Relevance of the Principles to Jake and Cooper’s Story

Discuss about the Educational and Catholic Charities Agencies.

Seven important principles have been proposed by Catholic Charities agencies in USA with an aim to create a world which would be free from any sort of human discrimination and disgrace to God’s creations. These principles are mainly concerned with monitoring and governing the social aspects of every human beings where they are ill-treated, socially excluded, discriminated and faces inequality on a social platform (Guitian, 2015). Jake and cooper were twins who were autistic and had been poorly handled and ill-treated in the school where they were admitted for their primary year education. The principles of Catholic Social Thoughts that can be applied in the case of Jack and Cooper are the life and dignity of the human person, Rights and Responsibilities and the Care for God’s creation. These are the principles that needed to be followed by the schools of Disabled Children where they were admission. (Volkmar et al. 2014) However, they were not any near to them. In turn they were insensitive enough to lack one of them in a dark room with only one window in the name of Time Out. This harshness and insensitivity on small children questioned the existence of mankind where humankind is said to be the most flourished species on earth due to compassion, honesty and love for each other.

The first principle that would be applicable to Jake and Cooper’s condition is ‘Life and Dignity of the Human Children’. The agencies have a strong belief that every individual being on earth is sacred and therefore their dignity should be declared as the foundation of the moral vision of the society. By the statement, it is meant that the dignity and choices of every human being (whether they are autistic or similar other traits) should be respected and cared for as they also have the same right to enjoy their presence on earth as do normal human beings (Massaro, 2015). Jake and Cooper were admitted to a school which demanded to possess a special system of education for disabled children. However, it was seen that the arrangements were very poor as there were no special education system fixed for them. When Jake and cooper were not being able to be communicated due to his speech inefficiency, the children were left aside while the class was conducted without monitoring their needs. They did not provide the academic education that they promised to deliver. Jake’s dignity was very much humiliated when proclaimed expert of the institution decide to send him to ‘Time out’. By this term, they locked Jake in a dark room which only had one window to provide light for. This activity of the school against the dignity and choice of a 11-year-old should be criticised strictly. They should have maintained the mentioned principle of the Catholic agencies societies in their approach to give an evidence of humanity in their service delivery.

Self and Community

The next principle that can be applied in Jake and Cooper’s case is “Rights and Responsibilities’. By this principle, the Catholic agencies wanted to state that by protecting dignity and human right of each and every person of the society, we can build up a society that can be loved and nurtured by humankind. It is the duty of the humankind to meet their responsibilities by harbouring feelings that are unique to mankind only. Therefore, every person has the right to life and all those activities that are required to maintain human decency (Condit, 2016). In case of Jake and Cooper, it the responsibility of all the human beings of the society to be compassionate towards them because that the trait that only human being harbour for their fellow mates. The school should have maintained the responsibility to treat both then children according to their requirement in one to one basis so that their wishes and dignity could have been maintained. The Australian Education Union have joined hand with Stephanie Gotlib to modify the condition of education achievement for the disabled and funds have been increased from $1.2 to $1.3. However, conditions have still been poor and meets of the autistic children in education has not been met. Therefore, it also becomes the responsibility of the society to understand their needs and discomfort with their situations and make them feel socially included.

Another principle that is also applicable for Jake and Cooper’s case is the ‘Care for God’s Creation’. This principle states that one should provide love and respect to God’s creation through their faith and dedication in all the creations of the Almighty. All the challenges that the human race face today should be treated and handled with moral and ethical dimensions which will lead to flourishment of the humankind (Thompson, 2015). In case of Jake and Coper, it was noticed that the school discriminated the children at the first place by categorising them inti low IQ category which is disrespect to God’s creation. Discriminating human beings mean disrespecting the creator’s foundation. Therefore, one should have equal outlook to each and every individual in the society irrespective of disability, caste, creed and religion and have same compassionate outlook to every individual.

Human beings from the very primitive era have displayed a social bond among them. This social bond has helped them to overcome attacks of predators, survivors of extreme temperatures and building an agricultural occupation where combined work paid to beautiful crops. Self-centred and isolated lives were never entertained by humans from that era as it provoked threat and danger to survival. Until to this day, the outlook has not quite changed. Human beings are called social animals where associations of different communities help in developing the quality life of an individual. Society influences his tastes, cultures, behaviour, personality, capability and love for humankind. An individual human can never survive alone. He needs to establish bonds with the society and communities to make his life happy and contented. Similarly, the society has to open arms for every individual irrespective of any discriminations to any human. A human bring can never survive in exclusion as from the primitive times, human beings have evolved to be communal beings establishing strong bonds with each other for survival. Human flourishment as proposed by different theologists support equal distribution of every resources so that every individual can experience satisfaction with life and be happy. It also provides the fact that each and every individual should get the opportunity to develop his life for betterment through equal distributions of resources (Ryan, Curren & Deci, 2013). Ubuntu is an African term that mainly helps in inculcating the feeling of humanness in our lives. Every human being should possess positive and loving qualities which when genuine will help in bringing stability and happiness in our lives and to the world (Skelton, 2014). Being otherwise, would lead to be out of harmony. According to this tradition, every human being should perform good deeds which would include being sensitive to the needs of others, being compassionate, affectionate, caring and generous (Achema & Ncama, 2015). The society and the community should have harboured such feelings instead of being animalistic towards their needs and rights. Their social exclusion from the rest of the classes and also their treatment in the society should have been more compassionate. According to the global rule, each and every one would behave with the opposite person in the same way that the person expects to be treated (Etzioni, 2014). Herein, also the twins should have been treated with the same humane feeling that the teachers and other stakeholders assume themselves to be treated. They are not outside the society. They are human beings who deserve to be socially included and treated in the same way like other abled children. It should be always remembered that human civilisation arose by preparing strong bonds of humanity creating a community as a whole and that should be harboured by every living being.

References:

Achema, G., & Ncama, B. P. (2015). Ubuntu: guiding philosophy of care for children with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 21(Issue-42), 1457-1468.

Condit, D. P. (2016). Catholic social teaching: Precepts for healthcare reform. The Linacre Quarterly, 83(4), 370-374.

Etzioni, A. (2014). Communitarianism revisited. Journal of Political Ideologies, 19(3), 241-260.

Guitián, G. (2015). Service as a bridge between ethical principles and business practice: A Catholic Social Teaching perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 59-72.

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Massaro, T. (2015). Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman & Littlefield.

Ryan, R. M., Curren, R. R., & Deci, E. L. (2013). What humans need: Flourishing in Aristotelian philosophy and self-determination theory.

Skelton, A. (2014). Vintage? A new wine infused with ubuntu and dignity.

Thompson, J. M. (2015). Introducing catholic social thought. Orbis Books.

Volkmar, F., Rogers, S., Paul, R., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2014). Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders.