Opinion | Do Today’s Students Lack Ethics? (2024)

To the Editor:

Re “The Moral Deficiencies of a Liberal Education,” by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (Opinion, Oct. 22):

In my upper-level Georgetown University ethics course, “Ethics of Global Leaders,” a discussion of the conflict between Hamas and Israel devolved into chaotic and accusatory yelling.

There were high emotions, but almost no discussion of practical ethics. Little was learned because students, billed as the world’s future leaders, lacked a moral vocabulary, one strong in substance and cognizant of nuance, to discuss the situation.

Like Dr. Emanuel, I have seen the moral deficiency at the university I attend. It has manifested itself by showing students’ inability to hold civil, nuanced discussions of the moral and geopolitical implications of the Hamas terrorist attacks and the ongoing security operation.

Fixing this will take time, but it starts with instilling a moral vocabulary through embracing disagreement. Students must learn to discuss, not disregard, the opinions of those whom they vehemently disagree with. Likewise, universities must encourage the development of argumentation as a skill to be embraced, not shied away from.

Zane Nagel
Seattle

To the Editor:

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s critique of academia is consistent with a growing anti-university movement in this country, which casts blame on higher education for everything from political bias to deficient levels of useful skills in the workplace.

But this attack assumes that students come to universities as tabula rasa, without the imprint and influence of parental socialization, years spent in secondary schools, as well as a constant onslaught from all kinds of media, from newspapers to TV to social media, some of which is quite biased itself. It assumes students have no free will and cannot think for themselves.