The Ontario College of Teachers affirms that the principles at the honesty, reliability and moral action are embodied in the ethical standard of Integrity. Continual reflection assists members in exercising integrity in their professional commitments and responsibilities.
This ethical standard of care is similar to the Catholic Graduate Expectation #3: A reflective, creative and holistic thinker who solves problems and makes responsible decisions with an informed moral conscience for the common good.
In order to engage the OCT and the CGEs requirements I did an philosophical analysis of values and virtues through a secular and Catholic lens.
Life is about deeds not words.
Virtues and values are often treated as synonyms, they are not. There is however a synergistic relationship between them -- virtues are lived values, while values by themselves are ideals or goals which tend to be more aspirational. Secular morality and personal ethics are the primary reasons we have placed so much interest on values and missed the mark when it comes to creating a virtuous society. Today values are seen primarily as a tool for encouraging, promoting, and reinforcing positive ethical behaviour.
As Catholic teachers we must be mindful that values are simply a method for expressing our shared Christian ideals, both for society generally and individuals specifically; while virtues are the end result of achieving those ideals and are embodied and expressed by genuine Catholic action. The difficulty we face as teachers is that we is that we can teach our student principles that are related values but until they positively act in accordance with those values they have not achieved the virtuous life.
Values = SeedsVirtue = Harvest
I believe that virtue as the end goal is more important than empty secular values, but also recognize that without learning Catholic values we can never truly achieve a virtuous end.
