TPE 12: Professional, Legal, and Ethical Obligations

As a teacher, I am responsible for more than just making sure that my students know what iambic pentameter is or can explain the significance of an excerpt from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." I am responsible for treating them fairly and honestly, in a manner appropriate and proper not only to stimulate their educational growth, but also to inhibit their social growth.

Some of the classes that I took at Cal Baptist have helped me in these aspects by making me more aware of things that I might have done, subconciously, had I not been instructed to keep aware of doing those things. For instance, I make it a point to call on each and every student in the class, not just the ones who raise their hands. In this way, I do not favor those who are smarter or more outgoing. Regardless of race or gender, this is a good policy in that it gets and keeps everyone involved.

As for biases, I'd like to think that mine are few (I can't say they are none because, after all, I am human and prone to mistakes). I try not to let any pre-conceived notions of gender, skill, ability, interest, social group, sexual orientation, or ethnicity come into play in my classroom. To that end, I am very strict with certain aspects of my students' language. I will not tolerate them, for instance, using the slur "fag" or "gay" in a casual manner. Many was the time when a student would respond to something negative in my class by stating "That's so gay." Every time this happened, I stopped the class and explained how I did not appreciate them equating gayness with negativity, and had them re-state their previous sentence in a different way. I don't know if this earned me any respect from any gay students in my classes, but it earned me an untrue reputation, amongst some of the students as a homosexual. I then dealt with those students by asking what would it matter to them if I was?

Ethically, I suppose that part of what I sought in my first year of teaching was to be a role model. When I saw students fighting or arguing in class, I would counsel them afterwards, if asked, and try to help (without involving myself). I preached the value of letting things slide sometimes, and of turning the other cheek, and of not always being confrontational. I attempted to make my classroom as warm and welcoming, and as non-hostile, as possible.

Legally, I followed the regulations every time asked. I filled out all of the proper paperwork for students for whom English was not their first language, and for students who unfortunately had found themselves in the midst of the juvenile correctional system and who needed me to sign that they were in class every day. I received and signed for paperwork from the front office for the (surprisingly and alarmingly large) number of students who had been convicted of misdemeanors or felonies for things like breaking and entering or bringing hacksaws, brass knuckles, or large knives to school. Apparently, I was legally entitled to be informed by the office that these students were in my class.

In addition, I kept my eyes and ears open for cases of sexual abuse and harassment, neglect, or child abuse. Fortunately, I had nothing to report during the year. I broached the subject to students whom I suspected might have something to tell a few times during the year, but did not have to follow through on anything.

Our school is very big on cracking down on gangs: all signs, slogans, clothing, paraphenelia, etc., are not allowed. I followed legal protocol when a little gangbanger tagged all over one of my desks by taking photos of his tagging, then confronting him with it (he denied he'd done it), then showing him a standardized test on which he'd signed his name and then tagged all the same designs instead of filling in proper answers. Faced with that evidence and his history of doing the same thing in many other classrooms, the young man was expelled from the school.

One way in which I protected the privacy of students was by posting grades in the back of the class not with their names, but with their student ID numbers. This saved potential embarassment for students who had lamentably low grades, although a few of my larger-egoed students went out of their way to announce their ID numbers so everyone could see that they had A's in the class.

Basically, I spent a lot of time making sure that I was a good a role model as possible for my students. I don't know if they believed me that I (truly) do not drink, smoke, or take drugs, but I assured them that one can lead a rich, fulfilling, and exciting life without doing any of those activities. I explained, in context of lessons, times when I'd done good and done poorly in my life, particularly back in my own teenage years. I think (and hope) that the students drew something from these stories -- actually, I know some of them struck home, because the students told me that they did.

I am not flawless. I am not a perfect role model. I did my best, however, to uphold all necessary professional, legal, and ethical obligations during my first year of teaching, because those obligations are necessary when it comes to instructing our children, who will be the leaders of tomorrow.