May Round-up: Top Five Articles

by Kirsten McHugh

As we gear up for a long holiday weekend in the U.S. and the unofficial kick-off to summer, our team at The Good Project would like to share content that has inspired discussion and deeper thinking amongst our group in recent weeks. We hope you find these ideas a compelling way to wrap up your month.

1. As the end of this very strange academic year draws to a close, many graduates will leave their institutions to join their respective professional ranks in a bit of a fog. Earlier this month, Harvard Law Today published a piece on the 2021 Last Lecture Series (link here). Select faculty were asked to share their words of wisdom with the graduating class in this annual tradition. This year’s group of faculty did not disappoint in their offerings of hope and motivation for the future.

2. In more of a “listen” than “read” mood? Check out this recent podcast episode from NYT’s The Ezra Klein Show in which Ezra interviews Anna Sale of Death, Sex, and Money (link here). The two discuss how to best approach “difficult conversations”—how to be a good listener and a good communicator. 

3. In case you missed it, our colleagues at The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues recently hosted a panel discussion on “Virtues in the Professions” (link here). The panel featured Dr. Sabena Jameel from the University of Birmingham, Professor David Bogle from the University College London, and Major Dr. Scott Parsons from the United States Military Academy West Point. Together, the group discussed ethics and dilemmas across engineering, the military, and medicine. Want more? Don’t miss the upcoming conference “Character and Virtues in the Professions” (link here). 

4. An unprecedented number of American women made the difficult decision to leave work during the pandemic in order to care for their families. Now that the country is starting to reopen, how do these women return to the workplace? Check out this short segment from NPR to learn how one group aims to help women reverse course and get back to the office (link here). 

5. When we talk about supporting our outermost Rings of Responsibility (link here), we often find ourselves discussing civics and citizenship. The Good Project Director Lynn Barendsen has thought a lot about this sector over the years. In her most recent blog (link here), Barendsen describes her connection to the Civic Collaboratory (link here), shares highlights of the impressive work being done in this realm by some Collaboratory members, and announces The Good Project’s Good Civics series (link here).

April Round-up: Top Five Articles

by Kirsten McHugh

April Round-Up: Top Five Articles

Here in the Northeast US, the trees are budding, and we are thankfully beginning to shake off the harsh winter weather. Along with a bit of additional sunlight each day, we at The Good Project have been staying energized with some great reads. 

We hope you find the following resources and articles helpful. 

Without further ado, here are our “top five” picks for the month of April.

1. The Right Question Institute has recently released new remote resources for teaching their “Question Formulation Technique.” If you aren’t familiar with their work, the Right Question Institute’s mission is “to make democracy work better by teaching a strategy that allows anyone, no matter their educational, income, or literacy level, to learn to ask better questions and participate more effectively in decisions that affect them.” They have pulled together tools, guides, templates, and webinars for easy access in building this method into coursework. 

2. Workers in nearly every domain have faced enormous challenges in adapting to the pandemic, but teachers have had a particularly rough go of it. NPR’s Kavitha Cardoza explores the effect that chronic stress is having on teachers and, in turn, their students.

3. In his latest piece, Craig Lambert of The Harvard Gazette features the work of Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. In the article, Wallace describes some of the most poignant moments of his career—from moderating the first of the 2020 presidential debates to interviewing Vladimir Putin. Wallace, Lambert argues, does not hide his political views, though he is decidedly non-partisan when it comes to which candidates he chooses to support. 

   There are no “rules” in journalism regarding whether or not a reporter should reveal their own beliefs. Some, like Wallace, choose to be transparent in their views. On the flip side, the argument can be made for “disinterestedness” in the profession.

4. Annie Lowrey of The Atlantic examines the label “low-skill” in her article “Low-Skill Workers Aren’t a Problem to Be Fixed.” Lowrey argues that the term unfairly belittles large swaths of the essential American workforce. 

5. This month, we witnessed the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. For resources and support regarding how to discuss these kinds of issues in learning groups, we turn to Facing History and Ourselves. Check out new resources that provide guidance about introducing the trial to students and helping them to understand the processes of the American justice system. 

February Round-Up: Top 5 Articles

As usual, February has been a busy month at The Good Project. If you missed it, take a look at our February Newsletter, which offers a wealth of resources for Black History Month, and more. Here, check out a few more resources that caught our attention throughout the month:  (Links in title)

1. To Serve Better: This project from the Harvard Gazette shares stories of people who are “committed to public purpose and to making a positive difference in communities throughout the country.” You can read about people like Gwen Thompkins, executive producer of the music radio show “Music Inside Out,” sharing the music of Louisiana with the wider world. In reading the stories of these individuals, consider: do these individuals embody the 3 Es of good work?

2. Being Good in a World of Need: Take a look at this webinar with Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Larry Temkin, hosted at Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics. Dr. Temkin discusses some of his worries regarding global aid efforts and how they might actually bring about worse outcomes in some of the world’s poorest regions. He explains that what is morally right for the individual might be morally wrong for the collective, and vice versa. How might we take the lessons Dr. Temkin describes and apply them to our own efforts to do good work?

3. Evolution from an ‘I’ to a ‘We’ Culture: In this article on his new book with Shaylyn Romney Garrett, The Upswing, Robert Putman (of Bowling Alone fame) speaks to how American society moved from an an individualistic ‘I’ culture during the early 1900s “Gilded Age” to a more collectivistic ‘we’  culture, only to become more individualistic since the Reagan years, with the 1990s serving as a new “Gilded Age.” Putnam urges a return to a more ‘we’ oriented culture and hopes that movements like Black Lives Matter will help urge Americans in this direction. At The Good Project, we use the Rings of Responsibility to help individuals think about their responsibilities to self, others, community, profession, and wider society. How can this framework help you think about moving from an ‘I’ to a ‘we’ culture in your own life? 

4. Your Ideas are not Your Identity: Adam Grant’s new book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know delves into the importance of intellectual humility--being aware of what we don’t know--and how that relates to our ability and willingness to change our opinions and ideas. In this article, Grant speaks to the “value of rethinking” ideas; he argues that rather than argue for a binary (I’m right, you’re wrong), we need to complexify ideas and try to get to the nuance of various arguments. To do this, we need to ask questions and listen to each other’s arguments. If you’re interested in thinking more about arguments and their connection to Good Work, check out our workbook with the Better Arguments Project. We contend that “better arguments lead to good work.” 

5. Myth of the Lazy Genius: Who do you think of when you think of a genius? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? As Andrei Cimpian points out in this article for Character Lab, you most likely thought of someone male. At The Good Project, we often talk about the importance of mentors and role models--and certainly, who we look up to helps create our ideas of what it means to do good work. But as Dr. Cimpian points out, it’s important that we don’t unwittingly think only of mentors who “naturally” come by their skills or who we think have innate talent (often male role models), and thereby shun role models who work hard to get where they are in life and persist through challenge after challenge (often female role models). What implicit stereotypes might you hold about role models or mentors in your life? How might these stereotypes affect your views of what it means to do good work? 

January Round-Up: Top 5 Articles

by Danny Mucinskas

The Good Project team wishes all of our visitors a happy and healthy start to 2021! We are hopeful that the year ahead will provide everyone with opportunities to do “good work” as the world continues to confront many challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to political division to climate change. With greater attention to the interconnections between us, and a commitment to collaborative and innovative problem-solving, we believe that humans can overcome these hurdles for the common good.

Below, we are sharing a few articles and resources that caught our attention this month, which we hope you also find thought-provoking and helpful.

1. Why Your Sacrifices Matter During the Pandemic: The global threat of COVID-19 has now lasted nearly a full calendar year, and many people are feeling fatigued and letting their guards down. However, Greater Good Science Center summarizes why it is important to continue to be vigilant: the disease is serious, lives depend on our behavior, and the decisions we make today have the potential to affect others. As in our rings of responsibility, by considering how our actions affect others both near and far from us, we are motivated to make more ethical choices.

2. The Hope and Fragility of Democracy in the United States: The riot at the United States Capitol on January 6 has provoked anxiety in many people about the future of democracy within America and abroad. Facing History and Ourselves responded to the moment with a teaching tool that explores the tension between democratic impulses and anti-democratic reactions in U.S. history, using the Reconstruction period as an example. This is an applicable resource that may be useful to teachers who are trying to find a way to explore recent events in their classrooms.

3. How to Talk To Your Kids about the Capitol Riots: Our HGSE colleague, Rick Weissbourd of Making Caring Common provides some advice in the Harvard Gazette about navigating conversations with children about the events at the U.S. Capitol. His tips include leveraging historical context, avoiding demonizing one side or another, reassuring safety, and using this as an opportunity to discuss structural problems like racism and the vulnerability of democracy itself.

4. A New Educational Ethics Curriculum: The Center for Ethics and Education has released a set of lesson plans focused on real-world educational issues, including the role of charter schools and how higher education is a force for social mobility, as a way to apply philosophical ideas for students. Each of the lessons is based on a podcast episode from the Center and includes specific instructions for teachers and resources for further reading.

5. Google hired Timnit Gebru to be an outspoken critic of unethical AI. Then she was fired for it.: The power and wealth of technology giants like Apple and social media companies like Facebook has exploded over the past decade, and the ethical implications of the technologies that we use every day are numerous. The Washington Post reported on the recent termination at Google of an expert on ethics and artificial intelligence, raising questions about the degree to which tech companies can be trusted to self-monitor and regulate their products to ensure no harm is done.

September Wrap-Up: 5 Articles Worth Sharing

by Danny Mucinskas

With the arrival of autumn in the United States, the weather has been turning a little cooler, and a back-to-school season like no other has been underway. While this month was a difficult one on the national stage (COVID cases rising, wildfires ravaging the West, and the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), we recognize that, oftentimes, tumultuous situations provide the impetus for people to do good work in the future. We are collecting here a few recent articles about ethics and good work that we found to be thought-provoking to share with our readers.

1.      Who Should Get the COVID-19 Vaccine First? In the race for the development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine, some nations like the U.S. seem to have embraced “vaccine nationalism,” whereby priority would be given to a country’s own citizens in distribution. Ethicists argue that resources should be shared internationally, but also draw a distinction between equal sharing of vaccines relative to population size, which the WHO recommends, and equitable sharing of vaccines in accordance with need.

2.      “The Social Dilemma” Director Says the Internet is Undermining Democracy. Several members of our team have watched Netflix’s new docu-drama “The Social Dilemma,” a portrayal of the dangers of social media, including addiction and mental health crises among users, as well as misinformation campaigns and resulting political instability, that are often overlooked when we focus on the positives of online communication. Jeff Orlowski, the director of the film, argues that social media may threaten democracy itself by creating a climate of outrage and engendering a lack of shared truths.

3.      Are You Lying More in the Pandemic? Some Certainly Are. Research indicates that people are not always honest with each other about their COVID status or possible symptoms. Experts believe the reasons people lie are complex and involve factors like desire for social contact when sick and mental calculus that takes advantage of excuse-making.

4.      Putting Common Sense Back in the Driver’s Seat. Much of the discourse surrounding the use of self-driving cars has focused on dilemmas that look a lot like the classic “trolley problem,” in which a car’s algorithm would have to decide between two groups of people to hit. Julian De Freitas, a Harvard doctoral student, makes the case that these types of dilemmas are oversimplified, unrepresentative of real-world situations, and would require algorithms to recognize ethical dilemmas in a way that is unlikely in practice in the first place.

5.      What is Good Teaching? Author Kristina Rizga presents the case for “good teaching” from The Atlantic’s “On Teaching” project, for which she spoke to a number of veteran educators around the United States in an effort to collect their wisdoms before their retirements. She finds that effective teaching involves navigating a world constantly in flux, addressing student needs with individuality and attention, and overcoming the challenges of funding cuts, inequalities, and a policy landscape that does not often invite teacher perspectives.