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Modeling Ethical Behavior in the Classroom

by Marjorie Kostelnik
November/December 2004
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/modeling-ethical-behavior-in-the-classroom/5016034/

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
�" James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name (1961)

Several children and their teacher are sitting in the block area discussing how to keep people safe while playing with the materials there. At the children’s direction, the adult prints on large poster paper:

Don’t throw blocks.
Watch out for toes.
Everybody picks up blocks at clean-up time.

The children display these “rules” near the block shelf for everyone to refer to throughout the day.

Asking children to help establish the expectations they will live by is a common early childhood practice. It is also a strategy for modeling ethical behavior in the classroom.

Tanya and Selena, two seven year olds in the after school program, are arguing over who will get the next turn on the computer. When it becomes apparent that they can’t settle the dispute themselves, the teacher steps in to mediate. He begins by asking each child to state what she wants and by asking each one to listen to what the other has to say.

Helping children become more aware of one another’s needs and enacting just means for resolving difficult situations are important ways to model ethical ...

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