Ethics

The book outlined a lot of great principles that as peer mentors we should look to when we are defining our ethics in the classroom in the fall. They are all important but some of them aren’t the easiest. Principle 6, about understanding personal bias and avoiding spreading the bias to others, is a huge one. We talked earlier in the semester about diversity and seeing that some things we say or do, although unintentional, can be seen as a bias or a judgment. I think this is an area I need to grow in.

I some times find myself perpetuating some stereotypes or saying oversimplified things that are inline with some biases that I hold towards different things or not stepping up and ending things I hear. There’s one big one that I want to work on is that I let people say things that imply or explicitly degrade certain majors. I know everyone on campus has run across these quips every once in a while and I recently had a friend push some stereotypes about business majors too far and I’ve really seen how these biases can hurt others.

I want to make sure that that behavior is not present in the classroom because this kind of stuff does get hurtful and can really limit points of views of the students. If they wanted to switch majors to something they’ve heard made fun of they might not do it even if that is the best fit for them.

Really thinking about the lines between what is right or wrong before stepping into the classroom next semester is going to make things go a little smoother and we will be more able to conduct ourselves in a manner we are happy with.