FINAL REFLECTION

LO 7: Considering the ethical implications of actions

I was looking forward to project week. We were all eager to do it that by the start of the year, we were almost at the peak of our planning and ready to leave anytime. This changed the moment a gigantic barrier fell in front of us. The COVID ’19 Pandemic. The school decided to cancel the project week amid the pandemic and this automatically meant that there was no more project week to do. I would like to accept that the coronavirus pandemic made all of us upset but even so, I think there was actually more that I learned from all the planning and preparations we did. We were not necessarily the ones who decided to cancel the project week but having cancelled it was ethically right because it meant we did not put other people’s lives at risk or have them put our lives at risk from infections. It ensured that we took part in the fight to prevent the virus from spreading. However, we had conflicting opinions amongst ourselves about the cancellation of the project in the sense that some people thought it was safe since we were going in small groups and weren’t necessarily going to mingle too much in the wider community whereas others found it to be a justifiable decision. Some even wanted to do the project week on their own. Nonetheless, as time passed, the world experienced more and more cases and that was when we started appreciating the dangers of travelling and finally managed to get the project week out of our minds. Overall, I reckon our project week would have been a great one indeed based on the project we were going to do as well as how heavily prepared and eager we were to do it.

Reflection

#LO7: Considering the ethical implications of actions

Although fun, working with seniors, especially those with certain disabilities has never been that easy. There was always so much to take into account, what you say, what you do and so forth. Part of our service, which happens to be crucial,  entails us asking the seniors about their life in general as well as their thoughts of Singapore then record all these stories. I always thought about it for some while and realized that this task is quite easy to do with my age mates or middle-aged people but then a  bit hard and challenging when its old persons, more especially the physically underprivileged ones. For an unclear reason, I thought that it is disrespectful and rude to ask old people about their personal lives and perspectives on various topics. This sometimes made me panic every time I was supposed to interact with the seniors and collect their stories because I was not certain whether it was ethical or not.

I approached this really easily. I constantly reminded myself of what our service is mostly about and sometimes talked to the supervisors to get the assurance that it is ethically right to hold conversations with seniors on sensitive matters.