Ms. Kaplan's Blog

I know what I want to write about, but I haven’t had enough time to formulate my thoughts yet.  Here’s what’s going on in my head.  I realized today that no matter how hard I try to instill strong values in my students, and no matter how much energy I put into being a good role model, some of my students aren’t going to listen to any of it.  I can only imagine what parents feel like when they see their children acting in unethical ways. 

So here’s your shot of truth for today.  It sounds bleak, but there are people out in the world who really don’t care if they can look themselves in the eye every day.  And there are even more people who can still look at themselves in the mirror and like what they see even though they’ve mistreated others.  It sounds like a crazy concept to some of us, those of us who do what we can to preserve the feelings of others, those of us who live with honesty, and those of us who feel compelled to make amends when we have committed a transgression against another person.

I’m sorry that I have to tell you this.  I’m sorry that you’ll have to work with those people.  Some of you will have friendships with people like this.  And a few of you will date people like this.   All you can do is protect yourselves by working hard and living a life of respect for the world.  You can only hope that your example will make a difference to someone who isn’t following an ethical compass. 

Just remember that not everyone has the drive to save the world.  That’s why it’s such a difficult task.