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Sir Michael Wilshaw’s moral imperative

ks.234

Half way to Infinity
On the R4 now Sir Michael Wilshaw, ex head of Ofsted, said that teachers were under a moral imperative to give up their spare time to come into school at summer, winter and Easter breaks to teach kids.

What sacrifices should other people make to our post Covid world?
 
Should judges and lawyers be giving up their spare time to tackle the back log in the law courts?
 
This is the man who when running an academy had a policy of taking young staff working them till they dropped and then discarded them as disposable. he can stick his moral imperatives where the sun doesn't shine along with his own clear morals.
 
I think Johnson and Cummings should make the ultimate sacrifice in this supposedly post-COVID world. Mind you even the loss of their lives is almost certainly insufficient punishment for their crimes.
 
Having read too much about ‘exceptionalism’ just recently, I’m not sure what it means anymore, so please forgive me if I misuse the word when I say that what strikes me about Wilshaw’s statement is not the moral imperative so much as the exceptionalism with which teachers are treated that means his moralising goes unquestioned.

If I were still teaching I would willingly give up my free time to help kids who need it. But I object quite strongly to being told that I have a moral imperative to do what I’m doing voluntarily anyway.

What is it that is so exceptional about teachers that because they already quite happily sacrifice their spare time, their sacrifice is now demanded?
 
Having read too much about ‘exceptionalism’ just recently, I’m not sure what it means anymore, so please forgive me if I misuse the word when I say that what strikes me about Wilshaw’s statement is not the moral imperative so much as the exceptionalism with which teachers are treated that means his moralising goes unquestioned.

If I were still teaching I would willingly give up my free time to help kids who need it. But I object quite strongly to being told that I have a moral imperative to do what I’m doing voluntarily anyway.

What is it that is so exceptional about teachers that because they already quite happily sacrifice their spare time, their sacrifice is now demanded?

I don’t think that it’s because they already give up their time that teachers have a moral imperative to work in the holiday period. At least, I don’t see how that argument can be made out.

Let me take an example from another domain to elucidate one conception of moral imperative. If I have more food than I need and someone near me is starving, dying of hunger, then I think I have a moral imperative to give them some of my excess. The phrase moral imperative is pompous - it just means ought.

Is teaching really like that? The teacher has teaching skills and holiday time. The child will benefit from education, or let’s assume so. Is it really like the starving person and the excess food?

Having thought about it for a whole five minutes, I’m very sceptical of the idea that teachers ought to give up their holiday time to teach. Maybe they’d like to, especially if they’re paid, and maybe employers ought to offer them an extra income stream. But that’s a different matter, they’re not obliged to take it up.
 
I don’t think that it’s because they already give up their time that teachers have a moral imperative to work in the holiday period. At least, I don’t see how that argument can be made out.

Let me take an example from another domain to elucidate one conception of moral imperative. If I have more food than I need and someone near me is starving, dying of hunger, then I think I have a moral imperative to give them some of my excess. The phrase moral imperative is pompous - it just means ought.

Is teaching really like that? The teacher has teaching skills and holiday time. The child will benefit from education, or let’s assume so. Is it really like the starving person and the excess food?

Having thought about it for a whole five minutes, I’m very sceptical of the idea that teachers ought to give up their holiday time to teach. Maybe they’d like to, especially if they’re paid, and maybe employers ought to offer them an extra income stream. But that’s a different matter, they’re not obliged to take it up.
No.
 
Having thought about it for a whole five minutes, I’m very sceptical of the idea that teachers ought to give up their holiday time to teach. Maybe they’d like to, especially if they’re paid, and maybe employers ought to offer them an extra income stream. But that’s a different matter, they’re not obliged to take it up.

Yes!
 
Teachers, you've been warned:

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"Allison Pearson is away" is a nice touch.
 


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