Purposes of Code of Ethics

  • A code of ethics should appeal to young people who are potential good teachers. It should appeal to those who find inspiration and challenge in the opportunities and obligations of the profession. Each member of the profession has a responsibility to make the profession an attractive way of life for suitable young people who may desire to prepare themselves for entry into it.
  • A code of ethics should outline to the neophyte in the profession the extent and the limits of his obligations and privileges as a practitioner.
  • A code of ethics should serve to bind together the members of a profession through the common consideration of standards of professional behavior. There should be a common acceptance of the wish to build and sustain a deserved respect for the profession in the society of which it is a part. Each member of the profession should use his influence to protect fellow professionals in their right to engage freely in proper professional and social- civic activities.
  • A code of ethics can serve as a reference for laymen who wish to reassure themselves as to the aims and purposes of the profession.
  • A code of ethics can assist in preserving for the expert professional people in the schools the role of the educational "expert". The selection of textbooks, the writing of courses of study, the selection and assignment in the schools of professional people, the construction and use of are courses of study and curriculums, and the management of in-service programs illustrations of areas where the role of the expert mush be courageously clarified.
  • A code of ethics would be useful in placing emphasis on the cooperative relationships that exist between the teacher and the general public, the teacher and the parent, the teacher and the pupil, the teacher and the fellow teacher, the teacher and the supervisory and administrative staff. This cooperative attitude characterizes the modern public servant in a democratic world, just as the individualistic-authoritarian attitude characterizes the "dictate-submit" dichotomy of the antidemocratic countries.
  • A code of ethics should contribute to the strength and advancement of all learning and to the welfare of all the learned professions, and it should draw strength and inspiration from them, that from them and through them and of itself it may contribute to the welfare of man.
  • A code of ethics, then, should function to provide a rationale within which the profession may operate.