FOCUS QUESTIONS - What are your legal rights and
responsibilities as a teacher?
- What legal rights do students
enjoy (and do they have legal
responsibilities)?
- What are the ethical responsibilities
of teachers and students?
- What are today’s main approaches to
moral education?
CHAPTER PREVIEW - An honors student sues the school
district after being randomly stripsearched.
- A teacher is reprimanded for allowing
a first-grader to read a Bible story to
the class.
- A teacher is suspended for texting a
student.
- A student complains that peer grading
of assignments is a violation of
privacy.
- A homosexual teacher sues a school
district for discrimination.
Today, lawyers and judges are increasingly
a part of school life. In this
chapter, you will have the opportunity
to respond to actual legal
situations that have confronted teachers
and students. (Get ready to determine
your RQ—Rights Quotient.) Also included
are some pragmatic steps for your legal
self-defense, steps that you can take to
avoid potential problems. But, beyond
the nitty-gritty of these legal case studies,
we will ask more penetrating questions
about right and wrong, questions
that go beyond the law, such as: How
should teachers deal with ethical issues
that emerge in the classroom? Should
teachers take positions on moral issues?
Or should they play a more neutral role?
To handle these important but difficult
ethical dilemmas, we will offer some suggestions
for ways teachers can organize
their classrooms, and themselves. |