9th guide

I started to write this post about a month ago, but never fully got around to putting the thought into what I wanted to say. The idea came to me when I was preparing for 9th guide. Because I'm in peer helping I am required to T.A. 9th guide, and lately I surprisingly have been getting a lot more out of it than I did the first time around.

The core idea of 9th guide is knowledge is power. We provide the freshman with information about relationships, sex, drugs, decisions they'll have to make, and most importantly we have them decide what the 5 main morals and values that they base their entire lives around are. This class has opened my eyes and made me realize that our own personal and individual morals are the only thing we have to back ourselves up. We have to live with every action and decision we make as well as our reputation, no one else does. The only way sure fire way to prevent regrets is to have a core set of morals and values to base decisions and actions on. This way no one can make you feel bad about yourself and most importantly you'll do the right things for you because they are all done in accordance to what is right to and for you. This also goes to say that what's important and moral to one person will not and should not be exactly the same to another, and because of this those morals and values can't be decided by anyway but the individual.

This idea of the importance of morals as well as the importance that they are decided by the individual strongly relate to the practice SAT essay we just wrote about moral choices and social values. Because of my 9th guide experiences I have realized the necessity for strong morals and the need for time to be given to student's to realize their own. I think 9th guide was a perfect place and the way it is done is pretty good to. Pretty good in the way that no particular morals or opinions are pushed on them only information and time is given.

As I got to thinking more about personal morals and decision making vs. morals forced on by others such as teachers, religious figures, or families, I got to thinking about P.W.B. and specifically Nathan Price. He on the one hand has an incredibly strong set of morals that he basis his actions and decisions. He has no regrets because of the way he makes decisions based on his rock solid ideas of morals ad what is right, so where and how does he go so wrong in being a good person? In the way he goes about forcing his ideas and beliefs in what is right onto others. He has a strong set of morals suitable for only him, and when he starts to force them on others is when the problems start because he has no way of knowing what is important them. He has no understanding of what's important to them because he refuses to open his mind to their lives and how different they are from his own. If the headstrong Nathan Price can't even do it, it should be an example to schools about how forcing idea's on students won't work either. Everyone is an individual, therefor everyone requires individual morals and values, but they're needed nonetheless.

All this brings me back to some essential questions:
How can i be a good person/how should I live in this world?
The only way I can live a life that I will be proud of in the end is to live morally. I am my own judge and if I live in accordance to my core values and what's most important to me, then I have lived a good and important life. Community service, relationships, giving back and etc. are necessary for people who consider say sharing, responsibility, or being humble important because that is the way they believe themselves to be living the proper way.