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Sally Zeiner, First Grade Teacher & Associate Head of School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, also leads the Willow Ethics Bowl Team. She shares a recap of the event and the connection to Willow’s Virtues below.
Congratulations to Willow’s Middle School Ethics Team who participated in the annual New Jersey Middle School Ethics Bowl (MSEB) at the Ethics Institute at Kent Place School on Saturday, February 22, 2025. The Ethics Bowl, aiming to teach students how to think through ethical issues together, brings together students from differing backgrounds and communities who wish to explore the best answers to life’s most meaningful questions. Willow was an inaugural member when it started with just a few middle school teams participating six years ago. It has since grown to include ten area public and private schools. Six of our Willow middle school students competed, led by Ms. Sally Zeiner, First Grade Teacher & Associate Head of School of Curriculum and Pedagogy. Willow parents spent the day watching the team compete, and Willow teachers Mr. Joseph Iannacone and Ms. Sally Redling volunteered to help with the event as a judge and moderator.
Two members of Willow’s Ethics Bowl team working together
The cases for this year’s MSEB were written by a committee of teachers and students, including Ms. Zeiner and two of our team captains over the summer. Six cases were selected and sent out to the participating schools in October. Topics included conflicts with friends, use of AI, religion in school, the risks of participation in sports, and invasive species. The team approached the cases first by identifying the stakeholders. They discussed their perspectives and identified the virtues, including loyalty, responsibility, and authenticity, they found most important in a given situation. They also used different frameworks, such as consequentialism, care ethics, and the common good. When a situation is approached this way, it is easier to understand how people come to different conclusions. For example, in a conflict with a friend, the value of autonomy will lead you to a different solution than the value of loyalty or compassion. The language and frameworks help us explain our points of view and understand why someone else could hold the opposite perspective.
Each team participated in three matches, presenting their analysis and discussing the case with the other team and the judges. Unlike traditional debate, the emphasis is on identifying the ethical dimensions of a situation and engaging with the other team’s perspective rather than merely arguing your own point of view. Teams earn points when they engage in respectful dialogue and learn from each other. Judges ask the teams questions, challenging them to deepen their understanding and consider opposing points of view.
Every year, in addition to the first and second place awards, an award is given to the team who scores the most points for respectful dialogue throughout the matches. Most importantly, participants learn to identify their own core values and commitments even as they learn to understand how others might reasonably have another perspective. Developing these skills is one of the ways that Willow prepares our students to participate in civil discourse as adults.
As always, the Willow Ethics Team presented the school with thoughtfulness and integrity. One student shared, “Being a co-captain on the Ethics Bowl team taught me how to successfully work with others and make sure everyone feels included and their voices are heard. I also learned that the best ethical discussions come from thoughtfully considering opposing viewpoints and respecting different perspectives, even when we disagree.”
Ethics and Willow’s Virtues
We all know the frustration of negotiating with a young child who knows exactly what they don’t want to do but can’t explain why. Explaining the reasons behind your decisions and opinions is a skill that must be learned. It requires self-awareness, perspective-taking, and expressive language. When people don’t develop these tools, they may shut down discussions simply stating that they are “entitled to their own opinion.” This is the logical outcome of Descartes’ claim that “I think, therefore I am.” If we can’t trust our senses or memories and can only be sure of our thoughts, each of us is an island unto ourselves. As a result, we struggle to talk about the things that matter most in a democratic society. Discussions devolve into shouting matches, with neither side listening or considering the other point of view.
Our Virtues program provides the language we need to talk about what is important to us as individuals and as a community. This shared vocabulary provides us with the tools to discuss our values and commitments. We regularly refer to the ideals of respect, responsibility, compassion, and honesty when helping children and classes to negotiate the challenge of working and playing together. We all agree that these virtues are good, and so it becomes possible to move the conversation toward mutual understanding. Engagement in ethics is a natural extension of our virtue-based school community. This begins in Kindergarten, where students listen to stories, learn to give reasons for their perspectives, identify stakeholders, and use virtues to propose solutions to ethical dilemmas. Students build on these skills through their lower school years. In the Middle School Ethics Enrichment class and on the Ethics Bowl team, students consider age-appropriate ethical dilemmas (situations where there is not one clear right answer). This is one way that Willow prepares our students to participate in civil society within our democratic system of government.
Want to join the Willow community? Start a conversation with our Director of Enrollment Management, Lisa VanderVeen, to see how your child will thrive at Willow.
