Fair

The Cambridge Dictionary defines fair as:

Treating someone in a way that is right or reasonable, or treating a group of people equally and not allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment. OR If something is fair, it is reasonable and is what you expect or deserve

Does being fair mean being equal?

There is some debate and confusion on this topic going around lately and people tend to conflate the two concepts. After all, treating people equally is in the definition of fair. With anything in the English language, there is some nuance with how the concept is applied and how it has evolved over time. In the context of teaching students or just being a leader in general, I would argue that fairness would be trying to give everyone the tools and education that they need to be successful, but I don’t think it means providing the exact same experience, lecture, and content to everyone. This strict adherance to equality under the guise of faireness means the instruction delivered to everyone is best suited for just a few individuals.

Justice

The stoic virtue of justice comes to mind when I think of being fair. Justice to the stoics was broader than justice as we think of it today. For the Stoics, it was our duty to each other and to our society. It’s the morality behind how we are supposed act.

Marcus Aurelius said:

Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying…or busy with other assignments.

Doing the right thing for everyone is much more than doing the same thing for everyone. Summum bonum is a latin phrase meaning the highest good. Our goal should be the highest good for each and everyone of our students and mentees. With temporal, physical, and fiscal constraints sometimes the greatest good is that of the collective good. It shouldn’t be the goal, but given the constraints, it is the best we can do.

What is not good for the beehive, cannot be good for the bees.

This is a quote from Marcus Aurelius and it is similar to but not quite the same as some more modern quotes like–“What is good for the goose is good for the gander.” Phrasing this statement in the negative broadens the applicability of the sentiment. There are probably more times when what is bad for the group is also bad for the individual than when something is good for the individual, it is also good for the group. We can use this to frame our teaching strategies. Let’s say we try something new in our curriculum and it works well for one and performs bad for the rest of the cohort. What is good for the goose is good for the gander would, depending on who we are looking at, would lead us to keep that strategy. What is not good for the beehive, cannot be good for the bees would have us keep working until we have it good or great for everyone. Not that you should throw out that strategy, but keep looking for additional strategies that benefit others as well.

Giving people what they need and deserve to be their best is fair. Treating everyone equal discounts and devalues what makes us unique.

Let us waste no more time talking about what a good man should be, be one. – Marcus Aurelius