Ethics Experiments 3 and 4

Ethics Experiment 3—Study (Write-up due 9/23 by 5:00 PM)
It has been my experience that one of the things school often does to people is completely destroy in them any desire to learn after they have survived their formal education. I cannot count how many times I have heard people say, “I hope I never have to read another book again after I graduate.” This attitude is quite sad and yet tragically common.

This week, I want you to experience the pleasure of learning something for the sake of your own desire to know it. If you develop this habit now while you are in school, you will be less likely to suffer from the anti-educational disease so many people develop when they are no longer coerced into learning. Life is much more fun when we are growing, even if the thing we are growing in isn’t earth-shatteringly important. We were built to learn and grow, and learning people are usually more alive and excited than others. Consider children when they are learning.

This week, I want you to take fifteen minutes each day and read something educational that you have always wanted to learn about but kept putting off until you had “more free time.” (This usually happens when there are suddenly 25 hours in the day. In other words, never.) Find a book you have been wanting to read and just read it for fifteen minutes a day this week. Don’t worry if you don’t finish it, you probably won’t. The key is a book, not the Internet, not magazines, not the newspaper. Books.

I have heard it said from so many different people that I can’t even number them that leaders are readers. Studies have been done on vocabulary in various organizations, and these studies prove that there is a direct relationship between a person’s language ability and his success and position. The best way to develop vocabulary and be learning neat stuff at the same time is to read.

Many of you are religious. If you have never read your religion’s Scriptures, I recommend you start there. If you aren’t or don’t want to do that for whatever reason, just go to the library and browse the new releases section for something that captures your interest (non-fiction). If you read that book for fifteen minutes and you decide it isn’t very interesting, grab a different one the next day. As long as you are reading something of your choice, that’s enough. I realize that 15 minutes may seem like a lot, but for those of you who watch television regularly…duh! For the rest of you, just make the time.

Ethics Experiment 4—Service (Write-up due by 5:00 PM 9/30)
This week, you get to be Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. I have always thought that the Scout Slogan of “Do a good turn daily” was an outstanding idea. As my copy of the Scout Handbook says, “Good turns are helpful acts of kindness done quietly, without boasting, and without expecting a reward or pay. Doing at least one Good Turn every day is a normal part of a Scout’s life.”

The idea here is to give a gift of service to at least one person a day. There are millions of possible ways to satisfy this, but I recommend you shoot for more than just holding open a door for someone or giving them a smile. These things are good and you should not neglect to do them if you can, but this week try to do things which are somewhat more significant.

Here are some suggestions, but don’t feel limited to this list in any way: offering to help your parents cook dinner or to do it entirely, paying for the person behind you at McDonalds (or giving five dollars extra at the grocery store for the person behind you), offering to wash someone else’s windshield at the gas station, giving your parents a back rub, cleaning someone else’s car, or helping someone with their groceries (especially if it’s raining).

If all else fails, you can always find someone and simply ask him or her if there is something you can do to help. If it helps, you can even tell them why you’re asking. “I’ve got this weird class I’m taking where I’m supposed to do a nice thing for someone every day. Is there anything I can do like that for you?” Ask your parents if there are any extra chores you can help out with or projects that won’t take too long or can be done over several days. However, I strongly encourage you to try to get a nice mixture of friends and strangers involved in this experiment. Don’t only serve people you know. If you do serve people you already know, be sure to do it in a way that they desire rather than in a way you desire. Give the gift they want to receive rather than the gift you want to give. “Do unto others as they want you to do unto them.”

A key component of service is humility, because the idea of real service is that you are saying to someone else, “I’m not too good or too important to serve you.” This is why a lot of service acts are doing the things that no one much likes to do but must be done. (Cleaning bathrooms, changing diapers, doing dishes, etc.) Since genuine service goes hand in hand with humility and generosity, it is crucial that the server not expect or accept any reward or recognition for the service. This is why it’s good to serve strangers who can’t reward you later in the relationship. If you find yourself resenting people who aren’t more lavish with their thanks, you’re missing the point of the entire exercise. But don’t be surprised if most people are rather stunned in a pleasant way. As always, have fun and enjoy the creativity which this experiment may require of you.