Ethics and Education Featured in Press Reports
Aug 10th, 2009 • Posted in: News New training program at West Point presents cadets with ethical dilemmas in simulated battle conditions; Ohio school cancels graduation after cheating scandal; commission issues scathing report on admissions process at the University of Illinois
VARIOUS DATELINES
Several ethics issues related to education made news last week. Among them:
- The West Point Military Academy has started a new training program that deals in part with ethics decisions on the battlefield. The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, New York, reports that the program takes decisions out of a classroom scenario: Now they’re “getting their boots muddy,” as one instructor put it, during their senior year. Simulations, according to the report, include “the tactical and ethical dilemmas of today’s battlefields: distinguishing between enemies and ‘friendlies,’ meeting with sheiks, evacuating casualties.’” Experienced instructors play the “bad guys,” simulating dilemmas and creatively adding to the complications.
- An Ohio school is tightening computer security after a cheating scandal that reportedly involved more than half of the seniors who took a test in world studies last spring, reports the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Centerburg High School canceled its graduation ceremonies and vowed to strengthen the district’s electronic firewall after it was discovered that a tech-savvy student hacked into the system, according to the Plain-Dealer report.
- A state commission has determined that officials at the University of Illinois developed an admissions system that manipulated decisions in favor of applicants who were supported by politicians, donors, and other VIPs, the New York Times reports. Several deans at the university were cited in the commission’s report as encouraging the admission of what the Times describes as privileged but sometimes underqualified applicants.
Sources: Middletown Times Herald-Record, Aug. 5 — New York Times, Aug. 6 — Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Aug. 5.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 6 — Related Newsline story, May 4 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 9 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 16 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 12.
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