Moral dilemmas

Below is some vocabulary you may to check members understanding of during this session:

Orphanage: is a place where children go when their parents have died or their family are no longer able to take care of them.

Terminal illness: means an illness where you are not going to get better, the only outcome is death.

Punish: means to inflict a penalty or sanction on someone who broke a rule or law.

Harm: means to cause suffering or pain.

Make sure you’re in the meeting space 10-15 mins before the club starts. Depending on your registration process make sure you’ve a register either to tick people’s names off or for people to add their names too. Also, make sure the suggestion box is visible for members to see and access, again make sure you’ve got papers and pens for people to make their recommendations / suggestions.

Greet members as they enter, invite them to sit/stand wherever they are comfortable. 

Start the club at the advertised time:

1. Introduce yourself, what an English Club is, and your role during the club meeting.

2. Tell members there are five golden rules they need to follow to ensure this meeting is an enjoyable experience for everyone.

         I. Use English – don’t correct anyone’s English 

        II. Be respectful and supportive. You may have different levels of understanding and abilities to contribute to the discussions.

       III. Everyone has the right to an opinion.

       IV. Make sure everyone in your group has an opportunity to talk / ask questions. Max 3 mins per person per question.

      V. All mobile phones off or put on silent.

3. Ask members if they have any questions.

4. Ask members if they are ready to start.

• Tell members we’re going to start our meeting today with a mini moral dilemma.
• Put members into groups of four.
• Ask members to discuss the following: If you found 100,000USD on the street, what would you do?
• Give members 7 minutes to discuss this in their groups. 
• When the time is up, ask members what would their groups do if they found this money? 
• Ask members if it was an easy decision to make.

Below are some questions, you don’t have to do all of them, let the club members guide you, if they are enjoying discussing one of the question rounds let it run beyond the 17 minutes.

Round 1: Question 1 (20 mins)

1. Put members into groups of 5-6 using the different synonyms for morals: ethical, righteous, virtuous, conscientious, honourable etc.
2. Tell each group to introduce themselves to each other.
3. Show / give each group the first dilemma:  You are an accountant for a large, multi-national company in Sudan. One day, you are going through accounting books, you realise an employee has stolen around one million USD. However, you can see they sent everything they stole to an orphanage in Nyala. Your company won’t miss the money, and nobody will find out unless you tell them. Would you say something or not? 
4. Give support where needed. Encourage members to discuss all the different options and their outcomes. 
5. If members finish the dilemma quickly ask them to discuss the sport coach’s dilemma: You are the coach of a sports team. Your players are always late, so you make a new rule: if any team member is late they will not be allowed to play on the team for a week.  Over the season you punish many players several times for being late by not letting them play on the team for a week. Then, less than a week before the final match of the season your star/best player is late. What do you do, without him you’ll lose the match. Would you punish him like the other team players or would you let him play?
6. After 17 mins facilitate feedback. Invite members to share how they would solve the moral dilemma they discussed in their group. 

Round 2: Question 2 (20 mins)

1. Put members into groups of 5-6 using different morality idioms: fair play, give and take, straight and narrow, nitty gritty, moral compass etc.
2. Tell each group to introduce themselves to each other.
3. Show / give each group the second dilemma: A husband learns he has a terminal illness and he decides to ask his wife for assistance in ending the pain before it gets too bad. What should the wife do?
4. Monitor, give support where needed. Encourage turn-taking / asking questions.
5. If members solve the moral dilemma quickly ask them to discuss: Your son/daughter is very good at sciences and you think they should be a doctor or engineer but they are not interested in this, they want to become artist. Would you force your child to study medicine or engineering at university or would you let them go to art school?  
6. After 17 mins facilitate feedback. Invite members to share what they decided when discussing the moral dilemma(s) in their groups.

Round 3: Question 3 (20 mins)

1. Put members into groups of 5-6 using antonyms for morals: dishonest, corrupt, indecent, immoral, unscrupulous etc.
2. Tell each group to introduce themselves to each other.
3. Show / give each group a question on morals: Is lying ever the right thing to do? 
4. Monitor, give support where needed. Encourage turn-taking / asking questions.
5. If members answer the question very quickly get them to discuss: What harm do lies do?  When is it ok to lie?
6. After 17 mins facilitate feedback. Invite members to share what their group members discussed.

1. Ask members how their meeting went. Did they enjoy discussions? Did they enjoy using English and listening to the other members using English?
2. Ask members if the club met their expectations.
3. Tell members there’s a suggestion box (point to it) where they can share topic ideas or activities we could do.
4. Tell members when the next club meeting is and what the theme/topic is. Encourage them to come / bring a colleague etc.
5. Thank everyone for coming.

If the members enjoyed the club session you could share the following resources with them either on Facebook or in the English Club WhatsApp group:

• Ethical dilemma: Who should you believe? - Alex Worsnip - YouTube
• #_Can you analyze this Moral Dilemma - YouTube
• What to do in a Moral Dilemma. Tips for coming to a decision. | by Michael Thompson | The Startup | Medium
• Muslim Views on Morality | Pew Research Center