencies.
That we take it upon ourselves as a society, that we can either say we're going to limp along,
like we have been, or we want to think outside the box and say, we simply have
to be more proactive, because not every child, let's face it,
has the environment to develop good, moral fiber.
>> We learn by being taught. We learn by being presented with different opportunities,
or different scenarios, and then trying to see what is right and wrong,
and talking through those issues. I think ethics is something
that definitely should be taught. Values should be taught in schools.
In doing that, you give people a chance to find their own roots.
So, it should be done.
>> Character education is a controversial issue.
Is it simply enough to prepare our students academically?
Or, should we send them out into the real world with a solid ethical background?
>> If you don't sit down and have a roadmap, or a game plan for your life,
and how you want people to perceive you; what do you want to see
when you look into the mirror at that person that's reflected back at you?
If you don't sit down and formulate a philosophy on your life, and have something
you can stand on and carry with you to your grave, I think you're missing the boat.
I don't think kids today take the time. They're so busy.
They're running to this thing,or the other thing that they don't ever think about
who am I; and what am I all about; and how am I being perceived;
and how do I want to be perceived by my peers, by my employers or by my teachers.
>> I believe the ultimate expression of leadership is high ethics.
It's openness, it's honesty, it's candor.
It certainly doesn't mean you're unwilling to make the tough decisions,
but you explain the rationale of those decisions, and you
try to be as compassionate as you can in the application of those decisions.
>> I always believe that the person you have to be most loyal to is to yourself.
If you find yourself getting in a situation where you're putting yourself in harms way
because of someone else, then that other person isn't being loyal to you.
>> I would say this, that a lot of people would equate me as Head Coach
of the Green Bay Packers as having a very important job in this state.
But the most important job I have is being a parent,
being a father my sons and a father to my daughters.
That is the first job that I have in my life,
and the utmost responsibility given to me to make sure that I do the very best there.
At the end of my life, when I look back on it, I don't think I'm going to remember the wins
as much as I'm going to remember the experiences that I've had with my children--
and the type of men and women they become, and the type of mothers and fathers they become.
So, that is my most important job.