Dear teachers,
at a time when, unfortunately, there is such a marked tendency to interfere, from different areas, in your work, I think a reflection is needed on the moral framework in which it should be carried out. The teaching profession is too noble, too exciting and too relevant for certain interferences to be tolerated. And it is also too much because we do not require ourselves to reflect on what are the values that should guide educational activity. Everyone wants to participate in the teachers’ work: to begin with, the public authorities, who, at least in principle, plan it. Parents also want to participate, often with little judgment and sometimes without any basis. Politicians are constantly involved. And the judges. And anyone who comes near it, from any side.
All this limits the work of educators extraordinarily, sometimes decisively. And Education professionals, pushed by so many forces that try to act on the education system, often behave like “reeds moved by the wind”, imitating the happy expression of the poet Josep Carner.
The need for ethics for educators
This happens, in part, because there is no clear ethic that underpins the work of educators. As, for example, doctors have it. Let’s remember some of the things that the Hippocratic Commitment says, which, since Hippocrates, guides the activity of medical professionals. For example, “I will establish the regime of the sick in the way that is most suitable for them, according to my abilities and my knowledge, avoiding all evil and injustice.” The doctor, therefore, must always do what he considers best for the patient, and he must make it prevail, according to his understanding, even when it collides with what the public authorities establish or when he does not agree with what say, for example, the patient’s relatives. The doctor’s understanding, based on his knowledge of Medicine, is at the top when dealing with the healing of a person.
A couple of paragraphs later, in the same Hippocratic Commitment, we read: “When I enter the house I will bring no other purpose than the good and the health of the sick.” In other words, I will leave all the ambient noise to focus on what is fundamental, on what constitutes the essence of my profession. Therefore, “I will spend my life and exercise my profession with innocence and purity.”
Unfortunately, educators do not have anything like the Hippocratic Commitment as a guide for their profession. But I think that, especially at this stage that is going on right now, it would be absolutely necessary. We are in the middle of a debate about whether or not parents should be able to determine their children’s education, in matters such as sex education, gender equality education, certain extracurricular activities, or even in the fact of preserving them from scientifically proven theories (such as the evolution of species – in the face of creationism – or global warming – in the face of climate change deniers). The far right, often with the support of the far right, is a supporter of what they call the parental pin (or veto), according to which parents should be able to prevent their children from receiving certain teachings. The veto starts, logically, from the ideology of the parents, who, according to them, must be able to influence their children’s education.
The defense of the good of the students
What should an educator do when the administration, popular pressure or other circumstances unrelated to his work in the classroom push him to do things different from what his understanding tells him to do? to do? Educators in the region of Murcia, where the government is in favor of the parental pin, must deliver their students from sex education? Should they be protected from the knowledge of Darwin’s theories, if the parents are creationists? Do they have to hide certain options from them so that parents are disgusted? Or should they act “according to their understanding” and do what they think is most appropriate for their students, even if this collides head-on with the will of their parents?
From this column, I want to break a spear so that the profession of educators, teachers, professors, teachers, education professionals has something similar to the Hippocratic Commitment of doctors, which clearly establishes that the educator will act, according to their understanding, always putting the good of their students above everything (including the provisions of the administration or the will of the parents). Good teachers, all in passing, have always done it. But they have not always been able to do so with the necessary tranquility and security. I can attest to that.