Teachers Ask Code Revision
Daily Olympian 11-7-50
Washington – The teaching profession’s 21-year-old code of ethics-straitlaced and stern-is being revised.
The National Education Association said today a survey indicates that most educators, for example, want omitted from the code as unimportant such listings of “unethical” conduct as:
1. “To be careless of one’s personal appearance.”
2. “To engage in a practice of recreation, dress, etc., of which the community does not approve, even though such practices are not immoral or in bad taste.”
3. “To solicit sample textbooks.”
4. “To accept gifts form pupils.”
The Association of Teachers and School Officials adopted the code in 1929, on the basis of a nationwide teacher poll of the previous year.
With a view to modernizing the code, an association committee on professional ethics, headed be Grace Campbell, Spokane, Washington, teacher, again has polled some 1,300 educators.
The committee said in its report educators voted as the “most unethical” practice-and so to be listed again in the new code-the dismissal of a teacher, or a recommendation for dismissal without ample notice or an opportunity to be heard.
Second most unethical: The practice of a school official failing to recommend one of his teachers for a position in another community because he does not want to lose the teacher’s service.
And third: Showing favoritism.