Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Albuquerque Journal, Amy Miller; fall short on Trustworthiness

Ms. Miller’s article, Family Values, explores Character Counts and its presence in the APS. The article is dishonest.

According to Making Ethical Decsions, published by the Josephson institute;

There is no more fundamental ethical value than honesty. It involves both communications and conduct. Honesty in communications is expressing the truth as best we know it and not conveying it in a way likely to mislead or deceive. There are three dimensions:
Truthfulness. Truthfulness is presenting the facts to the best of our knowledge. Intent is the crucial distinction between truthfulness and truth itself.
Sincerity. Sincerity is genuineness, being without trickery or duplicity. It precludes all acts, including half-truths, …, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading.
Candor. In relationships involving legitimate expectations of trust, honesty may also require candor, forthrightness and frankness, imposing the obligation to volunteer information that another person needs to know.

Ms. Miller, and the Journal, have presented a half truth. Yes, in some classrooms and schools, Character Counts is taught and modeled. The untold half of the truth is that the Leaders of the APS have renounced Character Counts as their own standard. Her article leaves the impression that the APS are invested in Character Counts by failing to mention that the Leaders of the APS refuse to hold themselves accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts; the student standard of conduct. The community needs to know that the senior role models for 89,000 of their sons and daughters, and the stewards of hundreds of millions of tax dollars, refuse to be held honestly accountable to any code of ethical behavior.

Ms. Miller and the Journal are unworthy of trust.

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