There is a story from long ago
about a person standing at the Fork in the Road with one path going to the left
and another path going to the right.
A young child comes running down a mountain behind the Fork in the Road. The child was yelling, “Help me! Help me! There is a man with a hatchet chasing me and he
wants to kill me. Don’t tell him which direction I am going!” and the child continues running.
Now the person standing at the Fork in the
Road knows the direction the young child ran. Not long after the child ran by the man with a hatchet came
running down the mountain. He
yells at the person standing at the Fork in the Road asking, “Which direction
did the child go?” The person standing
at the Fork in the Road knows which direction the child went but did not say
anything. The man with the hatchet
chose a direction on his own and kept running in pursuit of the child.
The end.
We can look at it the story and
know that if the person standing at the Fork in the Road told the man chasing
the child which direction the child went the child will be killed but if he tells
the man the other direction then he will be lying. No matter what he would tell the man chasing the child the person standing at the Fork in the Road will have to live with the decision forever.
We know that everyday educators are
constantly standing at many Forks in many Roads and we need to make sound
decisions. So, what does this
story have to do with us as educators?
Well, let us say you have a student
who has not handed in homework for a few days and did not do well on a test and
has missed a few days of school as well. You also know the child has an ill
parent. You and your team have a
strict homework policy and it is only fair to the other students in the classes
that the student who has not handed in assignments should be treated the same
as other students, after all if you let one student hand in late homework then others
students should also be able to hand in late homework.
Share your thoughts about the story
of the person standing at the Fork in a Road and connect to it at least one possible
dilemma as an educator you may face.
Write how you might determine your decisions based on your dilemma.
