School for Ethical Education

Mission

The School for Ethical Education (SEE) recognizes the need for an increased focus on ethical behavior within human interactions. We also affirm the contribution of sound ethical reasoning in the advancement of ethical behavior. To promote our vision, SEE uses a variety of methods to provide educators strategies to support positive character formation in their students.

Needs Statement

SEE's most pressing needs include financial support to: (1) provide free professional development services to teachers, (2) develop additional on-line video lessons as a professional development strategy, and (3) research the most effective marketing strategies for the message of ethics and character education.

Impact Statement

The School for Ethical Education (SEE) celebrates 25 years of working to advance ethics in action. SEE continues to implement its core programs that include: Youth: Ethics in Service (YES) service-learning projects in schools; Integrity Works!, which is focused on advancing strategies for academic integrity; Laws of Life essay writing program as a writing assignment that helps students reflect on positive values; and our teaching and consulting programs that include contracts with schools and other agencies.SEE continues to support Reasoning with Ethics and provides a free subscription to teachers for weekly current events cases as discussion prompts for their students. The goal of the project is to help teachers support the practice of ethical reasoning with current events and be able to transfer the skill to academic content. An estimated 23,000 students were either directly or indirectly impacted by SEE programs in 2019-20. All SEE programs are described on our website at www.ethicsed.org

CEO statement

Not many agencies trace their mission back 400 years. One of SEE's distinctions is a generational vision that its founder, John Winthrop Wright, shared with one of his early American ancestors John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts. Still on board the Arabella in 1630, Winthrop wrote of his hopes and dreams for the new colony he was leading and the life he wished for the settlers. Winthrop articulated this 'life' to mean life in the community. It was his belief that life in the community, with a clear requirement for personal character, was essential. Winthrop added justice, mercy, and love to personal character as foundational for successful communities. The first governor outlined four practical steps to achieve such a community. The first step was to see a vision of community. Winthrop noted that everyone should see themselves living within a community, that we ought to account ourselves knit together.The second step recognized the importance of describing the common good. Winthrop defined the common good to include a valuing of what each individual adds to the community.The third step Winthrop suggested focused on what works to improve our lives. It was assumed that what constitutes the good to improve my life would not be radically different from the good to improve another individual or the community life.The last step Winthrop described was the principle to bear one another's burdens. By practicing these steps, Winthrop believed that the settlers could create a City Upon a Hill, which would promote individual and community success. Winthrop's writings in 1630 are full of hope and promise and are a foundational proclamation for a responsible and caring community. It admonishes us and points out the rocks of individualism on which we, over 380 years later, find ourselves shipwrecked and the cause of much of social dysfunction. The words of John Winthrop remind us what the early colonists were attempting to accomplish and what we seek to accomplish today. John Winthrop Wright, as a descendent of John Winthrop, has provided SEE the vision and resources to continue the important task of community building to promote ethical behavior and develop positive character. SEE's distinction continues with the support that it receives from Wright Investors' and how that support leverages all other income to the agency. In addition, after 21 years of operation, the agency is uniquely qualified in experience and published works to advance its mission in Connecticut and beyond.

Board Chair Statement

I have served as the Chairman of SEE's Board of Trustees and Wright Investors' Service since 2002. John Winthrop Wright, the founder of SEE and Wright Investors' began this unique linkage in 1995 when he included within his estate plan the donation of his ownership of Wright Investors' stock (privately held) to SEE. Mr. Wright recognized the need in US culture to focus on ethical behavior for the success of free and honest capitalism. It was with that concern that he founded SEE and sought to develop the agency to advance ethics and positive character in youth. With his passing and my accession to the Chairmanship of Wright Investors' and SEE, I have continued to support the mission of youth ethics and character formation for the benefit of our greater culture. Certainly, we don't need more Bernie Madoffs or Enrons to see that our culture struggles to sustain ethical principles for the greater good of society. We recognize there are not enough police or regulators to enforce the laws in a society where its population is lacking a commitment to ethics. Our work with SEE is one small contribution to address our nation's need to advance ethical and character formation in youth. Wright Investors' was specifically honored in 2010 with a national award by InvestmentNews for Wright's historical and continued support both monetarily and with in-kind donations of SEE's mission. SEE has chosen to collaborate with schools to accomplish its mission to advance ethics in action. We are particularly optimistic about our recent advances to promote academic integrity as a need that requires ethical development of students in secondary schools. Our research-based approach shows much promise for success and has great opportunity to resist the epidemic of cheating that is proven to exist in our nation's high schools. As noted in our Needs Statement, one of our great challenges is the indifference we face both in society in general and in public schools specifically as we seek to advance strategies that promote ethics and character. Internationally, it is far too easy to see how corruption and ethical weakness corrodes the ability of governments and business to help their nation's to prosper. We believe we are fighting a battle to resist those same pressures in the United States and welcome all those that would join us in this cause to advance ethics and positive character. Peter M. Donovan

Areas Served Narrative

Most of SEE's programs serve communities in Connecticut; however, SEE does have consulting contacts throughout the US and SEE's Integrity Works! program includes a network of schools in the US and Canada. Our mission has expanded nationally and internationally with a collaboration with a sister character education agency, Character.org.

CEO statement (optional)

SEE is working to develop its product line in professional development for teachers and seeks to gain more income from fee for services for on-line professional development.