Students discuss ethics for today's daily living

Lt. Col. Dave Jones, with the help of volunteers, used a toothpaste experiment to kick-start the conversation with 95 students from 20 Metro Richmond area schools about integrity, character and reputation at the West Point Society of Richmond “Leadership and Ethics Conference for High Schools” held at Fort Lee, Va. on Monday, Nov. 7.

Two of the 95 students volunteered to squeeze, press and roll the contents of a full tube of toothpaste onto a paper plate before the audience. Then, the lieutenant colonel asked the pair to put the contents back into the tube using a spoon. Above the nervous laughter from the audience, Lt. Col. Jones asked those in attendance “Why did we do that?”

The United States Military Academy staff member explained, “Your integrity, your character, and even your reputation is yours to establish; it’s yours to define; it’s yours to keep; it’s also yours to lose…and just like the toothpaste, when you get it out, and you try to put it back, it’s hard to get back and some might say it’s even impossible.

“You will never look at toothpaste the same way in your life.”

The conversation about ethics continued throughout the day in small group discussions led by West Point Cadets. Students, including those from James River, Thomas Dale high schools and Benedictine College Preparatory, talked about the ethical dilemmas that one may face during real-life challenges such as knowing a friend who has cheated on a test or having the knowledge of a hit and run without injuries. The discussions hammered out an ethical decision-making model, adapted from author Rushworth Kidder’s “How Good People Make Tough Choices” that students can use in their lives.

Midlothian resident Dick Crews, USMA Class of ‘56, knows the day’s lessons provided reinforcement for the students. The proud father of a West Point graduate and proud grandfather of a West Point Cadet said, “I think they’ll go back with a strong sense of what it means to have honor and integrity in their lives.

“I think personal experiences that were given by the keynote speaker [Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan] today; those kinds of things, I think will touch them and have a big impact on them as they go forward. I really believe that, I really do, that they will have a feeling inwardly maybe not expressed before.”

Fellow alum and society member Fred Hall of Richmond, USMA class of ’60, added that the Cadets who facilitated the program are well-versed in the school’s honor code. “As General Finnegan said, “that a Cadet will not lie, cheat or steal,” but the key here is that “or tolerate those who do”; that’s the difference, you can say, the key, in the West Point motto and West Point understanding of living in an honest way,” Hall said.

Sam Wilder of Chester, USMA Class of ’61, explained that the program’s facilitators are part of West Point’s Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, and are selected through the school. “The whole program is designed to, sort of, export the concept of ethics and that’s what we’re doing. This is the second time we’ve done this,” Wilder said. “I would hope we could do it on a biennium basis.”

Col. Glenn Waters, SCPME Director, explained that the school’s department is responsible for the club Respect Ethics And Leadership, which leads the high school outreach program. “It’s good that they [Cadets] get a chance, as a future leaders, to practice leadership skills and ethical discussions with the high school students,” Col. Waters said.

“The high school students will hopefully be learning moral and ethical decision-making and problem solving – thinking it through logically as opposed to emotionally,” he said.

One of the messages the colonel hopes students took away from the program is that not everybody is living unethically and not everyone cheats or steals. “There are many people out there trying to do the right thing…hopefully this will give them the moral courage to stand up and do what they need to do when they’re challenged by somebody who is not a morally or ethical person,” Col. Waters said.

The society thanked Fort Lee for the free use of the facility and providing breakfast and lunch for the program as well as appreciated the support of corporate sponsor Walmart.