By Wendy Greenberg
Despite the contentiousness the country has been experiencing, there are those who believe that respectful reasoning is a valuable skill in getting their points across. Look no further than the Ethics Bowl team at Princeton High School (PHS), a group of students who aspire to present ideas and answer questions in a rational, thoughtful way.
They are so good at it, in fact, that seven Princeton students are going to the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB) finals April 10-12, at the University of North Carolina (UNC), to discuss ethical issues with the country’s best teams, illustrating, as the NHSEB website says, “what they do best: think carefully, argue honestly, and take on the toughest moral questions of our time.”
The NHSEB regards the competition as better than a debate. Unlike traditional debating club contests, these students are not assigned a position to defend. According to the website, “each team’s display of ‘respectful dialogue’ throughout the match” is considered, including “collaboration and the pursuit of truth,” rather than combativeness.
As Jack Bathke, PHS English teacher and Ethics Club co-advisor put it: “My co-advisor, (PHS English teacher) Doug Levandowski, and I like to say that this competition is less of a competition and more like a great ethical conversation, and if we do well, then we get to have more great ethical conversations.”
It’s even OK for two teams to take the same positions. Scoring is based on how well they explore the issue at hand. “Ethics Bowl matches,” explains information from the UNC Parr Center for Ethics, where the finals are held, “feature two teams meeting head-to-head to discuss and evaluate case studies which feature tricky moral questions or dilemmas. These cases come from one of the NHSEB’s annually released Case Sets — one for regional competitions, and one for the National Championship each April.”
“Ethics Bowl has been a wonderful space for constructive discourse on everyday ethical issues that I’ve typically neglected to explore,” said participant Charlotte Blythe Valvanis, a senior at PHS. “I’m grateful to be part of a group that can build on one another while working to recognize social issues and draw conclusions beyond typical assumptions.”
The upcoming Ethics Bowl cases, Bathke said, involve discussion around situations that the team will have prepared for before going to the competition. “The teams receive about 15 cases that they will spend time discussing and preparing their presentation, which involves constructing their ethical framework that they will apply to each case,” said Bathke. “These cases are real world dilemmas like the ethical use of AI in the courtroom, grade inflation, contract law, etc.”
One example in the website case library, presented in 2023, asks students to think about the practice of tipping, and whether this system of compensation is owed to certain workers, or is even just. Others are about dilemmas posed by social media, for example.
At the tournament, each team is given a case to present to the judges and other team, Bathke explained. “The round begins with one team presenting their cases, then the other team will have time to ask questions and offer commentary, and finally the judges will ask their questions,” he said. “Each team is scored on their presentation, how well they respond to both the judges’ and the other teams’ questions, and civility. The one thing that makes this competition different from other forms of debate is that civility rather than aggressiveness is important in the discussion.”
Acquiring the deep thinking reasoning skills is apparently popular. The regional bowls in 2024 (the last year given) included 550 teams competing.
“By engaging high school students in intensive ethical inquiry, the NHSEB fosters constructive dialogue and furthers the next generation’s ability to make sound ethical decisions,” states the competition’s mission. The collaborative model, it continues, “rewards students for the depth of their thought, their ability to think carefully and analytically about complex issues, and the respect they show to the diverse perspectives of their peers. “
If the PHS team wins, it won’t be the first time, and attending the national competition is not new for Princeton students, who are attending for the third time. PHS attended in 2022, 2024, and now, having won the national competition in 2022, they garnered the Judges Award in 2024 (for having the best responses to the judges’ questions, said Bathke). The judges are usually drawn from the UNC community, and are often philosophy professors, lawyers, and judges.
To secure a place in the national bowl, Princeton defeated School of the Holy Child in Westchester, N.Y., competing in the Northeast Divisional Round in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 21.
There will be seven PHS students attending nationals. Initially there were two teams competing from PHS at the regional competition at Villanova University (Pa.), held February 7, but only one team advanced to the final round of competitions against Cherry Hill East High School. The other PHS team got to quarterfinals before being eliminated at the regional competition.