Syosset High School took home the top title at the high school Ethics Bowl hosted at Hofstra in the Student Center Multipurpose Room on Saturday, Feb. 11. The event provided high school students with an outlet to speak and debate on a wide variety of ethical and moral issues topical to the political climate.
Participants included students from over 15 high schools within New York, with Syosset High School’s team claiming first place in the final round.
“The High School Ethics Bowl grew out of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, a national event in which over 150 colleges and universities participate,” said Roberta Israeloff, the organizer of the event and director of The Squire Family Foundation, which fosters the advancement of philosophical education.
An Ethics Bowl is similar to debate but more nuanced in that teams are not required to take adversarial positions but rather explore timeless and timely ethical dilemmas they have had the chance to study and analyze before the event.
The competition is designed to spark spirited discussion but within the context of civil dialogue; that is, students can disagree but need to do so respectfully. Although it is competitive, Ethics Bowl is about collaborating in an attempt to advance understanding; to seek not necessarily the “right” answer but more accurate questions.
“We’re delighted to have it hosted by Hofstra; the school is a gracious and generous supporter of the Bowl. Hofstra philosophy students serve as moderators, and two students served this year as Ethics Bowl Interns. As well, many faculty serve as judges. One of the goals of Ethics Bowl is to bring high school students to college campuses, and to knit the ties between secondary and higher education,” Israeloff said.
Students were asked to defend their stance on a wide variety of cases involving ethical dilemmas. The competitors received scores from a panel of five judges. Teams also engaged in critically evaluating each other’s arguments in timed sections.
Terry Godlove, a professor of philosophy at Hofstra and one of the judges for the competition, said, “They give me hope for civilization – that would not be an overstatement. I think they performed very well. These were very hard questions and very thoughtful students. They did their homework and they think well on their feet, and it’s just great to have civilized conversation modeled especially in our society today.”
The Department of Philosophy helped prepare the high school students and faculty in advance of the event with preliminary videos on the ethical cases handled in the competition.
Jonah Wu, a member of the Syosset High School winning team, said, “We appreciated the coordination that the judges gave. The valuable input that they gave us is really beneficial for a philosophical education.”
Hofstra students Abigail Reid and Francine Chirico helped organize and run the event as part of an internship program.
“Before we mostly answered emails and help with coordinating everything,” said Reid, a sophomore philosophy and English major. “We took different parts but in the end we kind of saw how it came together and on the day we just made sure that the schedule went right, picked up the scores, mostly tidying up but it was really nice I liked being in Hofstra Hall.”
Syosset High School’s team will move onto compete further. The National Ethics Bowl is in its fifth year and will hold its national finals on April 7, 2017.
On the performance of the competitors, Chirico, a senior philosophy major, said, “The kids had really great insights and they were very prepared and they were just really bright, intelligent kids. Much smarter than I was in high school.”