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Business used to have a completely secular moral compass. Rotary International has their The Four-Way Test, a "nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships." Rotarians recite it at club meetings.

Of the things we think, say or do

• Is it the TRUTH?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

This is a morality for business. That's a concept that sounds archaic today. It was mainstream from about 1940 to 1975. Many small business owners used to belong to Rotary, especially in small towns. What went wrong? That's a long story, and has to do with the decline in the political power of small business.

Anyway, that's a completely non-religious moral system which is still around and once was mainstream.

Younger children did indeed stay.

Older ones (high-school age) didn't bother, and enjoyed the nice extra free time...

I remember one memorable time, when several students were playing cards during geography lesson. Eventually the teacher (peace to his soul) got fed up, and kicked them out with the words "if you like playing cards so much, please go play somewhere else". And when the 4 left, the rest of the class left along with them...

Nowadays, teachers rarely kick anybody out, probably for this reason.

Might I suggest looking into Rotary International.

Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to live by the motto service above self. Rotary brings together business professionals from throughout your community and we unite together to share our talents in helping both our local community and the world. Odds are your community has a local club, and you could work with like-minded business professionals to fill your philanthropic desires.

I myself am a computer technician, and I have worked with our local club and a club in Pignon, Haiti, to provide computers in their local schools for administrative and teaching staff. We have worked with a club in Rajkot, India, to build a dam and provide clean water for thousands of people.

Many districts also partake in a program called the group study exchange. A group of 8-10 local professionals travel to another community somewhere in the world to learn and work with similar professionals in other parts of the world. What do network technicians do in Brazil, or Japan, or Germany? Contact your local district to see if they are offering a Group Study Exchange to any of these countries and work with professionals in those countries.

You can click on the club locator on the top of the Rotary International website to find a club near you. There are also a plethora of matching grants available worldwide, and I'm sure you could find multiple ones

For anyone that is interested in an exchange program that doesn't cost a fortune, the Rotary Club is a great way to go, that is what I did and I loved the families I got to live with.

more info here: http://www.rotary.org/en/StudentsAndYouth/youthprograms/RotaryYouthExchange/Pages/ridefault.aspx/

I certainly view the world with a different perspective after having that experience, and learned much more than I think I would have by just having a regular year of school. The exchange experience has served me well in my career as well.

Bravo! This kind of grass-roots charity warms my heart.

If this sort of thing sounds good to you, check out Rotary International because they do this sort of thing, on a global basis, year round. There are plenty of other similar organizations; shop around to find one that works for you.

In a recent Rotary presentation, Paul's Computer Institute was discussed by its founder, Paul Mickelson. After a tour in the Peace Corps in Camaroon, Paul cashed out his retirement and established an institute to teach IT to people in Camaroon. He takes donated equipment from the US to Camaroon, teaches the students how to repair it, install software, etc, then helps place them in jobs in industry and government (in Camaroon). I can't find a link to his institute, but I do have this link to a write-up about his project: http://www.rotary.org/newsandinfo/presscenter/rele ases/92.html

I was even born in Evanston and thought about going to Northwestern, but I just can't go back there knowing how many Rotarians I'll find.