Walking Your Walk

Walking your Walk

The book mentions that ethics is about behavior. This means that for something to be a part of your ethical beliefs, you must be willing to act accordingly if put the situation. If you are not willing to act on something that you say is your ethical and moral belief, is it really a part of your ethics. I do not think that a person can believe something and contradict the beliefs with the decisions that they choose to make. The decisions that people make decide for them, what their ethical and moral beliefs. Talk is cheap when it comes to ethics. I think that in the case of ethics, the phrase should be switched around. If you are walking the walk, you are allowed to talk the talk.

For example a teacher has many students, and at the beginning of the semester, or the beginning of their teaching career, they choose to grade fairly and to give students grades depending of the scores of the homework, tests, and participation. This is the right ethical way to grade for the teacher. If the teacher has a student who tries really hard, and puts in the time outside of class, and has a tutor, but in the end just has a hard time with the subject matter. Would that student deserve to get a failing grade just because they are slower than the rest of the class. Why does the smart kid who has to put forth no effort, and everything just comes natural, get the good grade. I think that teachers are more inclined to give the student who tries so hard a passing grade, when the numbers are the things that should determine the grade.

I think that you absolutely have an ethical responsibility to be a role model for others in your daily activities. If you are in a management position for example, how can you expect people to behave like you want them to if you are not willing to be the example? I believe that a manager, and even a person for that matter, should not ask you to do something that they would not do themselves if put in the same situation.

If you are not acting on something that is part of your ethical and moral beliefs, than it does not belong as part of your ethical makeup. It is more of a moral and ethical wish list, and the only things on that list