Ethics and Servant Leadership Summer Internship comes to a close

Students give final presentations at closing session of the EASL Summer Internship Program

The D. Abbott Turner Ethics And Servant Leadership Summer Internship Program, one of the capstone initiatives of the Emory University Center for Ethics, has recently wrapped up another successful summer. Under Dr. Edward Queen, director, and Carlton Mackey, assistant director, the program afforded 38 Emory students the opportunity to work with 30  non-profit organizations, government agencies, and socially responsible businesses around Atlanta. The program has students working 240 hours at their placement sites and offers weekly discussions and class sessions to enhance their experience. The closing luncheon showcased the students' work before their site supervisors and program staff. One of the successes this year was the expansion of arts and culture opportunities, intentionally augmenting the Ethics & the Arts Initiative, spearheaded and directed by Carlton Mackey. 

Dr. Queen shares his reflections on the program this year, 

The 2011 Servant Leader Summer Internship program highlighted the value of the time spent in relationship building and creating partnerships.  The tremendous success of this summer’s internship program came about, not only from the quality and commitment of the students selected, but from deep and trusting connections we had established with organizations such as Emory’s Office of University Community Partnerships and the preeminent arts and cultural institutions of this city.  The key to success is knowing your partners and caring about their needs and their missions.  Additionally, one has to build on strengths and take the disparate components of one’s work and make it into a coherent whole.  In this instance combining existing programs, such as our ongoing internships with WonderRoot and the Carter Center’s art collection, and connecting that with our emerging work with arts and culture organizations, such as the Atlanta Music Project and the Alliance Theater, as well as with our new program in Ethics and the Arts.  The result was a set of internships in arts and culture with the resulting cross-fertilization and shared learnings that a cohort of people working together can produce.

Our deepest thanks to the students, their host organizations, staff and volunteers who added to this year's success.  -Cate Powell

Captain America: American Mythology Rooted in Nazi Ideology?

http://captainamerica.marvel.com

Comic books have given the relatively young country of America its own mythology. Marvel Comics' Captain America is one figure in particular that Americans have come to love. This patriotic superhero was created during World War II to fight the Nazi regime. But is the creation of this American "super solider" incidentally in line with the same ideology the Nazis used to create a "super race"? Watch as Emory University's Professor of Bioethics, Paul Root Wolpe, discusses the similarities and differences in agendas.

Also:
Nazi eugenics versus the American Dream
Emory Looks at Hollywood

Ethics Center Faculty Member Offers Ethical Insight Into APS Cheating Scandal in AJC Op-Ed

In the aftermath of a cheating scandal that rocked our faith in Georgia’s education system, Dr. Edward Queen, the Director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program   at the Emory University Center for Ethics, provides a plan. His approach begins by analyzing corrupt policies, beyond punishing the guilty, and towards “changing the culture.” This transformation requires not only deep critiques at every level of our education system, but also actions that reflect a “commitment to ethics in both word and deed.” Read about how to improve the education system with ethics based reform.  -Cate Powell

The cheating scandal that has engulfed Atlanta Public Schools ought to call the entire community, including our governmental leaders, into a process of reflection on and engagement with the public school system. The guilty must be identified and punished as appropriate — the gravity of these violations is too great. Punishment cannot and must not be the end of it. There is much that we as a public and a society need to learn from this scandal and actions that we need to undertake individually and collectively.
First, there must be a careful review of the administrative and managerial policies that led to such widespread corruption. Any response to this scandal has to move beyond punishing those who are guilty. It must focus on changing that culture. This transformation will require ongoing, meaningful and committed attention to the ethical environment within and throughout APS.

Complete Article Here: Viewpoints: Priorities for rehabilitating culture and governance at APS

Colombian visitors learn about Ethics Center Arts Initiative

Ethics Center leaders and their community partners met with visitors from Colombia on July 7 to discuss the arts.  (Photos by Carlton Mackey)

By Mashaun D. Simon
Emory Center for Ethics recently played host to half a dozen delegates from Colombia, a group of artists and advocates visiting art and related institutions in the United States.
Their focus was to get a better understanding of promotion and diversity in the arts and bridging culture, cultural preservations in the arts and access to the arts.
During the two-hour visit on July 7, Ethics Center leaders and their community partners provided the delegates with an overview of Emory's Ethics & the Arts Initiative. The initiative is designed to create dialogue and debate around the arts and its ethical implications, and to partner with organizations in Atlanta to show how art challenges perspectives.
"To us, ethics isn't just about right or wrong. Ethics are about our deepest held values," said Center for Ethics Director Paul Root Wolpe. "Ethics are fundamentally tied to how we view the world. The arts are a very important vehicle for ethical exploration."
The group's visit was coordinated by the Georgia Council for International Visitors. Carlton D. Mackey, who chairs the Ethics & the Arts Initiative, expressed his delight that the international visitors selected Emory's Center of Ethics as one of their stops.

Secretary of Culture and Tourism, Argemiro Buitrago, engages during conversation centered on Ethics & the Arts

Read Complete Emory Report Article Here

APS Cheating Scandal: Dr. Edward Queen Offers Comments in Fox 5 News Report

(Image by: biologycorner via Flickr)

A report released on July 5th revealed unprecedented cheating and corruption throughout Atlanta Public Schools. An investigation through 800,000 documents led to the accusation of 178 teachers and administrators. Eighty have confessed to helping their students cheat to receive higher test scores The report marks the largest cheating scandal in US public school history and is a harsh blow to Georgia's education system. Having gained national attention, the question everyone is asking is, who's to blame? The list of culprits included Beverly Hall, Georgia’s superintendent who recently retired, the school administrators, and the teachers themselves. 

Dr Edward Queen, the Director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program at the Emory University Center for Ethics, was recently interviewed in a Fox Five News Report  by Chris Shaw. Shaw explains that facing pressure at state and national levels caused teachers to fabricate scores in order to evade punishment or even dismissal. Dr. Queen remarked that in this type of situation teachers and principals would save themselves at any cost. Therefore, cheating became normalized as evidence was hidden at all levels of school operations. This points to a problem at the "systemic level," said Dr. Queen, in that the activity was accepted and encouraged. Now, we are left to wonder how to make this right the education system in Georgia. 


-Cate Powell
 
Join the conversation:
1.) Do we need to rethink the standardized testing system? 
2.) There are talks of pressing criminal charges.  Is punitive option the best?  What are other options?
3.) Who should be held most responsible?  The superintendent?  The principals?  The teachers?

APS Cheating Scandal: A Teacher's Take: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Ethics Center faculty comments on football teams' gifts to Arizona legislators

Should lawmakers report the tickets and gifts they receive from sports teams? This week Craig Harris and Ginger Rough for The Arizona Republic reported on a controversy surrounding Arizona Cardinals tickets given to Arizona legislators. Edward Queen, the Director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program at the Emory University Center for Ethics, was called upon to provide an ethical response. In the ongoing struggle for stadium space between the Arizona Cardinals and the Fiesta Bowl, both parties have been giving thousands of dollars away in tickets to state lawmakers. The lawmakers are required to report $500 or more in gifts, but many have not reported the numbers when it comes to free tickets. 

 

There are two crucial questions at stake: 

Whether it is effective and fair for sports teams to give away so many tickets 

and how to monitor and justify the gifts that lawmakers receive. 

Dr. Queen contributes to the debate by saying that making a $500 dollar limit is insufficient. It is not enough to recognize the monetary value, but the power plays that are at stake and the problem of privileging lawmakers. Gifts that elevate one person over another "far outweighs any monetary value they may have."

Read Entire Article Here