Thank you for taking the invitation to attend this session. I consider this session and this entire conference as an invitation to action. It has taken a lot of courage to address the topics we are considering. It is appropriate and necessary that we summon this courage because we have come together on a battleground. It’s a battleground on which we make sure we are doing something positive for children, youth and families involved in junior livestock programs. There is a sense of urgency about what we are doing here. You find that urgency in the cities, counties and states from which we come. In fact you find that sense of urgency all across the U.S. people are appalled that children will cheat on exams, shoplift from their local stores and lie to their parents, ministers, rabbis and priests. A survey from the Josephson Institute of Ethics provides some of the statistics which have caused concern. This slide gives a sample of those statistics.

THE NEXT GENERATION

HIGH SCHOOL

33% shoplifted

16% have lied on job application or resume

61% cheated on an exam

COLLEGE

16% shoplifted

29% would lie to get a job - 18% have

21% would falsify report to keep a job

39% lie to boss; 35% to customer

32% cheated on an exam

12%-13% inflated expense claim, lied on loan application,

lied to insurance company, borrowed money with no intent to repay

I don’t know why we are so shocked about the behavior evidenced by these statistics. Think about what people watch on TV. Whether they are in Dallas, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska or Washington, D. C., the people they watch on TV, not all of them, but the majority, are not modeling ethical behavior, in fact they model some of the most unethical behavior we can imagine. And you don’t have to go to TV. We’re here because we know that adults have taught junior livestock exhibitors unethical "tricks of the trade."

Finally, we should not be shocked by the unethical behavior of our children and youth because we have not taught ethical behavior for a long time. For an entire generation, at least a decade or two we adults have neglected our responsibility to teach ethics. We didn’t teach ethics because it wasn’t politically correct. We were afraid we might be stomping on someone else’s values so we chose not to teach anything about values and ethics. As a result, it’s been too long since we’ve taught the difference between right and wrong.

Today we will look at a program that we can utilize to teach ethics. The program is called CHARACTER COUNTS! It is a program that was initiated by a coalition of more than 30 people representing diverse organizations including 4-H, secondary school principals, YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, PTA and many more. CHARACTER COUNTS! is part of the Josephson Institute of Ethics which was started in 1985 by Michael Josephson to honor his parents. Michael Josephson is an attorney. He taught law at Wayne State and Loyola Universities. He also started a publishing company and a bar exam preparation business. In 1985 Josephson sold the businesses and used about half of the proceeds to start the institute. Income from interest on the rest of the proceeds is his income since he receives no salary from the institute.

Josephson didn’t start out to teach ethics. He had been asked to teach law school as a new professor at Wayne State. It was about the time of WaterGate in our nations’ history and some law schools decided ethics was a necessary course. As the newest professor Josephson had to bone up on ethics in order to teach those courses. He became so interested in the topic that he decided the teaching of ethics should be his life’s work and he began the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

After starting the Institute for Ethics, Michael Josephson started teaching ethics to attorneys. He expanded to teach relators, insurance agents, IRS agents, journalists and other professionals. In the late 80’s he decided that waiting until adulthood was too late to begin teaching ethics. Since he didn’t know much about teaching children and youth he brought together a group of youth development professionals and ethicists in July 1992. I was in Washington, D.C. at the time when I had been working with USDA, National 4-H Council and a character education organization, The Community of Caring. By being in the right place at the right time I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the 4-H representative to the Aspen conference at which the Character Counts Coalition was formed. No organization had more than one representative. We were White, Hispanic, African American. Josephson did everything possible to assure that the group of people was representative of the U. S. population. We were Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu. It was a truly multi-cultural group.

Most of us came to the meeting thinking we knew the most important ethics to teach. Michael Josephson came with a list of ten. It literally took three days to agree on the basic ethics we should teach. Although we started with no specific number of values or ethics to teach we finally agreed on six basic ethics that were agreeable to the group and those are now the six pillars of character in CHARACTER COUNTS! Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship are those six pillars.

Now that you know a little bit about what CHARACTER COUNTS! is, I want to be sure you know what it isn’t. CHARACTER COUNTS! is not a values clarification approach to teaching ethics. For those of you who are too young to remember I’ll give you a quick background on the values clarification approach. It is a values neutral approach. Participants look at the ways they spend their time and money and that determines what they value. You are to prize your values regardless of what those values might be. The teacher/leader do not moralize about the values but just teaches the participants to prize their values. It was suppose to be good for self-esteem. No one is to judge right and wrong, good and bad.

CHARACTER COUNTS! focuses on the six pillars, the six universal traits that have been accepted by cultures as diverse as China, Zimbabwe, California and Nebraska. Those six pillars do not address lifestyle preferences like homosexuality, pro-abortion or pro-life, religious values, gender roles, manners, rituals, or philosophical values.

A few people have asked whose values are included in CHARACTER COUNTS! When the process is explained most of them have no difficulty in accepting the six pillars. For those who are still not sure if they should accept these values I have asked a simple question. Which one of these values would you prefer that your children ignore? Would you rather that they were not trustworthy, responsible, respectful, fair or caring? Or maybe you think they should not be a good citizen? To date I have not found one person who disagrees with these values or pillars of character. The pillars have been adopted by the U.S. Congress with the bill for adoption being sponsored by an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The board of directors for CHARACTER COUNTS! includes people as diverse as Marian Wright Edelman and William Bennett.

Let’s take a look at those six pillars: 1) Trustworthiness includes: Be honest. Don’t deceive, cheat or steal. Be reliable do what you say you’ll do. Have the courage to do the right thing. Build a good reputation. Be loyal stand by your family, friends and country.

2) Respect means to treat others with respect, follow the golden rule. Be tolerant of differences. Use good manners, not bad language. Be considerate of the feelings of others. Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone. Deal peacefully with anger, insults and disagreements.

3) Responsibility: Do what you are supposed to do. Persevere: keep on trying! Always do your best. Use self-control. Be self-disciplined. Think before you act-consider the consequences. Be accountable for your choices.

4) Fairness means playing by the rules. Take turns and share. Be open-minded; listen to others. Don’t take advantage of others. Don’t blame others carelessly.

5) Caring includes: Be kind. Be compassionate and show you care. Express gratitude. Forgive others. Help people in need.

6) Citizenship: Do you share to make your school and community better. Cooperate. Stay informed. Vote. Be a good neighbor. Obey laws and rules. Respect authority. Protect the environment.

When decisions are made ethically you follow three steps: 1) Think about the people involved in the decision, the stakeholders 2) Am I living up to the ethical principles of the "Six pillars of Character by being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, fair, caring, and a good citizen even if I have to give up other things I want? 3) If I cannot find a way to live up to one of the Six Pillar principles without violating another, am I making the choice I think will be best for society in the long run.

We know that the major impetus for movement through the development of ethics is the person’s own activity as a problem solver. The junior livestock program provides numerous opportunities with challenging interactions during which a young person can develop their ethics. People do not naturally or spontaneously grow up to be morally excellent or practically wise. They become so, if at all, only as the result of lifelong personal and community effort. Those of us who have special opportunities to influence the moral quality of our society have special obligations to seize those opportunities to increase ethical behavior. I hope you will join me in accepting the challenge of this opportunity.