One of the headlines in today’s newspaper was disturbing, but not surprising. It reminded me of a time about 20 years ago when I was editor of a magazine in Minnesota.
At that time, some flagrant ethical failures among prominent business executives were much in the news. (What else is new?) Anyhow, I read a news article about how Harvard University was having a problem finding a professor to teach a course in business ethics. The distinguished Harvard Business School had suddenly decided it might be a good idea to offer such a course.
In an fit of fantasy, I thought I would apply for the job. Of course, I was totally lacking in the string of degrees, books authored, and other credentials that Harvard would require. However, in my wild imaginings, I felt fully qualified to teach the course.
This was because of textbook that I would propose to use–it would be the one and only source for the class curriculum. However, when considering the wild fits of laughter that my proposal would probably create among the elite minds of the Harvard faculty, I rather quickly decided to abandon my crazy idea.
It was not crazy because of the source material I would propose to use; it was crazy because of how instantly I imagined my idea would land in some Harvard waste basket.
The idea was, simply, to use the Book of Proverbs from the Old Testament as the textbook for the course. The purpose of the book is presented in the first few verses of Chapter 1: “To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the instruction of justice, judgment and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion–a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man (or woman) of understanding will attain wise counsel” (Chapter 1, verses 2-5, New King James Version–”of woman” added)
You won’t find a better purpose statement anywhere. But, back to today’s headline, which stated in a five-column banner, “Dishonesty theme runs rampant in colleges.” The text included examples of some egregious cheating uncovered at some major universities. One was about the Dean of Admissions at MIT who admitted she had fabricated her resume when she first applied to work at MIT in the 1970s.
I assume that the vast majority of the 17 million college students at the nation’s 4,000 schools are studying and working hard and honestly to acquire a good education. But there are many serious ethical failings among students, faculty and administrators.
The adoption of a good, chapter by chapter, study of the Book of Proverbs (thousands of years old, but as current and far more relevant than today’s newspaper) could do much to correct these failures.
It would be wonderful if we could place over the portico of every university administrative building a quote from the New Testament Book of Galatians: “Be not decieved, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Chapter 6, verse 7 NKJV)
It is as inescapable as the law of gravity. There is a tremendous amount of “reaping” taking place these days in our nation’s prisons. Sometimes the reaping comes quickly; sometimes much later, but it will come.
Some wise teaching of Proverbs, this age-old yet very current book of wisdom, could help avoid a huge amount of regretful reaping. It could even produce a drastic cut in our prison population. “Be SURE your sin will find you out.” You may hide it, but you will not escape its consequences!
