Corporal Punishment

Ch. 8 What Are the Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Teachers ?
By: Vanessa Garcia
The ethical issues that teacher faces is more than just doing the right thing. Teachers must teach students to respect one another and as a consequence teachers have a special ethical relationship with the students’ power. This power is the influence that teachers have on children and with it children are mark. This power can be easily abused and that’s why there’re codes and ethics to guide teachers to the right pad. Some of these cods and ethics are appreciation for moral deliberation, empathy, knowledge, reasoning, courage and interpersonal skills. On the other hand, we have a personal code of ethics that helps us get by day by day and sometimes we use it thinking that is the right one but we should never forget that everyone is different and that maybe what we learn growing up is not the right thing to do.
A very big change from when our parents went to school is corporal punishment. I remember my parents telling stories about teachers hitting them with a ruler, or smacking them in the head when they got smart with them. Some of the stories I heard are even to the point that kids were beat up by the teacher to the point that the student needed medical aid. Now it is illegal in most states and ban by most districts and it is a very controversial issue since it is not 100 percent illegal. In some districts teachers might be able to use “moderate” or “reasonable” corporal punishment to establish discipline; here is when the code of ethics comes in place. When is it ok to paddle a bully or smack someone that stole? The subject is still a controversy and until it’s settle teachers should research the laws and policies to be able to assist every situation without any issues.