Understanding Ethical Issues by Films

Amanzholova Liana

Translation studies

Essay

Understanding ethical issues by films

Nowadays, in a period of fierce competitions, the value of ethical actions increases every day. We can be faced with unethical attitude for ourselves not only in a world of business but also in our everyday life. Unethical decision-making is the result of people’s rudeness or the attraction of “easy money”, and at the same time, it can be made not on purpose, but under some kind of situations with no other choices. To a better understanding of the ethical issues, there are two movies that show you variations of the ethical or unethical treatment in both, business and everyday life, worlds.

Let’s start with the easiest one. The first movie is “Stand and Deliver” (1988). The story tells us about math teacher Jaime Escalante, who motivated his students to pass the Advanced Placement Test in Calculus. By working hard, 18 of his students passed the test. However, they were accused of cheating, because all of them have almost the same wrong answers to the same questions and they had to repass the second exam, that was more than previous. No wonder they passed it. So in my opinion, the first unethical issue is that students were taught math by computer or music teachers. The second issue is that students were had to do only math studying. I mean if you wanted to work to gain some money or you should have helped your grandmother and you missed the class because of it, you couldn’t attend his classes. The last unethical issue is racism. I think students were accused of cheating not only because they had the same mistakes, but also because all of them had Spanish surnames. Nevertheless, there are many right and ethical acts. For example, when Mr. Escalante persuaded Ana’s father to let her continue her education. This film shows us, that if you work hard, you will reach your goals.