Judgment and Moral Relativism

Humans are sociable creatures by nature. Moral relativism advocates for numerous moralities based on the claim that there is no one genuine morality (Furgerson and Flynn, 2016). Relativism determines whether an action is just or unjust, good or bad, ethical or immoral. As a volunteer at the La Grande Kids Club, I had the opportunity to interact with children from various backgrounds and perspectives. These children come from families of various races, cultures, social classes, and lifestyles. The concepts of judgment and mortal relativism went a long way in guiding me towards appreciation of the points of view from the stakeholders of this facility. Like any other person, these children had social contracts with the club’s environment and were governed by the set rules and regulations guiding the activities of this facility. This would be attributed to the fact that these children are social beings with tendencies of misjudging the set principles of operation.

Morality is an aspect of the set opinions defining the activities to be looked at by the society as being right or wrong. While there is no single aspect of what is morally right or wrong, there is need to set boundaries which demarcate the aspects of life that are socially acceptable and those that are not. For instance, the Kids’ Club made use of rules and regulations which defined what right was socially for children considered as members of the institution. Further, parents were confined to certain principles to guide their operations in the institution. In the same way people are differentiated by aspects like racial boundaries, social classes and cultures, different societies have different legal systems. Further, variation in these legal systems has acted as a cause for differentiated moralities among people. According to Niemczysnky and Maciejowski (2016), members of a group may uphold different forms of moralities which call for regulation. These moralities go a long way in giving explanations to the reasons why people carry themselves in certain ways. Further, an individual’s morality defines the way they react to other people’s action.

At the Kids’ Club, children revealed great variations in their points of view about different aspects of life. For instance, one of the children in this institution looked at the disciplinary measures upheld by the administration as being very strict. Upon asking her why she saw the environment as being strict, the student referred to the conditions of life in the school as relatively harder than those provided at home. In this case, the morality of the child is defined by the moralities upheld by her family and family life. Therefore, strictness in the institution is interpreted by the student as high-handedness. On the other hand, some children in this institution may have been raised from stricter backgrounds and look at the club’s environment as being friendly.

Based on the behavioral mix of people interacting in a society, it is important to come up with a sieve to differentiate what is morally acceptable from what may not be accepted by the society. While the pursuit for truth has no end; judgment is an aspect of truth and is guided by set rules and regulations which go a long way in helping one to draw the needed difference between what is morally right and what is wrong.

Entry 6: Racial and Gender Equality

Proponents of gender and racial equality look at all human beings in likeness with no regard of their sexual orientation or skin color. All human beings are equal in kind and need to be treated in equal ways when subjected to any form of law (Lemaster, Strough, Stoiko and Didonato, 2015). Gender mainstreaming is one of the most critical components of cutting the number of gender inequality cases in any institution. Social institutions need to come up with policies that promote active involvement of all genders in their processes. For this reason, all human relations need to be oriented in such a way that the roles played by both genders are allocated without discrimination or favoritism. This can only be attained through initiation of measures that allow for creation of rules based on suitability and qualification as opposed to marginalization and ghettoization of human characteristics.

The Kids’ Club is made up of children of male and female sexes. The programs in this institution are structured in such a way that they allow for equal participation of children from all genders. For instance, the institution has ensured that both boys and girls learn together in the same classes and environments as a way of striking a sense of equality. Further, tasks are assigned in equal ways with no regard of the gender of the student. There are settings in which both boys and girls are allowed to lead their teams as a way of showing that every person can lead despite gender differences.

According to Ratele (2015), gender is defined as “the social differences and relations between men and women which are learned, vary widely among societies and culture and change over time”. Based on this definition, the term “gender” should not be used as a replacement of the term “sex”. This is attributed to the fact that sexual orientation is a function of biological differentiations between males and females. On the other hand, the term “gender” in institutional contexts needs to be used to indicate the constraints and opportunities that are associated with the roles and responsibilities given to men and women in similar environments (McClintock, 2013). While the males at the Kids Club are allocated roles that require high levels of masculinity, the girls are allocated similar roles but at their levels of ability. For instance, when working with these children in the field during physical exercises, there were tendencies of allocating heavier tasks to the boys and lighter tasks to the girls. In one instance, the girls had to take the option of rope jumping while the boys were taken through a frog-jump exercise. In this case, the roles and responsibilities are allocated based on the levels of physical ability.

Racial equality is an aspect of an individual’s place of origin and skin color (Ratele, 2015). Currently, different economies in the world are considered to be useful recipients of immigrants from other countries. With such trends in action, people from different races and places of origin have made the United States of America their home. However, social interactions among these people are inevitable. This needs not to act as a reason for discrimination based on skin color. Putting the Kids’ Club into perspective, children in this institution have been oriented to appreciate one another with little consideration of their skin color and places of origin. As a matter of fact, working with these children made me realize that most of the established workgroups and teams were made up of children from different races. Despite this, these children looked at one another as friends and associated with a lot of affection.

Entry 7: Changing American Family

Social institutions have undergone massive transformations for a long time now. Families have not been spared either. All through the history of human existence, marriage and the family unit is considered to hold a central role in shaping social interactions and the extents to which the behaviors of children are concerned (Franklin and James, 2015). It is important to put into consideration the fact that a family acts as the first environment of a child after birth. As a matter of fact, the principles and ways of life held by a child are greatly determined with his family background. While family life and marriage has remained an aspect embraced by people of the upper social class and the educated members of the society, America is at the verge of experiencing a great marriage gap in the near future. Social transformations over years have seen the emergence of new kinds of families. Single parent families due to divorces and same sex families have gained a lot of prevalence in the past 50 years (Franklin and James, 2015). While this trend is not only alarming, it may also cause a lot of social harm on the way children interact. In my interactions with the children at the Kid’s Club, the issues of diversity in American families was greatly evident. Based on the records adopted by the administration of this institution, most of the students came from families with single parents. There were instances of adoption in which the parents were of similar gender.

Change in family structures has been a great cause for changing points of view on the values upheld by these essential social units. For instance, the emergence of sophisticated birth control mechanisms in the recent past has caused a great change in the way families are arranged and managed. The society has seen the emergence and dominance of competing values within the family domains. For instance, while there are a number of institutions supporting the traditional families in which it was an issue of morality for children to be raised in a family with two parents; a father and a mother, changing demographics have seen the emergence of women raising children without fathers (alexander, Waldron, Robbins and Neeb, 2013). Traditionally, gay members of the society were looked at as people who were deviant from the known and set morals. However, the attitude of the public towards these people has seen great transformation in recent years. As a matter of fact, the society has embraced these people to the extent that lesbians and gays are allowed to adopt and raise children. The administration of the Kids Club acknowledged the fact that the institution had seen great transformations in the family unit based on the mix of children they received in this institution. In their observation, they noted that the number of single parent families had greatly increased over the years. According to the administrators of Kids’ Club, the trend shifted from the traditional two parent families in which a child was raised by a father and mother to single parent families. However, the trend has seen great transformations with the emergence of same sex marriages.

Entry 8: Pluralism

The concept of pluralism in the context of American history is greatly intertwined with the fundamental issues of assimilation, ethnicity, religion, democracy and human race. Putting the United States of America into perspective, it is clear that the founders of this great nation had accommodation of diversities at heart. This can be revealed by the extents to which the U.S. accommodates variety of people drawn from different national and cultural boundaries. As a matter of fact, it leads the zeal of the founders of the United States to give support to a mix of people through collective agreements that embraced the senses of humanity (Shipilov et al, 2014). America allows equal access to access of liberty through universal and general laws within the provisions of the constitution. Pluralism in America has conceived societies revealing high levels of competing interests based on its diversities. This has gone a long way in defining the constitutional democracies of these groups.

Similarly, the education system of the United States of America has played a significant role in ensuring free and open access to this vital human requirement. As a matter of fact, the Educational institutions of this nation give equal opportunities for access to services with no regard on an individual’s race, ethnic boundary or social class (Mc Leod and Sundet, 2015). Further, the system of education in the United States is one of the most inclusive. It does not create boundaries for students on the basis of their cultural and religious upbringings. Further this system puts a lot of consideration for people yearning to adapt to the ways of life of America. The school in the United States his viewed at as an agent of social change and a place where innovations are conceived. As a matter of fact, people going through the education system of this country are looked at as being highly sociable because of the levels of integration upheld by the U.S. curriculum of instruction.

Despite the integrative role played by the schooling system in America, it is true to argue that the education system does not devalue the cultural and historical uniqueness of its diverse population. However, black Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians, Mexican Americans and the Whites are not put to tension to leave their cultures to adopt the known cultures of the United States of America (Shipilov et al, 201). Putting the Kids’ Club into perspective, this is a society made up of children drawn from varied cultures, races and ethnicities. However, the institution puts a lot of consideration on the integration of these children as a way of promoting pluralism.as a matter of fact, the children are allowed to work in groups with mixes. Each category of children in this institution is made up of black Americans, Hispanics, Indian and white children. Study and play groups are organized in such a way that they fully integrate all diversities. The administration is highly cautious in selecting children based on gender, race, ethnicities and cultures.

The schooling system is expected to create an environment that enables its stakeholders to express themselves both culturally and socially based on its variety of contexts. While this gives the implication of changing different aspects of instruction like the curriculum, the Kids’ Club has beaten possible obstacles even without initiating changes in its instructional processes to incorporate children from varied upbringings.

Entry 9: Limited Government

The phrase “limited government” has been looked at in different ways by varied agencies. While conservatives look at this term from the size perspective, progressives look at the phrase from the extents to which the rule of law is enforced by the government and governmental agencies (Greif and Rubin, 2014). Putting the conservatives’ beliefs into perspective, limited government is looked as “smaller governments”. In this case, the conservatives reduce the size of the perceived governments based on their sizes of debts, their levels of expenditure as a function of their budgets and the levels to which freedoms are enjoyed by the citizens of these economies. In the United States of America, the conservatives have upheld the fact that the citizens of this country have enjoyed high levels of freedom. This ranges from the fundamental rights of expression, the right to life and other constitutional rights such as the right for democracy through voting. However, the proponents of limited government as a political philosophy based on the perspectives of the conservatives the limited levels of government-society interactions may go a long way in conceiving “negative freedom” (Greif and Rubin, 2014). This is attributed to the fact that a decrease in the extents to which the government establishes contact with its citizens may lead to the creation of more laws which may be highly strict.

Further, the Conservatives have it that such laws may act as platforms through which the government may take advantage of its citizens to instill harsh regulations such as higher taxes, restrictions in movement and interpersonal interactions and the enjoyment of vital freedoms. Based on the arguments posited by political conservatives, the government can only increase the freedoms enjoyed by its citizens through enactment of regulations that curb the deprivation of its people of being underserved. Putting the Kids’ Club into perspective, the institution has come up with regulations geared towards allowing the children enjoy vital freedoms such as the freedoms of expression, speech and the right to representation. As a matter of fact, the institution treats the views of these children with a lot of consideration. According to the administration, these measures are geared towards ensuring that every member of this society is not deprived of the vital constitutional rights and freedoms.

The progressives tend to look at the phrase “limited government” based on the constitutional regulations guiding a government in its operations. In their definition, the actions of limited governments are directed by the laws of the land through the constitution. In the United States of America, the Democrats who have been looked at as great proponents of these views tend to believe that the government needs to be highly proactive in such a way that i9t responds to the needs of its people in a prompt way (Boix and Slovix, 2013). For this reason, all needy members of the society need to be assisted by the government based on the vast resources at the disposal of government coffers. Further, they argue that a progressive government should be provided with the finances to run its affairs. In this case, the finances availed are then used to support the functions of this government while aiding it in giving assistance to the needy members of the society (Miller, Kim and Holmes, 2015). While the help from the government may not be in the form of money, it may be as a result of indirect assistance such as sponsoring education activities, infrastructural interventions and offering students with higher education loans. The Kids’ Club adheres to the progressive’s perspectives of limited governments. As a matter of fact, the institution charges fees from parents as a way of raising finances to sponsor its activities.

Entry 10: Conclusion

In conclusion, I chose to volunteer at Kids Club, which is a youth program located in La Grande, Oregon for my Service Learning Project. While there is no single aspect of what is morally right or wrong, there is need to set boundaries which demarcate the aspects of life that are socially acceptable and those that are not. At the Kids’ Club, children revealed great variations in their points of view about different aspects of life. For instance, one of the children in this institution looked at the disciplinary measures upheld by the administration as being very strict. All human beings are equal in kind and need to be treated in equal ways when subjected to any form of law. Gender mainstreaming is one of the most critical components of cutting the number of gender inequality cases in any institution. Social institutions have undergone massive transformations for a long time now. Families have not been spared either. All through the history of human existence, marriage and the family unit is considered to hold a central role in shaping social interactions and the extents to which the behaviors of children are concerned. Change in family structures has been a great cause for changing points of view on the values upheld by these essential social units (Miller, Kim and Holmes, 2015). For instance, the emergence of sophisticated birth control mechanisms in the recent past has caused a great change in the way families are arranged and managed. Pluralism in the context of American history is greatly intertwined with the fundamental issues of assimilation, ethnicity, religion, democracy and human race (Hua, 2013). The education system of the United States of America has played a significant role in ensuring free and open access to this vital human requirement.

References

Alexander, J. F., Waldron, H. B., Robbins, M. S., & Neeb, A. A. (2013). Functional family therapy for adolescent behavior problems. American Psychological Association.

Boix, C., & Svolik, M. W. (2013). The foundations of limited authoritarian government: Institutions, commitment, and power-sharing in dictatorships. The Journal of Politics, 75(2), 300-316.

Ferguson, E., & Flynn, N. (2016). Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow. Journal of Economic Psychology, 56, 163-175.

Franklin, D. L., & James, A. D. (2015). Ensuring inequality: The structural transformation of the African-American family. Oxford University Press, USA.

Hua, P. E. N. G. (2013). The Path Selection of China's" Limited Government" Construction——Discussion on the Administrative Law Paradigm Transformation and Reconstruction. Journal of Jiangsu Radio & Television University, 2, 018.

Lemaster, P., Strough, J., Stoiko, R., & DiDonato, L. (2015). To have and to do: Masculine facets of gender predict men’s and women’s attitudes about gender equality among college students. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 16(2), 195.

McClintock, A. (2013). Imperial leather: Race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest. Routledge.

McLeod, J., & Sundet, R. (2015). Integrative and Eclectic Approaches and Pluralism. The Handbook of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, 158.

Miller, T., Kim, A. B., & Holmes, K. (2015). 2015 Index of economic Freedom. Washington DC: The Heritage Foundation.

Niemczynski, A., & Maciejowska, A. (2016). Contextual Relativism of Moral Judgment in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence. Social and Moral Values: Individual and Societal Perspectives, ed. Nancy Eisenberg, Janusz Reykowski, and Ervin Staub, 105-115.

Ratele, K. (2015). Working through resistance in engaging boys and men towards gender equality and progressive masculinities. Culture, health & sexuality, 17(sup2), 144-158.

Shipilov, A., Gulati, R., Kilduff, M., Li, S., & Tsai, W. (2014). Relational pluralism within and between organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 57(2), 449-459.