The following scenario is intended to both motivate them, and encourage a more realistic and deeper understanding of real judicial decision making. Debates on the nature of judicial decision making are complex. The role of positivism or equity must be balanced with concepts of natural law in both making law, and deciding law. That is, legislative intent must be balance with what is fair. Nowhere is ethical guidance more essential, and nowhere is ethical content less prominent than in field education.
Ethics are the foundation of the profession.
Professions were initiated on faith. Faith became ideology. Ideology is accompanied by a set of ethics that are binding on the practitioner. Yet, as the founding work experience for many students, and as the founding instructional work experience for all students, field education does not include systematic instruction in ethical professional practice. Since field education is the arena in which the values of the profession are learned through supervised practice with an education purpose, it is logical to think that field education is the place to locate an important portion of a student s education in ethics.