The Ontario College of Teachers affirms that the principles at the heart of the ethical standard of Respect are trust and fair-mindedness. Members honour human dignity, emotional wellness and cognitive development. In their professional practice, they model respect for spiritual and cultural values, social justice, confidentiality, freedom, democracy and the environment.
This ethical standard of care is similar to the Catholic Graduate Expectation #7: A responsible citizen who gives witness to Catholic social teaching by promoting peace, justice and the sacredness of human life.
In order to engage the OCT and the CGEs requirements I did an analysis of and recommended a school activity that engaged the THINKfast program and the Two Feet of Social Ministry:
The Two Feet of Social Ministry
In order to ensure that my students continue in the tradition of giving balanced space to the four types of justice I would engage Development and Peace and their THINKfast program for the junior-level students at my school. The THINKfast program provides a learning experience that is designed for youth with an array of activities and reflections that make for an individual and collective experiential impetus for challenging poverty and injustice in concrete ways in the Global South, both through financial support to projects they are leading, and through a greater understanding of the structures that perpetuate poverty and injustice.
By choosing an activity that is rooted in and overseen by a Catholic organization we can ensure that our teaching of the Catholic Graduate Expectations remains balanced and doesn't become unbalance; over-weighted in distributive justice or procedural justice; restorative or retributive justice. Through partnering with Development and Peace it would be my hope that this 'charity/justice project' would root a new generation in the Catholic Social Teachings of the Church by raising the awareness of social injustices occurring in the world and how they can contribute to creating a just world.
