Making of a teacher

It is never too much for a teacher to uphold basic professional ethics. But whether this means that a teacher has the moral obligation to protect his or her students at the risk of his or her own life seems to be a rather hazy ethical terrain for some. That is why it has become the focus of a debate after a teacher left his students behind to make good his escape during the Sichuan quake early last month.

The revised professional ethics for middle school teachers published by the Ministry of Education will put a full stop to this debate. It adds a stipulation that a teacher has the obligation of protecting his or her students from danger. Its publication aims at soliciting public opinion nationwide before its adoption.

Even without such a specification, very few would have deemed it as an acceptable behavior for a teacher to run out of the classroom for his own life without taking care of his or her student in time of an emergency.