K-12 Ethics Initiative

There is a crisis of confidence in the capitalist system.   Recent corporate scandals have made large headlines and over 75% of Americans believe that greed and corruption among corporate executives are one of the most important reasons or a major reason for our current state of the economy and that corporate corruption is widespread.  It is also widely thought that too many people seem to have replaced good business principles with greed and dishonesty. 

Business takes in what society sends out.  The Caux Round Table recognizes that a lack of ethical and principled behavior begins in childhood.  According to a recent study by the Josephson Institute, 74% of students admit cheating on an exam, 93% admit lying to their parents and 83% admit lying to teachers.  We can't expect business leaders and managers to be highly ethical if there is little or no training of ethics in the formative years. 

The Caux Round Table has begun organizing a K-12 Ethics Working Group to gather prototype ethics programs and curricula.  We have partnered with the Minnesota Public Policy Forum (MPPF), to conduct a pilot project in Minnesota to help implement ethics education at the primary and secondary levels.  The CRT will work with chambers of commerce, service organizations, and business leaders to implement ethics education in several school districts in Minnesota and the results of this effort will be distributed national wide and if successful the project will seek sponsors with national/international service organizations to implement this globally.