Leading with a strong voice

ETHICS

The Ethics Council with Director of the Centre for Ethics, Nina Blumenfeld, and Dio alumnae guests Shania Kumar, Arielle Friedlander and Sabreen Islam who were invited back to Soapbox to speak to the students. Hayley Liu

LEADING

WITH A STRONG VOICE

Despite the ravages of COVID-19, the 2022 Ethics Council is a strong group that has been eager to make its mark. It is a creative group ably led by Lucy Russ,

Madeleine Jorgensen and Grace Field.

In the past two terms, the students have run a successful and dynamic soapbox competition, invited the Race Relations

Conciliator Meng Foon to speak to

Years 9 to 13 students and answer their questions, trained for and been involved in the Senior Ethics Olympiad.

UNMUTE YOUR MIC! SOAPBOX 2022

The Dio Soapbox for 2022 was undoubtedly one of our most thoughtprovoking, high-quality years of the contest yet. In this competition, students are encouraged to take a stand and present a structured rant on an ethical issue of their choice. Given our current climate of political and social polarisation, events such as this foster dialogue around tough issues in a healthy and constructive way. Our slogan, Unmute Your Mic, expresses this clearly.

Students with a keen interest in a specific topic are given a platform to share their views with their peers, who, in turn, are exposed to compelling issues they may not have otherwise considered. This year, subjects ranged from climate anxiety to the housing crisis to the importance of empathy. Of course, the war in Ukraine featured quite often as well. Every single speaker brought an original and meaningful voice to their chosen subject. There was a wonderfully enthusiastic contribution from Years 7 and 8 students; some memorable rants from Years 9 and 10, and finally, last-minute but very thoughtful viewpoints presented by senior students.

Huge congratulations to all who took part, but particularly to our 2022 finalists. In our senior division, these were Victoria Wright, Alex Wackrow, Aniva Clark, Bharathi Manikandan and Talia Wood, and in our junior division, Violet Tucker, Anna Lynskey, Emilia Young, Hayley Liu and Eloise Voss. In the final, these girls presented an impressive and dynamic range of speeches, so much so that our judges, Ms Jackson, Mrs Spicer and Ms Rosen, struggled to choose the winners. In the end, the winner of the Junior High competition was Eloise Voss with an impactful speech about body image, and the Senior competition winner was Aniva Clark with her meaningful speech, from the viewpoint of a Pasifika student, on protecting our oceans. Students were also given the opportunity to vote on the speeches that they felt spoke to them most, and the People’s Choice Awards went to Hayley Liu and Bharathi Manikandan in the Junior High and Senior Schools respectively.

A massive thank you to everyone who made this competition possible, particularly Ms Blumenfeld and the Ethics Council who put in countless hours organising and facilitating the event. Given the fantastic standard of competition this year, it’s safe to say we can expect great things in the years to come.

ETHICS OLYMPIAD

The three Ethics Council prefects and nine other senior students regularly met during Term 1 to train for the Ethics Senior Olympiad competition against other New Zealand and Australian schools. Unfortunately, COVID-19 meant that this competition took place online this year in Term 2. This is yet another opportunity for students to express themselves, which in this polarised world, is becoming increasingly vital as a life skill. Students analyse and discuss real-life, timely ethical issues in a competitive yet collaborative manner. It differs from debating in that students

Aniva Clark and Eloise Voss Bharathi Manikandan

do not necessarily oppose the other teams’ views but defend their position by showing they have thought more carefully, deeply and perceptively about the eight cases with which they are presented. This event encourages and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking skills, an appreciation of diverse points of view, and engaging with other students here and overseas in a civil way. Mrs Zoran-Rosen has also been working with this group.

Ms Blumenfeld has worked with all Year 10 students who have had an opportunity to discuss four interesting and stimulating scenarios based on ethical considerations. Students have used one tutor period to discuss each case and early in Term 2, we ran an inter-class competition from which 12 students were chosen to prepare for the Middle School Ethics Olympiad, which is again an international event.

The Ethics Olympiad has a junior competition as well, and 12 selected students from the Junior School are working with Ms Blumenfeld towards their competition to be held in September.

RACE RELATIONS CONCILIATOR MENG FOON

The Ethics Council organised a visit by Meng Foon, the Race Relations Conciliator. However, Alert Level Red meant that the visit had to take place online for students from Years 9 to 13. Meng Foon emphasised the importance of the relationship between tangata whenua and tauiwi and spoke wisely about his experiences as Race Relations Conciliator. Students also found much to admire in his ability to speak three languages and be a central part in three worlds – Ma¯ori, Cantonese and English. He suggested providing a box into which students can put anonymous discussion questions so they can express themselves and feel there is some safety around raising issues that may involve contentious debates. This is something that the Ethics Council will consider. The three Ethics Council Prefects introduced and thanked Meng Foon and asked him pertinent and thoughtful questions. This was an enjoyable and important presentation that made students think more clearly about race relations.

OTHER EVENTS

In Term 2 we organised EatMyLunch on Diocesan’s birthday and senior students volunteered at the EatMyLunch headquarters.

We are also preparing for the annual Community Ethics Extravaganza to be held in August and hope to combine with the Material Design students of Mrs Susan Wells in having them showcase their ethical designs. There will be details about this event closer to the date.

Nina Blumenfeld, Director of the Centre for Ethics Lucy Russ, Ethics Prefect

Aniva Clark

Eat My Lunch