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Date Submitted: 03/06/2012 06:06 AM
Fairness, Trustworthiness, Integrity and SelfRespect: An Analysis of “The Emperor’s Club”] Michael S. Katz San Jose State University 4080 Villa Vista, Palo Alto California 94306 email: mskatz1944@yahoo.com
Good novels often can reveal the depth of character and relationships through which complex moral issues can be seriously discussed in ethics classes and/or ethics units with prospective teachers. However, occasionally an excellent film like “The Emperor’s Club” can perform the same function. The film reveals how a flawed moral judgment about a student in need of academic inspiration can put the integrity and self respect of an honorable teacher at risk. (1) It provides me with an exceptional literary vehicle in my efforts to show the complexity of teacherstudent relationships through a moral lens; this film subtly reveals the complex connections among fairness, trustworthiness, personal integrity and selfrespect;. The essay will examine several conceptual questions: first, how should we conceive of the obligation to act fairly towards one’s students; secondly, what is the relationship between acting fairly and being trustworthy; third, how might we conceive of “personal integrity” and “self respect” in teaching? Finally, the essay will integrate the answers to these questions by analyzing the film “The Emperor’s Club,” Fairness in Teaching To provide the conceptual underpinnings for the later analysis of the film, I will briefly do some conceptual work on ethical concepts. Few ethical concepts are more important to understanding what it means to be a moral teacher than “fairness,” a topic that seems to have received less attention than warranted from ethicists of education.
Although much has been written on issues such as social justice, racism, sexism, reasonably little has been done philosophically on what it means to treat students “fairly” ...