The common good excerpt webb magazine 2017

THE WEBB SCHOOLS

THREE THE COMMON GOOD

A T H R E E — PA R T C O N V E R S AT I O N

T H E R U L E O F L AW A N D S O C I E T Y

How the individual, teams and organizations together impact

THE COMMON GOOD. The rule of law is a term that is often used but difficult to define. A frequently heard saying is that the rule of law means the government of law, not men.

There are many questions that surround the “rule of law” especially what is meant by “a government of law, not men?” Don’t men and women enforce the law as police officers or interpret the law as attorneys and judges?

How does the rule of law exist independently from the people who make it, interpret it, and live it? And how does each person choose to follow, or not to follow, the law as he or she goes about his or her daily life?

Webb Magazine • Spring 2017

IT IS OFTEN SAID that the “rule of law” in western society began to take shape in 1215 when King John of England signed the Magna Carta, a charter that guaranteed the King of England the support of powerful noblemen, so long as the rights of these men were also recognized. Article 39 of the Magna Carta was written to ensure that the life, liberty, or property of free subjects of the king could not be arbitrarily taken away. Instead, the lawful judgment of the subject’s peers or the law of the land had to be followed.

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Several centuries later, the founding fathers wrote the United States Constitution (1787), and then, in response to calls from states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, James Madison crafted the Bill of Rights (1791)— amendments that were built upon those found in earlier documents including the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the Magna Carta.

Since that time, many societies have developed institutions and procedures to try to make the rule of law a reality.

LIVING WITH THE RULE OF LAW AT WEBB

When Thompson Webb founded his school in 1922, he understood that in establishing a boarding environment, he would be inviting students from different backgrounds, nationalities, and upbringings to live together in a community.

To create this community, a unifying theme of students’ lives at Webb would be, and still is, honor. But this wasn’t to be a rule of law established solely by the administration; instead students, in the form of the Honor Committee (and later, with the establishment of Vivian Webb School, the Honor Cabinet), would have a say in the discussion of right and wrong, and throughout the 90-plus years of the institution, the Honor Code, while remaining the same in spirit, has evolved to address concerns that Thompson might not have imagined— especially technology.

“The Honor Code governed how we acted with one another, and beyond any conflict we might have had, how to react to one another,” explained Katherine Kilmer ’10 who is currently attending law school at Pepperdine University. “In society, today, it’s common to say that we’re ‘governed by laws’ but, in reality, that’s always changing based on what we value.”

Teacher Tom Jurczak is the advisor to the Honor Committee and in that capacity, he assists students as they work to uphold the tenets of the Honor Code.

“A lot of what we discuss is how to best meet the needs of individual students who do violate the honor code while also meeting the needs of the community,” he said. “The community demands honor and trust from all of its members and justice has to exist in order to make sure all members are aware that there are consequences for failing to meet those expectations.”

“ If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 51 (1788)

“Webb emphasized integrity and that’s something that resonated deeply with me,” said Jenny Choi ’07. Choi recently graduated from Harvard Law School and is a law clerk at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. “People have to agree to follow the law—that willingness is important, but it is also important that the law protects people.”

Webb Magazine • Spring 2017

When Raphael Huang ’17 signed the honor pledge, he did so because he believed in what the honor code stands for: “not a set of rules, but a way of life to which students strive to adhere.”

Huang said he wanted to hold himself and others accountable to those ideals.

“A big part of the honor code is boundaries of responsibility, which recommends that students hold not only themselves but also others in the community accountable to the honor code,” he explained. “I see this not as a call to be ‘nosy neighbors’ but rather as an invitation to look out for each other. If I see a student falling behind or engaging in activity that can harm themselves or others, I would bring it to the attention of someone who can help them.”

For Jackson Bibbens ’18, signing the honor pledge was an acknowledgment to himself about how he wanted to act and present himself. And even though he is an Honor Committeeman, he appreciates that the idea of “doing right” extends beyond the purview of the Honor Committee and Cabinet. It is ingrained in the everyday experience of students, from the classroom to the athletic field.

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Jurczak

The Webb Schools • WEBB.ORG

“Across the different classrooms and activities, there is the understanding that we are here not only for academics, not only for athletics, but to develop as young men and women into adults who will be a positive force wherever we are around the world,” he said. “A big part of this understanding is that our teachers and coaches have high expectations for our conduct and responsibility, but they still give us all the tools necessary to succeed. Also, as an Honor Committee member, I have an increased responsibility towards protecting the rules on campus. I must be prepared to talk to someone who is in need, or to speak out when the rules and values which define our community are threatened.”

In Webb’s Foundations of Civilization class, freshman grapple with age-old questions about human societies.

In the unit entitled “Right and Wrong: Questions of Justice,” students explore how people, once they’ve reached a developmental stage in their society, become curious about ideas such as goodness, virtue, truth, meaning, and justice and set about to define and achieve them. They study several different belief systems (including various religions and philosophies as well as the underlying ideologies of places such as Rome) in order to see what those participants thought a just society meant and the proper behaviors they argued were required of its peoples.

Wendy Maxon leads a section of the class and she said that the diversity of her students provides a broad scope to the discussion. “Using varied examples from world cultures helps students to see the concerns that are surprisingly universal, and the similar and different ways that societies of the world have addressed them. Some of the best conversations emerge from questions such as: are social hierarchies necessary?

Why would particular religions be appealing at various points in time, and to whom? Are people law-abiding by nature and what types of structures are best to keep everyone working toward the common good?”

Luke Raus ’20, a student in the class, said that he noticed that “Throughout our lively debates and discussions on these topics, we constantly draw parallels between the civilizations we study and Webb itself, as in the case of comparing freshmen and seniors to the Shudra and Brahmin of the Hindu caste system. After all, Webb isn’t just a school— it’s a full-blown society. Just like any society, Webb continually struggles to find a balance—between rights and security, structure and liberty, liberal and conservative—that benefits everyone. All Webb students want to get as much out of their experience at school as possible. Understanding these issues and intricacies helps us improve the common good at Webb as we take on increased leadership roles in the future.”

In teacher Claire Abisalih’s new Honors American Crime and Punishment class, students look at specific court cases, and read excerpts from a variety of sources including Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy, Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, Piper Kerman’s Orange Is the New Black, and Helen Prejean’s Dead Man Walking.

“We also examine some fictional narratives and popular television shows, including Netflix’s fictionalized adaptation of Kerman’s memoir, since much of our more casual understanding of the criminal justice system, sadly, may come more from entertainment than reality,” Abisalih added.

APPLYING THE RULE OF LAW TO LIFE AFTER WEBB 21 In his book, The Rule of Law in the Real World, Paul Gowder writes “The rule of law is a way of respecting the equal moral worth of all humans; we ought to say so, and work to build this equality across the world.”

To that end, Webb alumni are endeavoring to provide access to justice—the ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through informal or formal institutions of justice.

The Hon. Ronald M. Whyte ’60 recently retired after 27 years on the bench, most recently on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He was described as intensely devoted to doing justice. Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School and partner at Durie Tangri in San Francisco who is an expert in the fields of intellectual property and antitrust wrote: “Judge Whyte is the dean of the Silicon Valley bench. He has been involved in most of the cases that shaped IP and technology law. And he has worked tirelessly to improve the law.”

Laura King ’98 and Matthew Bishop ’89 are lawyers at the Western Environmental Law Center.

According to Bishop, their efforts are very much about the rule of law and how it impacts the common good.

The Webb Schools • WEBB.ORG

“My work and the focus of the Center is to use the power of the law to defend and protect the West’s treasured landscapes, iconic wildlife, and rural communities and ensure these resources remain resilient in the face of a warming and changing planet. The issues can be divisive, but regardless of one’s political affiliation, I think working to conserve wildlife habitat for key animals like lynx, grizzly bears, and wolverine or protecting mountain watersheds and rivers from pollution and climate change benefits the public at large and contributes to the common good.”

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King added: “At Western Environmental Law Center, we spend a lot of time ensuring that agencies are following the law, not the whims of agency officials. Our job is to provide a check on agencies that act beyond their authority. That’s important to keep agency action faithful to the intentions of Congress.

Our task, like the agencies’ work, must begin with the famous direction of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter to ‘(1) Read the statute; (2) Read the statute; (3) Read the statute!’”

The common good is a notion that originated more than two thousand years ago, in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. It has persisted through the centuries. As a Webb education suggests, the common good does not just happen.

Establishing and maintaining the common good requires the cooperative efforts of many people.

Tom Bingham, author of The Rule of Law, wrote in his book’s conclusion: “Even those who do subscribe to it find it difficult to apply its precepts quite all the time. However, the rule of law is the greatest unifying factor for a world divided by differences of nationality, race, colour, religion and wealth. It remains an ideal, but an ideal worth striving for, in the interest of good government and peace, at home and in the world at large.”

At Webb, the tradition of doing the right thing is a mainstay of a well-rounded education. The means of learning may change and advance with ever-developing technologies, but the obligation to do the right thing and contribute to the common good is as timeless as the Honor Code itself—the foundation on which the school was built.

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Webb Magazine • Spring 2017

Further Reading on Creating the Self: The Teenage Brain - Jensen and Nutt (A broad overview of teen brain development that focuses on how we help teens develop.)

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard - Heath and Heath (A look at rational decision making and emotional decision making in adults and teens.)

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Duckworth (How to find happiness and passion through a lens of persevering through challenge.)

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - Pink (A look into what motivates us—autonomy vs. mastery.)

Search Inside Yourself – Tan (Delves deep into mindfulness, self-exploration and identity formation.)

SELF, COMMUNITY, AND THE COMMON GOOD. AT WEBB.ORG