Our Ethics Olympiad friends in Australia are proving fast to respond to the COVID crisis, both in sustaining ethics bowl in the online environment, and in tackling virus-related ethical issues sooner rather than later.
If you’re unfamiliar, Ethics Olympiad is very much like Ethics Bowl, and in fact often leverages U.S. ethics bowl cases. Founder Matthew Wills and team have been in the ethics bowl game for several years now. In fact, he soldiered through a very long flight to attend the very first National High School Ethics Bowl at UNC, and he and I co-hosted a virtual bowl around 2011 with teams from Tennessee, California, and Perth (Australia).
In an email update sent earlier this week, Matthew shared the results of a recent China/Australia online high school Ethics Olympiad friendly, upcoming ethics teaching and bowl coaching professional development online sessions scheduled for May, an invite to the Middle School Ethics Olympiad scheduled for November, as well as some COVID-19 ethical questions including “How should governments weigh violations of individual liberties against protecting the health and well-being of others during a health crisis?” – a tough one for sure, and something I’m certain our teams will have superb insights on. Feel free and encouraged to share yours in a comment below. P.S. Thank you for not killing Tom Hanks.
Participation in Ethics Olympiad, which requires registration, is open to schools everywhere. In addition to bonus teaching resources, members enjoy the ability to remotely compete with teams from North Carolina to Western Australia, New Zealand to the UK, Tasmania to Texas. School membership is $180 the first year, then $80 annually thereafter – click here or reach out to admin@ethicsolympiad.org for more information, and kudos to our friends down under for continuing to fight the good fight during this difficult time.