Chapter 4: Building an Ethic of Collaboration: Moral Development In and Out of the Classroom

As this chapter is written, the stock market has had another volatile day and news commentators suggest that the United States may be in for the dreaded double dip recession. The United States Congress is firmly entrenched in partisan politics, and the good of the American people seems to have been long forgotten. The evening news features the plight of the starving Somalis, relocated to refugee camps, as the warring tribes within their own nation sabotage efforts to spread food, water, and medication to thousands of their fellow citizens. Margaret Wheatley’s (2005) words strike a familiar chord. She states,

In the next paragraph however, Wheatley (2005) articulates hope for humanity and hope for the future, if we would but look around us at the behaviors of those who have not been defeated by despair. She proffers,