“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars IV: A New Hope
We hear a lot these days about kids needing higher-order thinking skills, teamwork skills and study skills. As a homeschooling mom of an only child, I used to hear a whole lot about kids needing social skills — that elusive “socialization” argument. I agree that kids need to think logically, work effectively as part of a team, learn to process information easily, and form working and social relationships with other people not exactly like themselves. What I don’t hear much about from educational think tanks, teachers and the average parent on the street is ethical skills. In my opinion, without ethical skills, nothing else matters.
Ethics teach us to think outside of ourselves, outside of our own needs and desires, and outside of what might be easiest, fastest or cheapest. The abilty to think, and then act, ethically allows us to look for the positive and negative impact of our actions on the people and world around us. Such understanding requires us to realize that - sometimes - there are multiple, conflicting options and that sadly the lesser of two evils really might be the best solution.
Without ethical skills, other skills can even prove a detriment to the individual and socity. A person with excellent higher-order thinking skills but no ethical basis has the makings of a truly fantastic criminal. Teamwork without adequate ethical insight means that poor decisions can simply be performed efficiently and with everyone’s assistance, not that the team considered the relative merit and weight of each person’s argument or idea. Study skills (commonly meant as: know the material – or appear to know the material - for good grades and high stakes tests) without ethics as the educational backbone ensure that cheating, cribbing notes and plagerism will all maintain their usefulness and popularity for years to come.
Furthermore, ethical behavior has everything to do with social skills training. Learning to “get along” in a group often means learning to keep your head down, to avoid appearing, thinking or acting different from the other people in your group and to not question the group’s leader, the group’s actions or the group’s norms. It has more to do with being a good member than with being a good or useful person. My favorite online dictionary, Merriam-Webster, defines socialize (a transitive verb) as: to make social; especially to fit or train for a social environment. Note that it is defined as a social environment, not necessarily a desirable environment. Even gangs and cults have social rules and mores that must be followed. This can be further emphasized by looking at the intransitive verb, socialization: to participate actively in a social group. Social (if you follow the link) being defined as involving allies or confederates, first definition.
So, in this case, I define the Force as ethical skills and abilities, and it does, indeed, give a Jedi his power.
