Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 02 — Consequences: What Happens, to Whom?

Learners read an everyday moral question through the consequences lens — the family of traditions that judges an act by its results. They learn to trace who is helped, who is harmed, and who far away or in the future is affected, and they name both the lens's power and its blind spots.

D09 P4: Contextual & Ecological Awareness D09.S1 55 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

What does the consequences lens show about a moral question — and what does it miss?

consequentialismutilitarianoutcomebenefitharmripple

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

A flow diagram showing one action fanning out into three result boxes labeled who is helped, who is harmed, and who far away is affected, to show a single act has many consequences for different people
A flow diagram showing one action fanning out into three result boxes labeled who is helped, who is harmed, and who far away is affected, to show a single act has many consequences for different people

Lesson 2 — Consequences: What Happens, to Whom?

Summary

Learners read an everyday moral question through the consequences lens — the family of traditions that judges an act by its results. They trace who is helped, who is harmed, and who far away or in the future is affected, and they name both the lens’s power and its blind spots.

Objectives

  • Analyze a moral question through the consequences lens, tracing who is helped and harmed, and compare what this lens shows with what it leaves out. (D09.S1.09.01)

Connection

You decide to take a shortcut across a neighbor’s field, or to post something funny about someone, or to buy the cheaper item without asking where it was made. Each choice has results that reach beyond you — some people are helped, some are harmed, and some are affected far away or later. The consequences lens asks exactly that: what happens, to whom? It is one of the oldest and most common ways people everywhere judge right and wrong.

Materials

  • Consequences ripple sheet
  • Worked-example dilemma card

Preparation

  • Copy the ripple sheet and dilemma card.
  • Choose a worked-example dilemma that is local and recognizable — a shared resource, a hard truth, a promise kept or broken — and prepare to model it step by step.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). Its goals: (1) introduce the consequences lens honestly — it is one family of traditions (consequentialism; its best-known form, utilitarianism, is associated with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and consequentialist reasoning appears early in Chinese Mohism, in Buddhist ethics, and in other traditions (S-466; S-467)), not the “correct” answer; (2) model once, then guide: work one dilemma together step by step (identify the act; trace who is helped, harmed, and affected far away or in the future; then weigh the overall result), before learners try a second on their own (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark 2006, S-011); (3) name the lens’s limits — it can miss duties and the kind of person one becomes, and “the greatest good for the greatest number” can overlook the few, which is why the egalitarian lens matters. The ethics lens: results matter, and so do the people they fall on. The egalitarian lens: always ask who is helped and who is left out — including those with the least voice. The global lens: the same reasoning runs through many traditions, but what counts as a good result is itself argued about across cultures. The environment lens: consequences reach non-human life and future generations too. Keep this lens as one way of seeing, not the whole truth — more lenses arrive in the next two lessons (philosophy §11).

Procedure

  1. Recall (5 min). Last time we met three lenses. Name them from memory (consequences, duties, virtues).
  2. Meet the lens (10 min). Read the consequences ripple sheet. The lens asks: what happens, to whom? Trace one act out to the people it helps, the people it harms, and the people far away or in the future it touches.
  3. Worked example (15 min). Together, read the worked-example dilemma. Step by step: (a) name the act; (b) list who is helped; (c) list who is harmed; (d) list who far away or later is affected; (e) weigh the overall result. Use the facilitator’s model as your guide.
  4. Guided practice (15 min). In pairs, take a second dilemma and fill your own ripple sheet — helped, harmed, far away. Then say aloud: overall, are the results better or worse?
  5. Name the limits (5 min). What does this lens miss? (Duties we owe regardless of results; the kind of person we become; and whether “the greatest good” quietly overlooks the few.)
  6. Close (5 min). Today we saw through one lens. Next: the duties lens — what we owe, no matter what.

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide the “helped / harmed / far away” categories pre-labeled and one worked branch to complete.
  • Extension: Add a future generation and a non-human branch to the ripple, and say how the judgment shifts.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner trace helped, harmed, and far-away consequences for a new dilemma, and name at least one thing the lens misses?
  • Artifact: The completed ripple sheet (or written trace), kept in the portfolio.

Home connection

Think of one everyday choice your household makes (what to buy, how to travel, how to share space). List one person or thing it helps and one it harms. Bring one sentence to share next time.

Resources