all right evening everyone uh welcome to another peaceful solution character education program teacher certificating certification training course please be seated hope everyone's doing well today here in Texas and many places throughout the United States at least in the Southeastern portion uh we're experiencing a little bit of little bit of chilly weather not not as much as it is up north but this gives us an opportunity um to come in and warm ourselves up and continue to be fed with some educ
ation that will help us to improve our society as a whole including what we see here right now not right now this very moment but what we um recognize at least the science Community recognizes global warming and how it is affecting uh the earth and the temperature swings um uh the disastrous weather that is taking place to Great extremes uh you know many in the scientific Community are acknowledging that these are the results of Mankind's activities over a long period of time not just anything t
hat that's occurred over the last you know year or so but over a long period of time our activities build up to affect our environment our global environment our ecosystem around us and this is why character education is so important because we can't discount uh anything that we interact with on an everyday basis I mean you know we can't you know just look at uh you know the uh uh you know the trees and the grass or or even bugs you know bees and and those pesky little mosquitoes you know uh fli
es they all have a purpose uh to enable us to be able that is us as mankind to be able to enjoy life and and when things are kept in the proper balance when morals are practice on a on a daily basis when they're taught they're accepted and they're put into practice then we can have you know health and and peace in all areas of of society whether at home or at work if you decide to go out and go camping whatever the case might be and you know it's hard it's you know I can see how it could be easi
ly overlooked those little things but all those little things add up to big things you know somebody said you know what would occur if uh even just one speci species of of insects were wiped off of the face of the Earth that they were no longer in existence you know you think about ants uh you think about something like bees uh you think about mosquitoes and and there are many different types of insects that are considered pollinators well you know we probably wouldn't have very much food right
because those things are necessary for pollinating uh plants in order for them to grow trees and and and bushes and fruits and vegetables and pretty much everything that must grow needs a you know that that that pollination uh in order to take place that process of pollination and many other things that take place as well and um and we're seeing that unfold right now as it seems like the world is just kind of crumbling around us well you know with what we're learning here in the building of a po
sitive moral character a sound moral character and what we're talking about in this particular class in chapter one of the unit on self-control and all the foundation that has been laid in the previous units before today you know these are helping these lessons are helping us to uh be responsible as individuals in society whether one or many uh to contributing to Turning what we see taking place with the degradation of of our environment and our ecosystem turning all that around and eventually b
egin the rebuilding process you know it's going to take some time but but it will take place because if it is us as as mankind that have brought these things down then it's us as mankind uh that can fix it right the breaking of the rules has brought down brought about a lot of sickness and the keeping of the rules will bring about uh much health and so keep these things in mind because everything that we're learning it contributes to a bigger picture right this is more than just about us as indi
viduals this is more than just about us uh knowing this and and teaching it to ourselves yes we teach it to ourselves when we when we study it and we teach it to ourselves when we teach others as well but this is about creating a positive ripple effect throughout society in which um we can actually see all of these negative things that we we suffer on a regular basis whether it's in paying you know $5 for a loaf of bread when it used to be only 50 cents for a loaf of bread you know uh the the co
st of of of um of paying for theft or the increase and just many many items that we see in today's society uh it's hard for um the average family just to afford you know food for a family of five because of the cost of living but we can see that actually turn around and there be abundance and plenty for others if these moral principles are taught accepted and practiced so keep that in mind as we move forward today and I want you to think about this because we're still talking about we're still t
alking about thoughts okay uh and and the choices that we make and the choices that we have to make on a daily basis a regular basis every every second of the day for the most part decisions are being made you know like uh was brought out in the previous class um I want you to think about this number here uh 958 mil1 125,000 okay now that's based on the for you know just just class purposes here the average life span of about 75 years all right of a person living about 75 years now some people l
ive more longer some people might live A little bit less depending on their circumstances but at approximately 35,000 thoughts per day by 365 days by 75 years that's the approximate amount of thoughts or decisions I should say that you will you will make on a on average right remember not all those are conscious necessarily conscious thoughts um you know and and when I was listening to the class again going over that and listening to what William was saying about that that um that article about
the decision making you know we think about things we make decisions on things that we you know we don't even really hardly give much much attention to right and and I stopped well I didn't stop but while I was driving down the road listening to that class I tried to count the amount of things that I was doing that I consciously made made a decision to to do right uh I looked to the right I looked in my my uh passenger mirror then I looked back forward then I flipped on my turn signal and I went
you don't think about that but those are all decisions that we make okay now if I chose not to do some of those things while I was driving I could possibly bring harm to myself or somebody else or cause damage to my vehicle or somebody else's property so we see how important decision making is now the only reason that I or anybody else who has a driver's license or who doesn't have a driver's license but but um you know maybe working on a farm or ranch or something like that uh is able to drive
is because they understand the rules to operating that vehicle and operating that vehicle safely and once once we get into a habit of knowing what to do and how to do it it's it it becomes kind of a second nature to us where we don't have to stop and you know look at the turn signal and flip it up and then look back at the road and then look to thead you know you just you just automatically do it and this is what this is what we're learning to do not only in regards to decisions for activities
such as as driving but decisions for activities such as choosing between right and wrong moral or immoral uh positive and negative because it's our character the the the choices that are based on our our character what type of character that we have which is going to enable us to be a benefit to society a joy to be around uh someone who can add to another person learning or harmful to society you know somebody that you don't want to be around someone that's going to uh be detrimental to someone'
s learning or building of a positive character so we're going to be picking up or continuing I guess I should say on page um 20 let's go back here to the uh lesson plan and let's look at L Lon plan one page f and we're going to look at procedure number seven here and it says tell students you are going to give them a tool to help them remember to practice self-control write the letters of the word stop vertically on the board and instruct students to read the section entitled putting it all toge
ther found on page 21 have students complete the activity found on pages 22 to 2 3 and tell students this will allow them to practice recognizing negative thoughts and practice self-control in order to avoid negative feelings and actions all right to so so recognizing negative thoughts in other words being able to to distinguish or to determine whether a thought that enters into your mind is negative okay and not just you know look over it with a glance and and allow it to be an influence inuenc
e to you because thoughts are influencers to each and every one of us and so if you know the student does not recognize that a thought that has entered into their mind is in this case a negative influence then they might allow themselves to uh be subject to that influence and you know make decisions uh based on that right instead of redirecting their thoughts towards something that's positive so let's look at page 21 and I want to pay attention to certain of the um uh the points that are going t
o be brought out here and the words uh but at the very top here on page I'm sorry not page 21 but page 20 Page 20 uh it says here at the very top to do or not to do that is the question well the answer or self-control is the answer to do or not to do that is the question and if you remember what we covered in the previous the previous classes here we talked about positive options bring rewards and we talked about the difference between what a positive option is and the results or the rewards tha
t come as uh when a person chooses an option and on the previous page on page 17 what a negative option is and what what consequences come when we select the negative option okay and remember I'm the pop the top of page 17 here in regards to these choices it says a choice or option choices or options uh can basically be placed into two categories negative or positive here are a few points to help you distinguish between a positive and a negative Choice Okay and like William covered in the class
on page 16 under it's a matter of choice and referring to uh another important step in developing self-control is understanding the role choices the role of choices in the way you think feel and act the choice is the power to make a selection between one or more options okay so let's go back to page 20 here and we're going to see why self-control is the answer now let's look at that first paragraph there and let's read through it and then we'll start kind of breaking it down a little bit it says
another important aspect of proper decision making proper decision making is learning to weigh your options weighing your options means taking the time to consider the possible outcomes of each choice before acting and then making a decision that is morally correct so this this um this process here right of thinking before acting or considering the possible outcomes of each choice before acting acting will eliminate the you know much uh suffered um uh oh response right that it eliminate that uh
oh factor out of a person's life because when we act impulsively then we have the uhoh you know what was that old commercial uhoh better get Moo right you know cuz you banged your car up or whatever because you uh decided to to drive around somebody because they were going too slow only to find out that they were waiting for traffic that you couldn't see okay uh but if you would have thought carefully that that person might be waiting there for a reason you would just drove around that person a
nd got into that accident well this is what weighing our options out okay means it also says here um uh before acting and then making a decision here now remember here it's it's when we think when we think about our choices when we think about our decision-making process uh and and and and what we're learning in the peaceful solution negative should never be an option in our mind right uh we acknowledge and we know that it's there why because that's what Society brings forth you know there are s
o many different negative influences we remember we talked about um you know the effects of character within the family in chapter two of the character unit uh that could be something that uh is bred into an individual uh something that could be a part of their environment uh the examples that they've seen uh you know so so there are a lot of factors that could bring about a negative option and it's necessary like we just read there for the students to recognize that a particular option is negat
ive but the focus is not on that negative option remember what we learned also to accentuate the positive to build up to emphasize to really focus on let that be the the direction for your course of action that's where that's our goal our positive but eliminate the negative negative will take care of itself it'll wipe itself out if you don't give it the energy right um you know we give when we give attention to our focus our thoughts on uh any particular thing whether it's positive or negative w
e kind of give energy to that that particular thing right uh because our our minds remember we talked about our conscious and our subconscious Minds uh our subconscious mind will take notice of your conscious mind focusing on a particular topic subject thought influence whatever the case might be and then the subconscious mind by default feels that that's what you're training it to focus on so now when something arises it's going to go back to its system of training right and say well you know w
e we use this negative thing or it's not going to really distinguish between positive or negative is we use this process of thinking so this must have to be how we respond and then you're cursing somebody out right because that's how you've seen it done you know or that person looked pretty cool when he when he came back with that that comeback you know or or whatever the case might be or that guy he he's a a black black belt in martial arts you know and and that guy was talking smack to him and
he just you know hit him with a dropkick you know if those are the things that we see and we value that's what we're going to revert back to that's a part of the negative options that we want to eliminate and focus on the positive and so when we're making a decision we want to make sure and this is kind of key here and I underline really this whole paragraph here but we want to make sure that it is morally correct now remember the morals they refer to and and are part of the supporting uh and p
racticing of the rules it's correct morally correct beneficial and and even in this beneficial and and advantageous aspect it's not just only beneficial to the person who's practicing morality or using Morality In Their decision-making process when a person decides not to steal from another person they're not only benefiting the themselves from not stealing from that person but the person to whom they were going to steal from from whom they were going to steal even though they might not realize
it they've received the benefit from it as well because now they don't have to worry about coming out you know to work in the morning and their car is gone or their bike's gone or or whatever's gone you know or their lawnmower is gone or missing or someone's broken into their house because they were on vacation or or they were at work or whatever the case might be you see they receive a benefit although unbeknownst to them when a person chooses to morally uh when the person chooses to make decis
ions that are morally correct beneficial and advantageous and this goes right back to that that positive ripple effect that we spoke about in the character unit there um even if we don't take in consideration how far-reaching our decisions might be and most young people won't most young people kind of uh about the the the length of their arm from their body that's sometimes how far out they think okay uh not to say that they don't think long term with a lot of things but uh you know with a lot o
f young people and each and every one of us have been young ourselves you know um the only time we thought far out is when for the most part something didn't go our way you know and we couldn't wait till we were 18 or we couldn't wait till we were 21 and we could do whatever we want to do right that's kind of how how far out our thinking went but um but it's up to us as the teacher to help the students realize that their decisions stretch far beyond the choices that they make today right and the
n that next sentence there that last sentence says a proper decision is made only only after you have weighed your options only after you have weighed your options and so now I want to go back to the very top of that paragraph there because what we're looking at what we see here how we it's worded it says another important aspect another important aspect so which means that this goes right along with the previous aspects that were covered in the the few pages that were before this and I wrote do
wn um one of the aspects is deciding what to focus on and what to let go and in in regards to decision-making process because remember our decisions don't just come generally speaking from a spur of the- moment type thing uh there is some thought that goes into that decision-making process some influence that goes into uh the the choices that we make and the options that we consider and whether we consider those options are positive or negative beneficial or harmful well the first point that I h
ave there is deciding what to focus on and what to let go and we covered that on page 16 back here under its a under its a excuse me under its a matter of choice and um in the first paragraph uh let's see here well kind of kind of down toward the middle of that first paragraph it says uh you choose which thoughts to focus on and which to let go all right because it says just before that it says the choice is the power to make a decision or selection between one or more options and every day you
make choices like was covered in the previous class approximately 35,000 decisions are made a day now that's approximate number because no one knows the thoughts that goes through every person's mind and the decisions that are made by every individual but that's you know probably a pretty decent uh estimation um you know unless you're in a field of work where there are a lot of activities going on uh you know if you're in some type of analytical firm or something like that and you're looking at
numbers like say on the you know some like a stock broker or something and they're constantly you know watching the boards and seeing the the the the trends and the stocks go up and down and they're making calls and they're calling out things you know they're doing quite a bit of things they might make many more decisions than 35,000 in addition to the regular decisions that they make um on a daily basis but you can see you know every day you're making choices and it is up to us now you see you
choose this is us we as the individual who are reading this choose which thoughts to focus on and which to let go now you know in regards to events and circumstances in our life I know that you know probably safe to say many of us have probably been through at least one traumatic thing you know uh that that we've experienced in our life and um you know whether it's a car accident or you know suffering the loss or injury in your own life or witnessing someone else suffer that type of thing you kn
ow the the natural tendency is to kind of rehearse that over and over and over and over again right you know I I remember um once when I was in a car accident and it was never it was nothing major but I remember being in the car accident and it was kind of a kind of a shock in the trauma you know uh when that actually took place and it it took it took several days throughout the day of me catching those thoughts and that scenario and the events that led right up to during and after that accident
before I kind of shoot chose to to let it go you know because you know your mind kind of T especially when there's some type of emotional trauma that that uh goes along with the emotions are very powerful and we're going to get into this in the next chapter um because those emotions um they can strengthen a thought you know to the point where uh a person is more likely to act on it right you've heard of the expression crime of passion right a crime of passion you know a person comes and they se
e something taking place uh maybe with or to a loved one or something like that and they they act you know they act uh in in the passion so to speak um passion does not necessarily mean between a man or a woman but it could just be you you could be very passionate about many things right and they suddenly act impulsively without considering the consequences of their action and you know sometimes somebody gets injured something gets destroyed or someone loses their life as a result and there's ev
en laws on the books the law books that refer to you know crimes of passion and some people have you know um been let go so to speak you know not not been prosecuted uh because of certain scenarios or circumstances we're not going to get into that this evening but the main point here I wanted us to focus on is you choose which thoughts to focus on and which to let go and they give you example of getting up and getting breakfast you know you choose you decide basically what you're going to eat fo
r breakfast and even if you want to eat anything for breakfast all right and so that's one of the point or that's one of the aspects in proper decision- making choosing what to focus on and what to let go again accentuate the positive eliminate the negative now these are things that have to kind of go back we have to go back and reiterate in in in and bringing our students to this point because you know they might be undecided about what to focus on and what to let go they might go what they mig
ht let go of a lesser of two evils because the other one does not seem as bad or they might not get in as much trouble right it's up to us as a teacher to say no you know if there are two decisions that that you're that two options that you're thinking about and both can bring harm to yourself or someone else you have to eliminate both of them you know and bring about or focus on or maybe get guidance or direction if they can't think of it themselves then that's the point where they need to get
guidance or Direction even before that you know from a trusted adult a counselor a parent a teacher someone who can redirect those negative thoughts towards something that's positive okay um and so the next point there another aspect of of proper decision- making is distinguishing between positive and negative options and we covered that on page 17 um under choices and that paragraph at the very top there choices or options can basically be placed into two categories negative or positive here ar
e a few points and this is given here on the next two pages to help you distinguish between a positive and a negative choice so now we see here after we've understood that we can focus or let go of certain things now we have to be able to distinguish between what's positive and what's negative so we can know what to focus on and what to let go of and then lastly here um this next aspect of proper decision making is weighing your options weighing your options all right and think about what we jus
t read here you know weighing your options means taking the time to consider the PO the possible outcomes taking the time to consider the possible outcomes now this takes in mind if you um back in your U character unit there ah yes when you go back in your character unit when you take the time to weigh um to consider to consider the possible outcomes before acting and then making a decision that is morally correct beneficial and advantageous now you know when we think about this as adults we we
see it from a kind of broader point of view or spectrum because in order to do this there are certain other character traits that we've already covered now you know self-control is kind of the main thing what we're talking about and what needs to be be practiced in order to be able to weigh our options and to make choices that are morally correct but we can't discount the other things that have to come into play in order for us to even stop and think and weigh our options out right you know thin
k about if a person is is proud or arrogant right and they think that they have all the answers and that anything they say or do is automatically going to be right will they weigh their options out will they weigh their choices out Heavens know they're not going to weigh their choices out because they're proud or arrogant you know so this is evident that you know one of the characteristics and this is something that we covered in the um uh first chapter of the character unit is is humble you kno
w having a humble a humble character you know a humble attitude about that um you know in in this case of what we're talking about and weighing our choices and remember that was um the definition for that was not being proud or arrogant example being a humble person will not argue dispute or disobey set rules okay um as we move further along into this uh we're going to you know see that humility also is a part of humility is also willing to be trained right willing to be trained willing to be ta
ught willing to be educated right in the in the facts the true facts that will enable you to make a sound moral decision right if you're not willing to learn anything if you think you already know it all you're not going to be willing to learn anything and you're going to keep making those same poor choices that you've been making for however many years like the person says you know I've been doing this for for all these years you know well is it possible that you've been doing it wrong for all
these years it sure is now it's time to learn how to do it right how to do it properly and that does require humility right it does require humility uh from all of us and you think about it um it also requires uh uh responsible respon being a responsible person um you think about on page 17 in the character unit uh one of the first things this says is being responsible is another trait you should want to make a part of your character being responsible means to be accountable and answerable for y
our actions now that is the latter part your actions are the latter part of what we're talking about today that's the end result or what everybody else sees about what we're talking about right here which is our decision- making process okay because every action every word begins with a thought and and whether a person thinks that it does or not it does okay and it's it's it's it's part of our responsibility as as the teachers to help our students to understand that yes everything you say and do
begins with the thought but we want you to be able to consider your thoughts to weigh out your thoughts to weigh out your your your options right to to carefully diagnose these things that that enter into your mind remember thoughts enter into our mind at the at the speed of light 186 thou th000 miles per second you know they enter into our minds and we can probably respond almost as fast right um you know you think about I use this expression I you know about driving you know down the road and
think about how fast or how quickly as you're driving down the road you come to a stoplight and you see that light turn from yellow to Red how quickly it takes for you to process that image of that stoplight recognizing it as being red now being who cares it's a red light well that's pretty no you have to be trained and educated to recognize the difference between what a red light means what a yellow light means and what a green light means right uh you you know you have to know that the Green
Arrow or the flashing yellow arrow light that's in the turning lane does not mean to look left every time it flashes you know you would have to know that you'd have to be first educated you know uh through driver's education or whatever the case might be you'd have to know the rules of the road to know that red means stop right and yellow does not mean what that's right it doesn't mean go faster that's what a lot of people do right uh yellow means be careful because the light is getting ready to
turn red okay and I think many of us have um had green lights occur on our lane and seeing a car drivve through in the intersection because they didn't you know take into consideration that they were supposed to be stopping but think about how quickly you see that light turn red you process that information in your mind that that is red you don't have to think at that moment let's see green yellow red see red turn stop yeah stop okay I will take my foot off of the right pedal bring my leg up sl
ide it over to the big pedal on the left or middle if you have a clutch and then press it down firmly until the brakes engage and I come to a complete stop we don't have to go through that process our brains instantly do it 186,000 mil per second those thoughts and those neurons and those you know transmitters are are doing their jobs 24 hours a day seven days a week all we do is processed the thought and we make the decision to stop at that red light or go if you're not a rule keeper all right
so this means that we are accountable this is a responsible person this is also what they call a responsible driver and insurance companies are using things and incentives to you know get people to be more responsible in their driving they some of these companies have a I think they call it telematics um where you could actually plug a device into your um your OSB your it's not called OSB but it's it's a little computer port um on your on your vehicle uh it might be USB or OBS or something like
that no not USB um but you can plug that into your car it's basically where you can check diagnostic Diagnostics of your vehicle or something like that if the check engine light is on um and it will send a signal back to uh the insurance company and what it'll tell them is if you're a speeder you know if you're a person who uses your turn signals if you make jerky accelerations or if you stop hard you know if you swerve in and out of traffic because all that data is stored on your computer in yo
ur car and it sends that data to the insurance company and then they can tell wow this person is accountable for following the rules of the road they're less of a risk to other drivers on the road therefore we will reward them by giving them a lower insurance rate or this person probably should not be driving because our report show that they spend more time on the sidewalk than they do on the road therefore we're going to raise their rates why because they're more of a risk to themselves and ot
her drivers they're more of a liability to us as an insurance company and more than likely we're going to have to pay out some claims pretty soon because this person does not pay attention so in order for us to be answerable and accountable for our actions we first must have to be responsible for the thoughts that go into our mind we must be responsible for the things we choose to focus on and let go we must be responsible for deciding on if we act on a negative thought or let go of one or if we
act on a positive thought or let go of that and um of course educated is also getting the facts and making sure they are correct before making making a decision all these things they kind of go into this process of what we're talking about in this first car this first uh paragraph here of weighing out your options all these other character traits that also play a part in it so we can't set those aside and say we're only focusing on self-control but oddly enough you need to have self-control in
order to practice these other character traits right so they kind of go hand in hand ER in this type of weather hand and glove hopefully a heated glove you know in order for them to work and we have to consistently remember consistently uh practice this before it becomes a habit be before it becomes a way of life for us and then it becomes automatic so here uh lastly it says after decision or I'm sorry a proper decision is made only after you have weighed your options and I wanted to read a a de
finition here about this word proper here because at the very beginning it says the important aspect of a proper decision decision making is learning to way your options and when you think about the word proper a lot of times you might think about the old fancy you know sitting sitting in your seat with your back straight and your you know your legs together and your hands crossed you know and you know ready to to eat your meal or whatever the case might be and that kind of ties somewhat into th
is definition where we talk about societal Norms or standards um but the definition for this word ER is according to or respecting recognized social standards now you know I want to cautious us cautious us in our thinking in regards to recognize social standards because social standards change from culture to culture Society to society time you know generation to Generation Um Nations to Nation right what we have to take into consideration is uh and what we're talking bter social standards that
tie into the upholding of the rules right the keeping of the rules okay not just any old standard you know it might be a standard to to you know see a bike sitting on the side of the road in that particular culture or society and I don't feel like walking anymore I'm just going to hop on the bike and then I'll leave it somewhere else now if it's a ride share bike or a program like that where you have permission to that's a totally different thing but you can't just take someone else's belongings
and decide you're going to ride it because you're tired anymore uh and that's kind of a out there example but you know that could be an example of a of a of a social standard um It also says um according to or rep respecting recognized social standards or conventions now in regards to these social standards I kind of want you to think about you know the Simplicity of this you know when we have just just take this intermediate book here A series I guess I should say in the peaceful solution in t
he the ele Elementary is is pretty much the same we have five there they build up to this and then we have the five books that we have here um you know character acceptance self- control respect and responsibility and then the building moral Excellence after that and all of these are the these principles uh given in an age appropriate the same principles given in an age appropriate way so that the reader can understand them and apply them to their life and their decision-making process um and we
think about that and say you know you know this information here what we're reading what we're going over what we're covering in the peaceful solution is one of the greatest tools that we can use the greatest standards that we can use in interacting with Society uh our environment our neighbor our family our friends co-workers whatever the case might be you know it's like it's the perfect tool standard that we can use in order to essentially have peace with one another okay including ourselves
you know know we should have peace uh within our own minds now on the flip side of that you take into consideration this societal or social standards um there are approximately now this is an approximate number uh when it comes to rules because we're we're covering here our rules and these these moral rules these principles that we've talked about here and are talking about in the peaceful solution they govern actions they govern our thoughts or feelings and our actions well same here with the r
ules that are in society and this is just the United States of America every country has their set of rules that govern what's right and what's wrong what's acceptable and what's not what's lawful and what's unlawful but in the United States here and this is just in regards to a field or um discipline I guess I should say um you know one area of of of of laws okay um and it says uh there are 30,000 plus laws and statutes that have been passed by us legislation 30,000 now uh back in 1982 the Depa
rtment of Justice wanted to get an idea of how many laws that there were on the books why did they want to get an idea of that because they don't even know how many laws there are on the books that's how that's how many we have in society and uh and this article here says say in an example of a failed attempt to tally up the number of laws on a specific subject area just as just one particular specific subject area in 1982 the justice department tried to determine the number of criminal laws in
a project that lasted two years two years now granted I know we've been in these books for quite a long time but we haven't gotten anywhere near to 30,000 laws you know 30,000 principles or anything like that um you know these are the simp the simple things that govern our our our interactions between one another and the outcomes of them they always bring peace and one thing we're going to find out about this as we move forward is that they they don't change there's no need to change them there'
s no need to to readjust what we're finding in these books the moral principles that are found in these books in order to fix a problem that arises from something else because they don't cause problems these moral principles solve problems they prevent problems but it says here in a project that lasted two years the department of the department compiled a list of approximately 3,000 criminal offenses as they say you know in today's society everybody's a criminal you know you you you can do somet
hing that I'm sure that you're you're breaking a rule somewhere um this effort headed by Ronald Gainer who is a a justice department official is considered the most exhaustive attempt to count the number of federal criminal laws and in a Wall Street Journal article about this project this effort came as part of a long and ultimately failed campaign to persuade com Congress to revise the criminal code which by the 1980s was scattered among 50 titles and 23,000 pages of federal law as Mr Gainer ch
aracterized this fruit this fruitless project he said you will have died and been resurrected three times and still not have an answer to this question now this is one of the the the depart Department of Defense um uh people here official saying that it was basically a mission impossible to to figure out since the 1700s 1780 I think somewhere around in there how many laws that there are on the books that could make a person a criminal right now these these laws govern the the social norms right
and customs and standards of a particular society well think about this because when we talk about the peaceful solution it's simply positive and negative simply right and wrong it is in deciding or making a decision the one thing that we have to consider does it bring harm to ourselves others or the environment right we don't have to think according to section three of the uh Penal Code of uh you know such and such and such and paragraph three and and and title A you know it say does this bring
harm to me my to to me someone else or the environment right and then we can make a decision based on that well here it says here um is learning to weigh your options now in regards to weighing and this is really interesting you can you can do a lot of it would be great if you as a teacher uh were able to come across the scale and I don't mean like the the new digital scales I I mean like the actual old scales like what they say the you see that example I believe on the Lady Justice there and w
ith the blindfold and pair of scales in one hand um and and and there's the the balancing scales there right and they and they there's different different many different forms of scales um types of scales out there but they're used to to determine the weight of something and in order to weigh something to determine its weight you have to have a standard by which to go by Otherwise how are you going to know if something's one pound or you know an ounce or a ton right unless you have that weight o
f a standard to go by to determine it in the same way how do we know if something is right or moral or immoral unless we have a standard to go by and this is where we're getting from these principles and these values that are found in the peaceful solution here well the definition of this word way means to find out how one of the definition is is to find out how heavy something or someone is Ty typically using scales using scales um or way um and the number two definition here it says assess the
nature now this is uh this is ties more into what we're talking about here assess the nature or importance of especially with a View to a decision or an action or action so to assess the nature or importance of especially with a View to a decision or action because we you know if we don't weigh these things out then of course we're going to make an impulsive Choice an uneducated Choice a choice in which we have not properly you know considered the outcome of what that action will bring now or y
ou know down the road a day a week or a month or year or 15 years down the road because as we covered in the um the character unit you know there are some decisions that people have made that have affected them for the rest of their lives right some of these decisions with with um drugs and and drinking or drunk driving you know people have to live with those things for the rest of their life their lives whether they uh have been injured permanently injured or disabled or whether they permanentl
y injured disabled or killed someone else as a result of that decision that they make there's no going back and unchanging that decision so in regards to this tying into this weighing here or weighing our decisions um in in internationally internationally there is a international standard of measurement okay um and they use it to so that in trade and commerce and everything uh when you're trading with different countries or regions uh currencies or whatever the case might be there's one standard
that is used you know and and that way everything is fair everybody knows what they're getting everybody knows what they're giving and exchanging for and you don't have to worry about somebody using one F measure of standard and another measure of standard well it says here the standard uh the the definition of this word standard is um is uh uh principles or rules of conduct inform by Notions of honor and decency principles is what I wanted to talk about or focus on there principles um of condu
ct or rules of conduct remember we covered in the the first chapter of the character unit there those um the principles and the values the moral principles the moral values right these rules that we must follow um it also means the standard unit of measurement is a value that is fixed and cannot be changed now we're talking about an international standard of measurement that Society uses in order to trade and and and different things like that I'm sure you've been to a um uh a gas pump and you'v
e seen that sticker on the pump that shows that that pump was inspected and usually has a sticker that shows that nobody's open and tampered with the computer there the measuring device behind there and it shows that it meets the you know the standards of the it's United States Department of of uh I'm not sure if it's trade or Commerce or whatever um Federal Trade Commission or something but um but it shows that it meets that standard okay if it didn't then it couldn't be used because somebody's
going to be getting cheated right either the person supplying the fuel is going to be getting cheated or the person purchasing the fuel is going to be getting cheated you know it's nothing like squeezing that pump you know and and and and it clicking off and you're seeing already a150 there you only got an ounce of fuel yet um but it says here it is needed to have uniform it and measurement uh now think about this in regards to our thoughts right uniformity and measurement measuring or weighing
out our thoughts how we weigh our decisions and actions remember this we're talking about this is a a definition of an international standard but we're tying it into a standard what we're learning or gleaning from the peaceful solution that governs how we weigh our thoughts and our actions right the decisions that we make it's a value that is fixed and cannot be changed right um stealing is wrong okay uh the standard that governs stealing or the rules that govern stealing cannot be changed you
can't change one day the rule that governs stealing in order for it to be right because you really need that thing right it's fixed it's there it's immovable right and in this regard when we uphold when we choose because we have to choose to uphold the rules to follow these moral principles or these standards our character can become something that is fixed and unchangeable and I'm referring to in a positive way that's what we want right we want to be immovable in regards to standing for and uph
olding positive morals we want our students to be immovable in that regard too you know this is that that back bone or that True Grit that that Integrity that we talked about in the character unit there it is needed to have uniformity and measurement and it is the measurement the measurement is measured in the United States it's U it's feet and so forth um but in the peaceful solution or character development it's morals and and positive negative right and wrong and so forth but um so we so we c
an see the importance here in being able to weigh our decisions we have to know that that there are standards that we have to use we have to be able to recognize the difference between what's positive and what's negative um we also have to decide on what we choose to focus and let go of now under that that next paragraph there which is after a proper decision is made only after you have wag your options it says in the following scenario Jason is faced with a problem that we require self-control
now notice how he weighs each choice before making a decision now this is uh Jason here in this scenario and we're going to look at this here and it says uh Jason was on his way to class the hallway was packed or crowded as everyone rushed to beat the late Bell um uh s suddenly someone pushed Jason and he fell on the floor Jason was very embarrassed and notice then then he felt angry now give a spoiler alert here but we're going to cover that in um chapter three there he thought to himself I can
't believe some dumb jerk pushed me down I bet it was Michael or one of his crew they're always doing something stupid just wait till I catch up with them then he thought to himself yeah but I can't prove who pushed me down it could have been an accident for all I know besides trying to retaliate will just make things worse I'll find out if that person or if that someone did this on purpose are reported uh and that way they will be corrected by an authority and maybe it will help them to see the
harm that could have resulted from their actions all right now that's that's a great way of going about it that seems kind of long you know way to process that information but in effect when we train ourselves uh in order to uh find a peaceful solution in any event in any circumstances this this is kind of in a nutshell the thought process we might go through now it doesn't mean that you're not going to not go through this embarrassment or even this anger uh the secondary emotion of anger which
comes up but at this point we see he had the opportunity to stop and think just simply stop and think right before he acted you know he could have just got up and quick ran down the road or ran down the hallway to to catch up and find Michael or whatever whoever it was you know and and call him out you know or lash out or whatever the case might have been retaliate now we see here underneath that example it says now notice how Jason took the time to think through each of his choices to arrive a
t a decision that was morally correct weighing your options may seem to take a lot of time but remember we are the most intelligent species on the planet we can think at the speed of light and in the long run what weighing your options before acting will take a lot less time than making a choice that will cost you in many ways including lost time you know I like to compare this to to kind of being lazy and you know uh sitting across the room and then throwing that paper in the trash can and it h
its the wall and bounces on the floor now you got to get up and walk over there anyway so did you really save any time by throwing that paper across I know us guys you know we we always want to test our skills and so forth to see how how well makes us feel great to hear that plastic swooshing against that paper you know but um but in many aspect or in many things you know we we try to find shortcuts to things and we end up having to spend more time doing it you know what they say if you you have
time to do it twice you could have done it right the first time and this is in regards to a lot of the decisions we make but remember some of these decisions that we make they carry with them lifelong consequences and there is no going back and doing them over again so it's important to stress to our students that they really need to stop and think you know we weigh these decisions out and it doesn't have to be an instant decision that has to be made right then and there not always is that the
case sometimes they might have to step back and really take a look at everything you know everything that is that is before them uh they might have to get an outside uh point of view from a parent or a teacher someone trust someone who's going to give them sound moral guidance not if I were you you know type of uh you know uh bad advice or opinionated advice someone who's going to guide them in uh a way that will support their building of a positive moral character you know not tear all tear dow
n all the hard work that they've worked so many years to build um I got this from online here this is actually um I think this might be like for a a drug rehab center or whatever um drug alcohol rehab center um but it was interesting because it stuck out to me the very same thing and and other people recognize the importance of of thinking before your before you act they recognize the important other organizations recognize how beneficial and necessary it is that we stop and think before we we a
ct on any thought you know uh whether it's impulsively or just because we just feel like we want to right and it says here in this article it says thinking before you act keeps you accountable now remember what we talked about in the word the character trait of responsibility I believe on page 17 uh of the character unit there thinking through a thought to use thinking of a thought to use puts distance between thought and action okay so you're not you know right up against that you know carrying
something out because you just whatever the first thought come into your mind you act on it but you stop you you we're going to see here on page 21 this stop acronym we we we kind of put a little bit of distance between that thought and that action it's kind of like the the closer you follow behind somebody the less likely you are to avoid a pitfall or a trap or something in the road because you're following so close you can't even see what's in front of them but when you give yourself distance
between you and that person if there is a a pitfall or a stick in the road or a string or something like that now you have enough time to respond and to and to act in a way that doesn't bring harm to yourself or others the more you do this the easier it becomes to think through and they're referring to Cravings uh whatever that craving might be it might be a re a craving to steal might be a craving to uh lash out might be a a craving to uh sleep in a little bit longer uh if you do not remember
anything else remember to stop when you have a thought process the thought question the thought and of course they leave out some things but and and what we've teaching you on the peaceful solution weigh that thought out but weigh it out using the moral standard that we have learned from the peaceful solution and then act this is why you need the peaceful solution because if you just go off with these things that you see in society there's going to be pieces missing and you'll make a bad choice
thinking before you act isn't just about substance use this principle also involves the way you treat others and yourself and so I thought it was interesting because you know you can see there are other organizations out there that understand the importance of what we're learning in the peaceful solution here and we want to impress this in the minds of our students before they would end up in the situation where they need to go to a rehabilitation center right we want them to understand that if
they think about their health and have respect for themselves they're not going to do things that would cause them to abuse a particular substance and then become addicted to it and now they need help pulling off of it okay peaceful solution is about intervention and prevention but remember an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure so the the more we put these things into practice uh the better we will be and society around us will be because we'll be contributing to benefiting s
ociety and not being a detriment to it so we're going to stop right there on on page uh 20 20 20 not 2020 but 20 pick up on page 21 next class which will be Sunday uh the 27th at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard time I think everyone for joining us and we look forward to sing to you at the next class have a have a have a great evening everyone
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