Moral

[CLASS ACTIVITY 3 – RESOLVING MORAL CONFLICTS] June 26, 2013

Instruction: Read the following passage. Choose ONE of the strategies to resolve conflicts and elaborate on the steps taken based on that particular strategy. She did not have a lot of money for ‘extras’. Her son was about 12 years old at the time and was a latch key kid. Most of the neighborhood was aware of how things stood and we all kept an eye out for him without saying anything to the youngster or the mom – until winter came on. Being a kid and somewhat absent minded, he managed to lose his house key. The mom refused to replace it mostly out of a desire to ‘teach him a lesson’. Still, the neighborhood did nothing but keep an eye on things. Winter deepened and got reasonably cold with daytime temperatures below 40 and often around freezing. Not really a problem – until the youngster managed to lose his coat. So now, he is locked out of the house for 1-2 hours in the afternoon, wearing not much more than a light shirt. Various neighbors offered him shelter and hot chocolate over the next few days (hence, we learned of the story I’m telling you). When it became apparent that the mom was continuing the “teach him a lesson” approach and not replacing the coat, the neighbors got together to decide a course of action. In the end, we all anted up for a coat from Goodwill and then convened as a group to pay a visit on the mom. We politely expressed our dissatisfaction with her parenting technique and suggested ways she could improve on it to avoid having someone call Child Protective Services. Her reaction was understandably hostile, but a few days later, she provided her son another house key. All parties had “good intentions” yet conflict ensued because of conflicting implementations of moral principles.

One of our neighbors was a single mom struggling to make ends meet.

rabihamaya@ucsiuniversity.edu.my

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