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Headmaster's Thoughts: May 2023

This month I am cheating by reproducing a presentation I made to an educational conference, this April, on the teaching of Ethics to high school students. Last month’s “Thoughts” were hopefully amusing. The same cannot be said for this presentation:

Good Morning. My name is Ronnie Stewart and I started York Prep School in 1969 with my wife and have been Head of School for the 54 years it has served its students in New York City. For most of those years, I have taught Ethics to all members of the Senior Class.
 
Let me start by welcoming questions at any time. In other words, please interrupt if you have a question. I should also say, right from the beginning, that the teaching of Ethics requires that the school and its community leaders act as examples of moral leadership. Modelling ethical behavior is part of the teaching of Ethics to all students.
 
So what right have I to teach Ethics? Well, I was a barrister in London before I started York Prep. In England, you study law as an undergraduate, and the BA program at Oxford is three years. In fact, I stayed on an extra year at Oxford to do a B.C.L. and then went to the bar. So I was always the youngest (and now, of course the oldest), and I defended my first murder case (a plea of guilty) when I was 22. At 24, I was the junior counsel for Charles Kray in what was to become the longest murder trial in England. At the end of that trial, in which Charles Kray, unlike his twin brothers, was not found guilty of committing any murders, I left the bar, brought my wig and gown to remind me of memories, and came to New York to found York Prep. Whether having a life-long interest in philosophy, and having experience defending and prosecuting in the Old Bailey in London, gives me any expertise in Ethics is debatable. After all this time, one thing I do respect is that in Ethics there rarely is one right or wrong answer.
 
 
Let me tell you how I begin my class each year. When I was doing my graduate degree, I taught Roman Law at women’s colleges at Oxford. I got to know Philippa Foote, a philosophy Don (you might call professor) at Somerville College. She wrote a now famous article on direct and indirect consequences, focusing mainly on abortion: Do you kill the baby to save the mother (indirect and unfortunate consequence) or do you kill the baby to kill the baby (a direct and intended consequence). In that article, she also presented a problem that has become famous and much discussed. She postulated that a trolley was going down a hill when the brakes failed. If it pursued its path, it would kill five people on the tracks. But, before those five people were hit, there was a siding and if you, and only you, who happened to be there, pulled the switch and diverted the train on to a side track, there was only one person on that side track who would be killed. Would you pull the switch? That question is one that assumed even more importance after 9/11. Would you shoot down, over let us say a town in Westchester, an airliner aiming for the World Trade Towers?  Philippa, and others who followed her, did not stop at the single trolley question but asked a second question. If the trolley is going down the track, and the only opportunity to stop it was to push a fat man with a backpack sitting on a bridge off that bridge in to the oncoming path of the trolley, would you push the man off to his death, and save the five as a result?
 
And here we are immediately presented with direct and indirect consequences. Diverting the trolley on to the siding and killing one person, who happens to be there, is an unfortunate and indirect consequence. You do not want to kill the man. There could be more than one, but less than five. Do you do it? Most people say yes. And this problem crosses cultures. It could be a boulder rolling down a hill; do you divert it to a path with only one person? Do you divert a man-eating crocodile on to a tributary, and so on. But, while most people would pull the switch, a minority of people would push the fat man off the bridge. That is a direct consequence. You are, effectively, killing someone. I can go on about this problem of trolleyology, but, needless to say, it drives the students to discuss the options and, with my encouragement, to discuss different scenarios of what would you do? There is no correct answer, although, interestingly, we find that the logical part of the brain is triggered with the switch scenario, and the emotional part is triggered at the prospect of pushing the man off the bridge.
 
There are some objections to the lack of reality in the trolleyology question (and the spelunklogy question too, which I can discuss if anyone wants to go into the dilemma), but it is not threatening enough to discourage discussion. I think it has pizazz, and it is important to start any course with an interesting and new concept that all can chime in on. It is a safe problem in that no-one is defensive about the issue because it is such an unlikely scenario.
 
Using that question of trolleyology, I then start at the beginning of philosophy, with Parmenides and Heraclitus, and proceed through the entire History of Western Philosophy (because I do not, regrettably, know enough about non-Western philosophy). I introduce words that may be new to the students but represent part of the vocabulary of philosophy; the dialectic, hypothetical versus categorical imperative, empiricism and what can we really know, and what existentialism means as opposed to idealism. In referencing trolleyology, sometimes there is no clue in the philosopher’s writings as to how they would solve the trolley dilemma. And sometimes, Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarians being the most obvious, there are direct answers to the trolleyology problem.
 
 
I discuss Socrates and Plato (dealing with his cave analogy) Aristotle, the Sceptics, Stoics and Solipsists, Aquinas and then modern philosophy starting with Descartes, then through Kant and the deontological argument, and the empiricists and finally, if time allows, I finish up with Marx, Ayn Rand, Sartre and John Rawls. But time usually does runs out because I try and have a general discussion of ethical issues between each philosopher. I introduce speakers every year including a billionaire and a street peddler, both friends of mine. And the issues I raise such as abortion, legacy admissions to college, euthanasia, drugs and disabilities, the environment, and animal rights are general problems in which I hope to encourage the students to debate among themselves. Indeed, during those discussions, the less I talk the better except to encourage the seniors to see both sides of a problem. In a time when our culture is in somewhat of a state of flux, I think it is important to encourage all views without prejudice.
 
As a criminal prosecutor and defender (one does both in England, one day hired to prosecute and one day to defend) I go into detail about the theories of punishment. Retribution versus deterrence. If fortunate, we have great debates among the students. I just act as ringmaster in those situations.
 
Inevitably, I introduce a number of challenging legal cases. My favorite is Regina versus Dudley and Stephens, which is the case where shipwrecked sailors ate the cabin boy. I also introduce the golf case of Casey Martin, and the rights of the handicapped, the Cheryl Hopwood case against the U of Texas Law School where she claimed that she was discriminated because she was white, and the Gozo twins case where one twin would have to be sacrificed for the other twin. The goal is to raise questions and to show both sides. I hope to get out of the way as the students discuss difficult issues where you have alternatives, all of which are not good. Humor needs to be part of the class, if possible, because the issues can be very serious. Let me give you some of the questions that I ask when the class lags (and I never pretend to know the answers)…
Science and Religion…are they compatible?
What do we owe animals?
Is it okay to have a pet fish?
Is Chicken Parmesan authentic?
If you try to make a sculpture of a fish and it finishes up looking like a bird, is it a sculpture of a bird or a fish?
Are people innately good or bad (or neutral)?
Should you kill baby Hitler?
Do people who like dark chocolate taste it the same as people who hate it?
How do you cope with the mortality of your parents?
If Superman gets his energy from the sun, how come he does not have sunburn?
What, if there is one, is the meaning of life?
Should I give money to the homeless in the street?
When you buy something made in a poor country, are you contributing to the exploitation of their workers?
If the world is warming dramatically, is it okay to have kids?
What makes a word sexist?
If someone buys you a drink at a bar, do you owe them anything?
If I put ketchup in a blender with ice and grind them together, do I have a smoothie?
Should we live in the present?
Why bother? Why care?
 
I have been asked if one can impact the ethics of young people. I think that an open discussion of such topics as turning in a friend who did something criminal or staying behind at the scene of an accident, present the issue of what we owe society and our neighbor and, hopefully, at least give the student thoughts about improving their ethical obligations to all members of their community. If Hitler could negatively impact the ethics of young students by injecting thoughts of hate and violence to the minority of Jews, then surely we can, in the exact reverse, encourage respect and kindness to the weak and disadvantaged. Nelson Mandela famously said that “no-one is born hating another person because of his skin, background, or religion…if they can learn to hate they can learn to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
 
Ethical education encourages discussion about issues that should be discussed, and rarely are, in high school. And I am always happy to discuss, or rather let them discuss, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I think that debating such issues encourage curiosity, deeper thinking, and greater empathy. At least I hope so.
 
So the goal of any Ethics class is to open the minds of young people to issues that are rarely thought of, to help them become curious, and to encourage them to look at all sides of any issue. The Ethics teacher has to be prepared for individual students to privately ask questions as to what they should do. With the understanding that there is no right or wrong answer, I think you can give an opinion. I have been asked, by a senior, whether he should tell his father, a divorced man, that his father’s current younger girlfriend invited him to meet at a hotel? I gave my opinion, with the caveat that it was just that.
 
Some of you might be interested in what I answered, but to open this up, I hope that you might also have some questions already as to the core issue of teaching Ethics, remembering that I never profess to know the answers, I just hope I know some of the questions.
 
Ronald P. Stewart
Headmaster
York Prep
 
 
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List of 20 news stories.

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: May 2023

    This month I am cheating by reproducing a presentation I made to an educational conference, this April, on the teaching of Ethics to high school students. Last month’s “Thoughts” were hopefully amusing. The same cannot be said for this presentation:

    Good Morning. My name is Ronnie Stewart and I started York Prep School in 1969 with my wife and have been Head of School for the 54 years it has served its students in New York City. For most of those years, I have taught Ethics to all members of the Senior Class.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: April 2023

    There are tea ceremonies all over the world, but nothing quite like the English tea ceremony. Since it may become a fading institution, I want to give it a review before it goes away with the steam locomotive. You can find this odd ceremony practiced in the better English hotels and a few department stores in London.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: March 2023

    I love going to the opera, and drag Jayme along about five times a year. When I was a young man, I would sit somewhere near the roof but now we are fortunate to be closer to the stage. We saw Fedora very recently. It is not a great opera. The story is absurd, and it has not been performed at the Met for over 20 years. Whenever the Metropolitan Opera returns a rarely-heard opera back into its repertoire, they bring out the superstars to perform it. And so it was with this revival, which starred Sonya Yoncheva and Piotr Bezcala. The music was fair, but the singing was superb. Going to the Met, one often sees great performances, sometimes only good ones, and, rarely, average ones. But the experience of sitting in a vast hall covered mainly in red velvet, the visual spectacle of the sets, the professional excellence of the orchestra and chorus (and occasionally dancers), still makes each performance (regardless of the opera itself) a special New York evening.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: February 2023

    Welcome to February. As a second child, until now I never thought of myself as a “Spare”. Of course, I am not the son of a King either. I married a second child and have no idea, or much interest, if this is a sociological factor or just chance. Currently, I have noticed a tendency to find deep psychological reasons for simpler issues. 
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: January 2023

    Welcome to February. As a second child, until now I never thought of myself as a “Spare”. Of course, I am not the son of a King either. I married a second child and have no idea, or much interest, if this is a sociological factor or just chance. Currently, I have noticed a tendency to find deep psychological reasons for simpler issues.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2022

    As we approach the winter holidays, let me wish all of my readers, few as you may be, a very joyful New Year.
     
    I started writing these thoughts in December 2004. So, this month, to celebrate the beginning of my 19thyear of producing the pieces known as “Headmaster’s Thoughts”, I thought I would leave the essay format and indulge myself in making up a list. I really like lists. Good bibliographies have helped direct me to reading great works that I otherwise might not have read. Recommendations by friends have led me to places that I greatly enjoyed, and also to watch productions that I probably would have missed. I do know that every list is very personal, and, arguably, a self-indulgence on the part of the list maker, but this is a case of hoping that if I share my list with you, that you might share your list with me. I would certainly appreciate that.
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  • Headmaster's Thoughts: November 2022

    Dreams are interesting. In mine, I am always a young man dealing with absurd situations in my former body. I think of myself as a young man in an old body, but dreams do not work that way, at least not for me. I youthfully run, duck, advance, and do all the things that I would have great difficulty (which is a euphemistic phrase for “impossible”) doing with my current creaky limbs.  There is something reassuring in that dream world, even though when I wake, I realize it is completely non-realistic. 
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  • Headmaster's Thoughts: October 2022

    A ball is thrown into a room. The baby looks at the room’s entrance, curious as to how the ball arrived. A dog jumps for the ball. The difference is curiosity, and we are discovering that even two-month-old babies have an inherent sense of the laws of physics. They look for reasons. A ball is bounced and stays suspended in the air; babies are puzzled and look for reasons for this suspension of the law of gravity. The dog leaps up to grab the ball, indifferent as to how it got there.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: September 2022

    We were once teenagers too. And got into trouble.
     
    It probably is difficult for present day adolescents to appreciate that all of their school administrators were once as young as they are, and although the avenues of “troubles” were very different, nonetheless all of us got into trouble in our own way. Teenagers have always tested limits, and we all went through that challenging period of our lives.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: August 2022

    Dear Incoming York Prep Student: This month’s essay is primarily addressed to you. Often my monthly essays are deliberately not serious (I even attempt humor), and written for the enjoyment of the reader and myself. But not this month. I want to give you concrete advice on being successful at York, and, indeed, at any school you attend.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: July 2022

    In many lists of top international undergraduate universities, my university, Oxford, ranks in the top three. This includes rankings by American based institutions. In the QS World university rankings (who is “QS”?), Oxford ranks second to MIT. In the U.S. News and World Report, it is number three after Stanford, and then UC Berkeley. In the Times Higher Education ranking, Oxford is number one. The reason I am giving you this statistic is not just for pride in a place I attended but, primarily, to note that virtually all of Oxford’s undergraduate degrees take only three years. Apart from the Classic Greats; a hallowed if slightly dated course, Oxford undergraduate degrees are only three years long. So why do American degrees, apparently considered lower on these rankings (and you may note that Harvard and Yale did not appear) take four years to complete? Since Oxford is the only university to come in all three rankings as one of the top three, that indicates excellence. Hooray! Why be modest?
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: June 2022

    As in all previous years, June’s “Headmaster’s Thoughts” is the speech made by the Head at the 2022 Commencement Exercises.
     
    Congratulations to the graduating Senior Class of 2022, and your families who helped get you here. This is a great group of young people, and all of us applaud your success. You have contributed to so many parts of our school academically, socially, in the performing arts and athletically. I note that over 10% of your class brought home our first Basketball State Championship since 1992. That is just a sign of the spirit of this group. In all arenas, I give you my congratulations.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: May 2022

    The day before I started writing this piece, I watched our first League Boys Varsity Volleyball game of the Spring Season. They won! And they beat a school that is three times our size. What is happening? Are we becoming a sports powerhouse without knowing it? Since we won the State Basketball Championships this year, we have had a few applications from basketball players eager to join our program. I should also proudly state that both our Girls Varsity Basketball and Boys Junior Varsity Basketball teams won their League Championships. Hooray, I say. But, without disappointing the applicants, I should also add that we are not the University of Kansas. The last time we won the State Tournament was 30 years ago. 1992! Not exactly a dynasty.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: April 2022

    I have two numbers on our home phone. Whenever a call comes into the second number (without anyone being on the first line), I always answer, “F.B.I.”. This seems to work. 
     
     
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: March 2022

    I want to tell you a story about my life. Sorry to be self-absorbed, but maybe you can learn a general lesson from my particular circumstance. Back in 1969, I was a very young and, surprisingly, successful barrister. I was in the right Chambers (what you might call a sort of partnership) at the right time, and I had been chosen as the Junior (what you might call “second chair” ) to defend Charles Kray in the Kray case, which turned out to be the longest criminal murder trial in English history. In the middle of that trial, on October 6th 1968 to be precise, I married Jayme.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: February 2022

    Let me categorically say that we all need fun in our lives. COVID, unfortunately, has robbed us of our opportunities for silliness. I remember having a family Thanksgiving dinner party with friends and extended family, and providing them all with clown’s noses. The wearing of those red squeaky sponges added to the event. Now, we do not have those parties. I remember blowing up balloons on a plane and making animals (some of which popped), which I gave to other passengers, to the extreme embarrassment of my son. Now we do not take planes anymore. I remember…no, I will not bore you further. I think most of you know what I mean. Our whole way of life has been affected by the pandemic. And I know that I have been lucky. No one in my family has been hospitalized yet. Some have had COVID, but only mildly. I am still untouched but waiting. 
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: January 2022

    Another spin around the Sun. Another year.
     
    Is it the eternal optimistic nature of our species that we expect next year to be better? Because I think most of us do. We really look forward to getting over the pandemic, seeing each other’s faces without covering, socializing together. And if we adults have had a hard time of it over the past two years, how much worse has it been for our children? The time spent in school is the most critical time to develop the skills of understanding how to get on with peers, how to share, how to be a member of a community. For too many children, that avenue of progress had a major break. They were homebound. Should they have been in school? I think so. 
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2021

    As we all look back over the year of 2021, it would be nice if we could compare it to previous years. How comforting to give a detailed analysis of growth, and achievement. Sadly, 2021 will go down as a year marked by extraordinary events. We have had a pandemic such as we have never seen in our lifetimes. Thankfully, due to the miracle of vaccines, we are now seeing a slow recovery. Yet the statistics for inflation, employment, and climate control, are uniformly sad. And no one can say that the quality of life in our great city is yet back to normal.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2021

    As we all look back over the year of 2021, it would be nice if we could compare it to previous years. How comforting to give a detailed analysis of growth, and achievement. Sadly, 2021 will go down as a year marked by extraordinary events. We have had a pandemic such as we have never seen in our lifetimes. Thankfully, due to the miracle of vaccines, we are now seeing a slow recovery. Yet the statistics for inflation, employment, and climate control, are uniformly sad. And no one can say that the quality of life in our great city is yet back to normal.
    Read More

  • Headmaster's Thoughts: November 2021

    Can I be the only person who does not carry a cell phone? It seems that modern society is run on the basis that one will always have a cell phone at hand.
    Read More
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