In the province of New Cumbria, public school teachers on a permanent or continuing contract may be suspended from their jobs without pay or even dismissed if the school board has ‘just and reasonable’ cause to suspend or dismiss them. If the suspension is for more than ten days, or if they are dismissed, the teachers then have the right to appeal that suspension or dismissal to a special tribunal or ‘board of reference.’ This board of reference has the power to change, even to reverse, the school board’s decision.

This month, there are four appeals before the board of...

It is implicit in a system of public school education in which schools are tax-supported and subject to some sort of public control, whether by state or community, that the behaviour of teachers in the public school ought to be monitored and controlled in some way. This may seem too obvious to mention; sometimes, however, the implications of the obvious deserve to be examined. If teachers must be monitored and their ‘misconduct’ correctedwhoshould monitor and correct? Andhowshould they monitor and correct?

These questions are answered easily enough: school authorities monitor and correct by means of their...

The cluster of misconducts that are grouped together under the label of ‘misconducts of character’ (see chapter 1, p. 18) include the following:

a) the abuse or misuse of alcohol and other ‘drugs’

b) insubordination or contrary-minded behaviour

c) personal grooming and dress

d) behaviour showing signs of cruelty

e) use of obscene or vulgar language

f) dishonest behaviour

g) gambling

These classes are not logically exhaustive, so that we must allow for a further, residual class, namely (h): other.

What does personal grooming have in connection with behaviour showing signs of cruelty? Is drug abuse connected to dishonest behaviour...

Western educational theory, from Plato through the Christian era to today, has been dominated by the idea that the animal nature of human beings should be controlled in the interests of society and of spiritual or religious development. This animal nature has been described as unruly, selfish, evil, and corrupt. Consequently, human beings must be dominated, disciplined, and taught proper behaviour, while some of their grosser animal instincts must simply be suppressed or cut off. Young human beings must be taught that they cannot immediately gratify their animal impulses and must learn instead to do many thingsnowfor remote...

While issues relating to ‘character’ and sexual misconducts are important both to teachers in particular and to school systems in general, the most important concerns are freedom of opinion and the rights of the citizen. These issues concern liberty, and without a careful regard for liberty, education can be nothing but servile. This liberty includes the right of the citizen to criticize the institutions of society. These institutions include the educational institutions and especially the public schools.

The common law of master and servant allows an employer to dismiss, without notice, an employee in whose continued service the employer has...

This study focused on cases of trouble in which local communities put pressure on school boards to penalize and correct ‘unconventional’ or ‘contentious’ behaviour by teachers; it is clear from the instances reported here that this community pressure does sometimes exist. The law relating to employee misconduct, both in general and as applied in board of reference cases, clearly permits school boards to discipline or even to dismiss teachers whose actscast into disreputethe school and the education system. This rubric covers on- and off-the-job conduct that seriously upsets the community or constituency whose parents send their children to...