In our work with teachers implementing The Good Project lesson plans, we’ve seen that real-life dilemmas are among the most powerful springboards for intellectual risk-taking— the ability to engage with uncertainty (e.g. asking questions, sharing ideas, admitting confusion) despite the possibility of being wrong or judged. The Good Project’s dilemma-based secondary school ethics curriculum invites students to grapple with questions that have no easy answers (Should a doctor treat a patient whose actions have caused harm to others? Should a teenager join a protest even if it goes against their family’s views?) and to tolerate ambiguity while weighing competing values and perspectives.

How do character education, social-emotional learning, practical wisdom, and human flourishing actually fit together? In this post, we share a new integrative model that uses the Good Project’s 3Es—ethics, excellence, and engagement—as an interpretive lens to explore how these widely used frameworks overlap, reinforce one another, and support wise action and flourishing over time.