Disposition and Ethics

Selena Ledford
Edu 201
Dr. Wilcox

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Introduction
Rules are made to keep us safe and in line. Sometimes rules also describe what we see as
ethically and morally right. As a teacher how you act greatly impacts how your colleagues see
you and also how your students parents see you. For a teacher we have a code of ethics that we
have to follow as we become educators. We are being trusted with children. We are meant to be a
leader, a role model and we cannot do that if our morals and ethics are not where society wants
and feels that they need to be. People with moral and ethical differences can make a student or a
colleague uncomfortable and then the workplace and learning environment loses the integrity it
was meant to have. The things that I feel that are important for a moral and ethical educator go
very much with being a respectable person. For example, being honest, and the way you conduct
yourself as a teacher to student, their parents, and your colleagues are very important traits.
Honesty
Honesty is a very important part of being, not only as a professional but in being a good
teacher. It is so important that in our code of ethics we have a standard stated just for honesty.
Standard four states, An educator shall exemplify honestly and integrity in the course of
professional practice (The Code of Ethics for Educators). If we are not honest in what we do
and say, we are not trustworthy or believable. To our students and their parents we lose that
credibility we have worked so hard to gain. Parents may not want that dishonest educator to be
teaching their children. In additionally, educators colleagues no longer see them as a person that
they can work with because they are not reliable and that bond of trust has been broken. One
example of this would be if a person plagiarized. For the rest of their lives when people read
their work they will always wonder if that information was theirs or someone else. Their work is
no longer credible and if an educator goes against honesty they also lose their credibility.

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For me as a student, I was being severely bullied in one of my seventh grade classes. For
a year my teacher potentially saw this and at some point I told him what was happening. His
response was that he would write her up and mention this to the vice principal. I was excited;
something was going to be done. At the end of the school year my mom asked the vice principal
why nothing was done and she replied that nothing was given to her and she had not been told.
When I realized nothing was going to be done, I lost what little respect I had for that teacher.
Anything he said I thought little of; even the things that he taught me could have been lies. That
teacher not being honest with me still bothers me today. Once, I saw that teacher and when he
was talking and I just kept wondering if he was truly saying what he meant.
Being honest truly is one of the most important things that a person can be. For an
educator it makes you a more trustworthy and reliable person. As a student I thought all of my
teachers were honest and reliable, and when I found out that they have not been it made me
wonder about their character. It really is important that students see their teacher as an honest
person. In my field experience one of the students will ask a question, and anyone can see that
those children trust her because she is has being honest with them. For me being honest is a very
important part of being a moral and ethical educator because without honesty you are not as
dependable as an educator should be.
Actions towards Students
Educators actions are a part of being honest and hold a great impact on being a reliable
teacher. Standard two states, An educator shall always maintain a professional relationship with
all students, both in and outside the classroom (The Code of Ethics for Educators). That
unprofessional and unethical conduct includes committing child abuse, any sexual acts,
supplying or allowing tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs to be used by the students (The Code of

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Ethics for Educators, Standard Two). Being moral and ethical educators, we do not need to have
those types of relationships or engage in those types of activities. We are not meant to friends for
our students but a role model. A role model is not someone who gives tobacco, alcohol or even
illegal drugs to a student. One reason is that it is illegal for students to have tobacco, alcohol and
illegal, unless they are eighteen and can buy their own tobacco. Sometimes it can be difficult
when the teacher is close in age but as an educator we need to be that role model that they can
learn from and not that friend they can get away with things with.
Living in a small town, one of the people that I knew became a teacher. He was only
eight or nine years older than me. At a party that one of his friends threw, he was drinking and
partying with not only his friends but also their younger brothers and sisters. Alcohol was
involved and he was let go from the high school that I went to. He is a good person, but because
of this he was not the type of role model that he should have been there for those students. This
is why he should have not been at that party. His character as an ethical and moral educator was
put to question, not because he was not a good person, but because he was not the good role
model that society deems appropriate for teachers.
Part of being a role model for students is the educator is actions towards a student. This
goes directly with being a moral and ethical teacher which is not committing any sexual act with
a student or harassing a student (The Code of Ethics for Educators, Standard Two). Those types
of actions do not make an educator a role model. A teacher should be a safe person that students
can trust for almost anything. A teacher should not be someone that they see in a sexual way or
as someone of whom they are scared. Students learn better in a safe place, and a classroom
should be that safe place. The way that educators act around students impacts how students look

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at that educator, and possibly not as a teacher. When this happens the teacher really cannot teach
them what they need to learn in life or what they need to learn in school.
Actions in the Workplace
It is also important for an educator to be appropriate towards their colleagues in the work
place. If they are not appropriate, it can cause a lot of problems for a work place that has and
needs collaborated work. Standard six states, An educator shall maintain integrity with students,
colleagues, parents, patrons, or business when accepting gifts and additional compensation
(The Code of Ethics for Educators). This part of the code of ethics deals with money and gifts,
but I feel that an educator must also maintain integrity when it comes with other aspects of being
a teacher. For example, when in the workplace educators need to respect each other and also help
each other become better at what they do. Another action that educators need to look at is crimes
that go against moral turpitude which can include, murder, make a false claim of a crime and
even selling drugs (Moral Turpitude). Those actions cause an educator to become a criminal but
it also shows that they are trustworthy as a person and not a good role model.
Another thing is acting appropriately when it comes to school meeting and activities that
the school where they are requires of them. An example of this would be not going to meetings
or leaving them. This part is really important and can be found in the code of ethics. It is part of
the Abandonment of Contract, where it states that willfully refusing to perform the services
required by a contract (The Code of Ethics for Educators, Standard Eight). This means that they
are not fulfilling their contracts to the school system that they are at. Personally, being a moral
and ethical teacher is more than just going to the required meetings but how educators act during
those meetings or lectures that could possibly help them become a better teacher. Educators
should be respectful towards whoever is leading those meetings and learning experiences. I have

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heard so many stories about how teachers act during those meetings. Another example is when
my teachers talk about those meeting they give off the impressions that they do not care or they
are nearly pointless for them. For me, I feel that they are not being the professionals that they
need to be.
Being an educator is a hard job, not only because of how much effort teachers put in but
because of how much love they put into the students. Still, educating and teaching is treated as
an easy job. Other majors and even future college students have mentioned to me that it seems
like being an education student is easy and it is going to be an easy job. I think that for them
teaching is an easy thing, because they do not know how much other things go into it other than
just opening a textbook. This idea is widespread and I believe that it really is important that
teachers act with integrity by following the rules and guidelines that are mentioned not only in
the code of ethics but specifically in standard ten. Standard ten is the section of professional
conduct. This means those teachers need to recognize and keep up the dignity and integrity of
the education profession (The Code of Ethics for Educators, Standard Ten). Being a
professional personally means that not only will others respect my opinions because they know I
am honest and trustworthy. I want people to come up to me and say that I am a teacher because
of the professional way I act, not only in the school setting but also outside of it.
Conclusion
Preparing to be an educator it really is important to understand how you need to act. The
code of ethics is a very definitive guideline that allows any educator to understand the things that
they should not do to be professional, moral and ethical educators. For me, my morals are very
strong and I think that educators need to be moral and ethical. As Wesleyan students our
professors are preparing us when we graduate with a conceptual framework. This framework will

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help us become the professionals that we need to be. When it comes to educators school it
become a place where lines are crossed and people are not very trusting with each other if these
standards are not respected. Educators are responsible for the minds of children and need to be
trustworthy, so that schools are the place where parents feel safe that their children are going and
children love going there.

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References
Moral Turpitude. (n.d.) Retrieved from:
http://www.gapsc.com/Ethics/Downloads/moral_turpitude.pdf
The Code of Ethics for Educators. (2009). Retrieved from:
http://www.gapsc.com/Rules/Current/Ethics/505-6-.01.pdf