Twenty-one Friends Academy Middle School student traveled to Harvard University on Saturday, April 5 with faculty coaches Dr. Erik Kenyon and Dr. Megan Hall to participate in the third annual New England Middle School Ethics Bowl.

Modeled after the National High School Ethics Bowl, the Middle School Ethics Bowl aims to teach students how to think through ethical issues together. Unlike debate, which assigns a position for each team to defend, Ethics Bowl presents teams with ethical dilemmas and challenges them to work together to find the best way forward. By tweaking the conventions of formal debate, participation in Ethics Bowl encourages the habits of thought we want our future leaders to have: respectful dialogue, articulating one’s ideas, thinking across the aisle, and revising views when presented with good reasons to.

Now in its third year, the New England Middle School Ethics Bowl brought together 80 middle school-aged students from schools across Massachusetts and Rhode Island to discuss ethical dilemmas in a collaborative environment. FA students joined teams with students from other schools, with no team getting more than three participants from the same school. Seventh grader Benji was part of this year's winning team, which included six students from four different schools.

"I really like the format of the middle school ethics bowl: Schools get broken up such that private school kids and public school kids are on the same team together," said Dr. Justin Caouette, an FA parent who also served as a judge. "It forces the participants to build team skills on the fly and to get comfortable talking about moral issues with people they are meeting for the first time."

Dr. Kenyon, who teaches Middle School Latin and eighth grade Language Arts at Friends Academy, is part of the national Middle School Ethics Bowl planning committee and has helped to established the New England Middle School Ethics Bowl. FA hosted the first New England Middle School Ethics Bowl in 2023 with participants from Normandin Middle School in New Bedford. The bowl doubled in size in 2024, growing to include students from all three of New Bedford's public middle schools.

FA was also represented at this year's Middle School Ethics Bowl by alumni Paul Athanasiou and Noura Kalife-Pacheco '24, who were on the 10-student committee that wrote the six cases students tackled. In addition, alum Oliver Walker ‘23 also served as a judge.

Check out the video from sixth grade's All-School Meeting takeover on April 9 to hear students speak about their Ethics Bowl experience (starts at 7:04).

Founded in 1810, Friends Academy is a co-educational independent day school in North Dartmouth serving students in Early Childhood through Grade 8. Friends provides each student with a foundation built upon academics, community, respect, responsible citizenship, and a sense of well-being for a lifetime of learning and personal growth. In addition to its traditional program, Friends Academy offers the integrated Sally Borden Program for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. Learn more at friendsacademy1810.org.