ethics

My ethical ideals in the workplace have caused more trouble than good in the history of my career in education.

I remember lying to my parents about taking on my very first student when I was a senior in high school. I was already active in way too many activities, ranging from debate team to two different orchestras to being the school board representative, while also holding a part-time job in a new teeny-bopper clothing store in the newly opened Mall in town (this was the late 1980s). And yet I was given what I saw in my 17-year old eyes to be the opportunity of a lifetime: to have a private violin student of my own. I made arrangements with my orchestra teacher to stay after school and reserve the orchestra practice room to facilitate this subversion of my parents' will for one hour a week. I don't believe they ever found out about this student until well after our arrangement had ended, when I ran into that student later while home on break from the University.

Why did I go behind their backs? Only because I really wanted the chance to teach. I had two parents who were teachers, good teachers, and all I wanted since I was a child was to teach. It was what I believed to be a time to start whittling down that which I wanted to teach and that which I did not.

I permitted myself to become emotionally involved in the lives of the Mexican custodial staff at the University and the children of those who had come to the local farms as strawberry pickers while teaching ESL classes. I became an on-campus advocate, a voice for those who worked at cleaning our messes, scrubbing our toilets and disposing of our trash who were essentially invisible to the student population, and spent many hours in the office of the head of Student Services trying to not only bring to light but also to inform and, ultimately, resolve discriminatory practices and what simply boiled down to disrespectful treatment of others. That did not earn me a lot of new friends--but I felt I did not need the friendship of those who would treat Mexicans so badly.

I felt horrible when one of the small children I worked with as a local ESL teacher in the elementary school would test positive for TB; so horrible that I would accompany to the lung x-ray procedure the scared child who did not speak English and who had never before seen machinery as that we see in any local hospital here...all after-hours work, but my conscience would not permit those children to experience that without someone there to hold their hand, make communication easier, and let them know it would all be just fine.

In Japan I entered the 職員室 shokuin shitsu teachers' office one Monday morning in the second Autumn, 1995, of my tenure, to see Mr. ゴ "Go" hollering impatiently and passionately at a male student, who was kneeling at his teacher's feet. Mr. ゴ then struck this child (a seventh-grade student) across the face so hard that he fell to the floor and he then began kicking the child in the stomach. I fled the room and threw up in the bathroom. Extremely bothered by this situation, I later went to speak to the 3rd in charge. His response?
-Oh, he wasn't kicking him that hard.
So, understanding the "see nothing-hear nothing-say nothing" rule that exists among coworkers in order to maintain harmony in the workplace, yet also knowing for a fact that capital punishment in the schools was at that time and continues to be an illegal practice in Japan (although, obviously, still practiced), I went to my head supervisor: the superintendent.
The next day, the air in the 職員室 when I arrived had turned icy cold. "Someone" had gone back to the school and said that I, specifically, had reported this occurance. Mr. ゴ did end up facing disciplinary action on the prefectural level and was demoted in position, and in the spring of 1997 was rotated out of the school to another. However I had to face him each day and a room full of coworkers who did not agree with my ethics in reporting something that was illegal and would never speak to me again. Interestingly, in the "welcome dinner" to the new teachers in April 1997, I had half the faculty of the school come up to me to tell me that they supported me and my decision, but they "could not say anything, of course...I'm sure you understand why."

While teaching at Tulane University in New Orleans after having completed my Masters (I had been in the PhD program but ended with my Masters for various reasons, including having just been married and having lost my father right at the end of my school work) I had a student turn in a paper to me in better Spanish that I could have written. It took my friend and I ten minutes to find the entire paper online, I submitted it all to the Honor Board of the University and this student lost all her scholarships, failed my class and was put on academic probation for plagiarism. She did it to herself; I have always made myself more than adequately available to my students and considered myself approachable and relatively flexible regarding arrangements for, say, handing in a paper late if there was too much happening in Life. There was no need to risk throwing it all away. It was hard not to take personally; did she take me as an idiot, who wouldn't be able to spot a plagiarized paper from a mile away? I did the right thing. But I could easily have ruined her life.

I just ended my teaching tenure at a local University for various reasons. There were interesting experiences had there. One regarding ethics revolved around a colleague who also tutored students. Unaware of the fact that she was tutoring one of my students that term, and considering we were professional colleagues I never thought twice when she emailed asking for a copy of the exams. I thought that, in that term, she must have been teaching the same level and didn't get the exams (this was a basic program 200-level course, so most exams were standardized with reasonable variation between versions). She, however, never disclosed that she was tutoring one of my students. A young man for whom I have since written a law school recommendation approached me following an exam and asked to speak to me outside, and mentioned that in his study group the night before, one of the girls (with whom he usually sat in class) came in waving a couple pieces of paper saying, "I've got the exam!" He said that he left, knowing that his entire future could be in jeopardy if he had remained party to that study session.
So I then decided to go first to the departmental secretary, who had been around for years and who truly ran the Department (everyone knows that is true in every Department) and asked her opinion as to what I should do...this was a strong accusation against a professional colleague. I talked then to my Chair and he took things from there. I, of course, had to deal with the wrath of this hot-tempered latina who had her integrity questioned and suffered what she described being the most humilliating experience of her professional life...all due to some here-say from a "stupid" student (her words, not mine). Did I have reason?

Other events occured and, at the end of last year, I decided to try my hand at having my own business. I have the drive, the discipline, the work ethic and the motivation. I had a room in my home I could make into my own home classroom. It has been a learning experience but I have several regular students, am officially licensed with the State and the Town Business Registries, and did register as LLC to protect myself...just in case. I have dotted all my proverbial Is and am so honestly deducting appropriately for taxes...nothing is "under the table."

A few of my students are high school students in AP or IB classes, and their mothers had contacted me to request that I tutor their daughters for this school year. As a former educator in educational system, I find it respectful and ethical to let the students' teachers know that I am working with their students, in an effort to open lines of communication and so they know that this student is trying to get extra assistance in understanding what they are not grasping in class. We all know that teachers rarely have the time to entertain all the questions and to give the individualized attention that it can take for some learners to truly acquire their skills. I do not do my students' work for them; I do what I did in my writing classes at the University when it comes to their written work, which is mark their papers with editing marks, to which I provide my students a guide (indicating verb conjugation errors, gender/number agreement errors and the like but NOT correcting them) and expect the students themselves to perform the corrections so as to 1) learn from their errors, 2) give them the opportunity to ask me what something would mean and highlight a possible weakness that requires further attention, and 3) teach them how to critically read their own writing so as not to repeat the same errors.

Upon sending an email to one teacher, I received a response stating that she would not normally "waste her time emailing tutors" but felt it necessary to question my ethics. I mentioned we work together with proofing her papers so that she can come to understand her errors (indeed, the teacher herself does not "edit" or mark up papers for improvement but simply checks them off as completed and hands them back) and actually improve herself a little bit...hence the theory behind education...? Anyhow, this teacher said that homework is only to be done by the student and that we have violated this ethic, not to mention that it would be unethical for her to discuss a student's grade with a tutor. I had said that my student had a B and wanted an A, and inquired to the teacher what she sees this student's particular weaknesses and strengths to be, and how she might improve upon her performance in order to reach her goal. That has nothing to do with discussing grades; that is me doing my job in wanting to be on the same page as the teacher for the good of the student...a student who, by the way, has enough interest in the subject to want to actually learn and is willing to spend time weekly with a tutor to actually have her questions addressed in an open, comprehensible, patient manner.

I must note, I spoke to each of my students and had their full permission to contact their instructors previous to making contact with them.

I am astounded. I have never run into this issue before with other students I have tutored and, appropriately, informed their instructor of this assistance I was providing. I wonder how many tutors actually have enough "ethic" to contact their client's teacher and offer to work together. How many tutors have enough "ethic" to not just let their work slide as their student's work just to make them look good as a tutor and to gain popularity as a tutor who will "get you the grade"? How many tutors have enough "ethic" to deduct 35% and report all earnings to the IRS? How many tutors actually, honestly care about their students (I ask the same of a lot...NOT ALL...teachers)?

Now I am afraid I have created for my student an incredible conflict of interest in her classroom, with a teacher who is convinced she is cheating with a personal tutor and might actually grade her harder while doubting the integrity of everything she turns in...all because I tried to do the right thing and let her know that this particular student (and I am sure she is not the only one) has an "ethical" tutor who does not believe that secrecy should govern when the educational benefit to the student is what really counts.

Education...aren't we all supposed to be in this together for the good of those who actually want to learn something, not JUST for test scores?

Or perhaps I am just to leave ethics out of the classroom...? I hate to say that it all makes me wonder...

Or am I just terribly, terribly naïve?