The Marc Sanders Foundation is proud to be a sponsor of the National High School Ethics Bowl, a nationwide outreach program designed to provide a formative experience in moral and civic education for students at a critical developmental age. It is housed at the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The National High School Ethics Bowl and the regional ethics bowls it supports are competitive yet collaborative events in which students discuss real-life ethical issues. In each round of competition, teams take turns analyzing cases about complex ethical dilemmas and responding to questions and comments from the other team and from a panel of judges. An ethics bowl differs from a debate competition in that students are not assigned opposing views; rather, they defend whichever position they think is correct, provide each other with constructive criticism, and win by demonstrating that they have thought rigorously and systematically about the cases and engaged respectfully and supportively with all participants. Data from NHSEB surveys shows that this event teaches and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking, civil discourse, civic engagement, and an appreciation for multiple points of view.

NHSEB’s goal is to do more than teach students how to think through ethical issues: It is to teach students how to think through ethical issues together, as fellow citizens in a complex moral and political community.