Ethical Question #2

I have decided to post my next ethical question for those of you who enjoy a little thought provocation. I realize it has not been quite one week since the last question was posted.... I will be working the next few nights and honestly can say I am not certain when I will be able to BLOG next. So, here it is: "If you were asked by school officials if your child's best friend lived in the community and you knew the child didn't, what would you do?" Now, I happen to know that there are families in this military community who do not abide by school boundaries. My own kids go to school outside of our boundaries, but we played by the rules and requested an "exception to policy." This really sucks at times because we have to provide transportation to and from school for our children. Maybe, I should give a little background here. My husband and I chose the area we are living in very carefully. The primary reason we moved to this home was because it's location fell into the boundaries of the schools we wanted our children to attend. At the end of last school year, the district decided to re-arrange the boundaries as our son was entering his Senior year of High School and our daughter her Freshman year. Being as we are military, it is not unusual for kids to change schools frequently, but my husband and I both requested extensions at our current assignments so our son could graduate with his friends. Had we known that boundaries were going to change and he be forced to go to a new school anyway, we would have just accepted orders and moved on. So, we did the next best thing and jumped through the hoops of the school district to allow our oldest to stay with is friends at his current school. Our daughter just rode in on the coat-tails of her brother. The negative in all of this is having to provide transportation to and from school. Back to the question above... None of the re-zoning would have been an issue if parents here had been sending their children to the appropriate school in the first place. I personally knew of 3 people who had given friend's addresses to the school when registering their own kids so their kids could go to the "better" school, leading to an overcrowding situation. So, rather than have parents bring in proof of residence, the officials just re-zoned. The problem could have been solved so much easier if they had just asked me what to do... but they didn't so I will just BLOG about them ;) So... Yes, I would inform the school officials of the truth. WHY? Because it is the right thing to do and so that future parents won't have to experience what my family has had to go through! Also, since the parents are going through the motions anyway, they may as well do it legally!

Signature block

Well, because I am still very new to this blogging thing, I am still having to work the kinks out. Right now, I am frustrated with my signature block. "This post is a test of the "Emergency Blog Signature Block", it is only a test, if it were the real thing, you would be instructed to read further :)

Ethical Question #1

As promised, here is the first question for your consideration: "Do you feel a sense of responsibility for influencing other people's morals?" I look forward to hearing some of your responses!!

Table Topics

So, here's the deal, there is a product I am fond of known as "TABLETOPICS." Basically, it is a set of cards in a nice little clear box meant to be set near the dinner table, coffee table, etc... Each card has a conversation starter on it. The first set I bought was geared around "the Family"- questions to help open up discussions amongst family members. I thought, since my kids are a little older now, it would be a nice change of pace from the usual dinner banter. Also, being teens, they really don't want to make much small talk with Mom and Dad at dinner. The first question I pulled from the box, you ask? "What question would you ask your parents if they had to tell the truth?" I do not necessarily remember the questions my kids asked, but I do remember sweating through the process, wondering if I was really willing to tell the truth about any random thing they could think to ask. I have since bought several more sets of cards- all different topics. I have Politics (which I hate to discuss, but thought it would be interesting during the recent election process),Book Club(I thought these would be useful in the event I ever start a book club group- I'm prepared for many things), Spirit/Faith (some very thought provoking questions), but my favorite set is Ethics, the whole purpose of this post. Most of my friends know that I really get hung up on the issues of Integrity and Ethics at work. In my line of business, it is a HUGE deal! Anyway, I bought these cards mostly for thought provoking self talk. But, when they came in the mail and I started looking at them, I decided to bring them to the dinner table. The first question out of the box started a battle of wits between my husband and me. We were not going to see eye-to-eye no matter what. Thirty minutes into our argument, the kids got up and left, quietly. We did agree on one thing, this set of cards would no longer be brought to the dinner table. You would think, having grown up with the man I have been married to for 21+ years, my best friend since 8 years old, we would have similar thoughts. Not so!! So, I have decided that rather than stress my marriage, for the sake of conversation, I would post some of the "ethical questions" for others to peruse and comment on. Take them to your dinner table and see what happens. As for my husband and I, we'll find some other way to keep the lines of communication open! ;) If you are interested in purchasing TABLETOPICS for your home, check them out at WWW.TABLETOPICS.COM