My values and morals come from a  strong sense of right and wrong as well as my upbringing. I did not go through a religion of any kind when I was a kid. My mother is christian, but she did not ever try to go to church with us or bring us along with her because she didn’t like the churches in our area, so I did not grow up with a religion in any sense. I actually disliked religion as a kid because I didn’t like the idea of a god killing people because they were mean when reading the book of fables that we had that held a version of Noah’s arc. I thought that if a god was just mean and killed thousands of people, he couldn’t possibly exist and that anyone who would worship someone like that were silly. I never spoke these ideas out loud as a kid, as I thought that everyone had those ideas, and I just went along with my life. Even as a little kid, I remember having this rigid sense of right and wrong that was hardly ever moved by anything. I didn’t have a lot of things on the “wrong” side because I was under 10 at this time and I didn’t know  a lot about the world, of course, but it was still firmly there. Now, as a 16 year old, I still hold a rigid sense of morals. As stated in previous papers, I likely am autistic and it ties into almost everything I do, morals included. Autistic people are more likely to have rigid morals that stay in place unless something big happens that changes them. In addition to that, according to NeuroClastic.com article, Autistic people are more likely to keep this moral rigidity in private and in public. Article linked here and down below if you’re interested, it is not completely relevant, so it will not be discussed much further. As I got older and learned about things such as the LGBTQ+ community, I realized that I stood for them and I was a part of them. There never was a time for me when I was not in support of all of the things I am today–like I said, my morals and ethics are very rigid in their–and I don’t think I was influenced to think any of these things, they just grew in complexity and knowledge as I learned more about the subjects, as I believe knowledge and support should as you get older.

One of the ethical statements I believe in and am a part of is that LGBTQ+ people exist and should be allowed to exist and be happy. Ever since I found out what being “gay” meant, I didn’t really understand why people were against it. Keep in mind, the only reason I found out about the LGBTQ+ community was because of YouTube originally when my favorite Minecraft YouTuber came out as gay, I was 12 and I was never exposed to these things before except in passing. Before this instance, I had a vague idea of what gay was as a concept, but I never really understood what it meant to be apart of the LGBTQ+ community or what it really was other than just something someone said they were. Since then, I have been in full support of every part of it (other than people who claim they are and very much are not (pedophiles for instance)). I found out I was Ace about a year later when I got a phone and downloaded tumblr. I found out what being Ace meant and I found out that I’m like that. That soon snowballed into me joining pride events whenever I could and being in outstanding support of the community, despite the faults in other people in the community. I think that it is important to support the LGBTQ+ community, and I know I absolutely would if I was cis and straight. It is just people loving each other and themselves, I do not understand how other people can view it as anything else. On an irrelevant note, the legalization that is being passed in this country is absolutely disgusting and I cannot wait until I can vote and do my part in stopping people from hurting others because of one person’s belief system. When I am a teacher, I want to be able to support others and make my classroom a safe place for anyone who may need it. That is my goal for being a teacher in addition to actually teaching English

Another Ethic I follow is that all POC are people and should be treated as such. I have already discussed previously, that I do my best to stand up and support those who are People of Color and I try to raise up those who are in that community because it simply is something that needs to be done. Again, I think that the current treatment of the People of color in the United States is incredibly disgusting and I want to do everything in my power to end racist people from hurting others. As I am a white person who has not had to deal with racial profiling or anything of the sort due to my race, I do not have a voice in this argument and I should not have a voice other than to lift up others who are POC. Nevertheless, when I am a teacher I want to be able to, again, provide a safe space for any and all of my students as well as make sure that my students are not getting bullied or mistreated by their peers or even other teachers. 

Another ethic I want to maintain to myself and my own personal standards is the fact that I believe that everyone should have bodily autonomy and be able to take charge of their own health and body and that everyone deserves a choice. I used to think that that was a normal thing, but with the recent legislation about Abortion and how many of our governmental leaders want to make it accessible for people with Uteruses to get, I have realized that it is, in fact, not. This one is not something I could necessarily use to help my students, but it is a standard of morality that I hold up for myself. I think that anyone who does not want to have a child and does not want to go through the trauma of childbirth should be able to take care of it and their own mental health and abilities. In addition to that, abortion in itself is a medical procedure, and taking it away in total will only kill more people whose fetuses are dead in them or are soon going to be dead and take the birth giver as well. As this is a much more political stance to take, I will not be discussing it further than what I have already said to explain my morals. As stated previously, this is absolutely something that I would not mention or talk about my views about because of both the political-ness it is as of late, and the fact that it would break the teacher’s codes of ethics to talk about my own political stances onto my students. 

The last ethic I will be talking about is kind of to wrap all of mine into a little box with a bow. I believe that, in most cases (as pointed out by one of my friends), anyone can do almost anything in their personal lives that will not hurt or endanger others, especially if it helps their own mental health. Things such as loving who you love despite gender/sex, being who you are, and taking measures to take care of yourself and own personal needs are included in that. I think that as long as it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt others, you should be able to pursue it. There are exceptions to this in my own personal morality, such as drugs is something I would never want anyone to do if I could stop it, but I realize that I will need to let people live and let live if I ever want to be truly happy with myself and my life. I think this is an important standard for teaching because if you were to care about every little thing your students are doing, especially if it doesn’t hurt anyone (including themselves) and it makes them happy, then your students would be miserable in your presence and you would be unable to help them if something more serious was happening because they would not trust you enough to go to you about things happening that is concerning.

In conclusion, I realize that not all of these standards are applicable to teaching, but the stances that are taken are important for me to uphold when I am teaching others. Being able to look through the world without the hatred that some people in the opposition of these ethics/morals is important to teaching people because you wouldn’t want your students to feel uncomfortable or be left out of things because of something they can’t change (race/sexuality), or feel scared because you being in opposition of their very existence threatens them. As stated previously, I want my classroom to be a place where students can be cared for and feel safe without threat of ridicule or fighting for any reason. Maintaining these standards are important to me because of this and I do not want to ever be in a position where I am unable to hold my personal standards when I have the option to while still following the guidelines of teachers set by the district. 

https://neuroclastic.com/autistic-people-care-too-much-research-says/