Posted on 06/10/2008 8:17:49 PM PDT by medatj
I'm a Chinese and live in Beijing. You may heard about a massive earthquake stroke Sichuan province last month.
In this natural disaster, one my fellow people, exactly a teacher, ran before his students and declared his view of personal liberty and freedom regardless his teacher indentity. His allegation has triggered a extensive discussion on humanity and teacher, as a publice servant,responsibility.
I know that personal liberty is well developed and protected in US. But, and the same time, US is a country regarding public responsibility especially for those paid by the taxpayers to do their civil job.
I came here to post this more for my confusion. How do you American people look at this? I heard that in your civil law teacher, as other public servant, has the reponsibility to protect the public first. How do you fellow people look at the responsibility vs personal liberty?
Thank you guys. :)
Welcome to Free Republic!
To answer the posters question. I think the whole story is an exaggeration and a diversion tactic drummed up by the Chicom media.
As for the idea that a guy (public servant or otherwise) under extreme stress freaked out and ran for his life, I dont find that bizarre. People can do strange things under extreme stress, especially if they have never faced it before.
Hence, in an incident like this, it becomes a matter of personal values. If you value your own life above anything else, you're free to make the same choice as this teacher did. If, however, you believe that you couldn't live with yourself knowing that you let a classroom of children die to save your own life, you might make a different choice.
See #7.
The issue should never have come up. Teaching is too important to trust any government with.
I believe some people went to jail for abandoning their drowning patients/residents in New Orleans during Katrina.
denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9352828
WINDSOR — The emergency plan called for the children from the Windmill Child Enrichment Center to march over to the nearby Bank of Choice before a tornado strikes.
On Thursday, there was no time.
Teachers at the center were just able to shoo the children into their own building as the tornado hit town.
When it was past, Cheryl Tori of Greeley pulled into town just in time to see a daisy chain of children marching into the bank as teachers did a head count. All were probably scared. Some were crying. None of the 167 kids was seriously hurt.
“That staff and that director all deserve a medal,” said Tori, 55, who was passing through on her way to Fort Collins. “They had them all inside, protected.”
[Story continues at above link]
I think one big difference is in the United States most schools perform regular emergency drills for such events as tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes etc. Teachers and students practice these evacuations/relocations on a regular basis to know what to do in case of a disaster.
It sounds like in the earthquake in China, the teachers had no plan, no idea what to do. Each teacher had to make split second decisions on their own: one teacher ran away from his students, another teacher laid on top of his students and saved them from being crushed to death.
I think more children would have survived if the teachers had been trained on what to do in case of this kind of emergency.
“Examing the answers” means still no conclusion?
Really? You mean medical specialist?
Is there really some physical regulation for that behavior?
Yes, your comment made me think deeper of my own undestanding of this teacher and his mis-behavior.
He’s no wrong as a personal, naturally. But when he’s blamed for his professional misconduct, we should put more attention on why he didn’t acquire sufficient and propoer training to handle himself and manage his pupils. That’s because the authority and administration didn’t give enough attention to staff and student safty and, then, didn’t provide training to the faculty and their student.
That’s not a problem to a single runner, but for the administration, in long term view.
To the contrary, there have been many conclusions. But indivdual freedom mated with personal responsibility means that you, for the most part, have to use your own best judgment to determine the boundaries.
This is to add to what Tamar1973 stated in post #13. Schools here tend to focus on potential dangers that are more common in a given area of the country. For example, when I was young lad, I lived in a part of the US prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. Thus, the schools held tornado and hurricane drills in addition to the customary fire drills. In areas that are prone to earthquakes, schools have earthquake drills in addition fire drills.
J.....
Dude, are you too sensitive? I’m just a ordinary people often checking news and informationa and wanna share and learn....
I believe that this human society exsits because we can stand tegother when bad things happen to us. That’s a ultimate vuale of human race.
I’m no spy..... True spy doesn’t come here
In the case of teachers, they are being paid to teach their students, not to be policemen or some other person who is paid to protect them. But many teachers here have been heroes, protecting their students from various calamities. One example is Dr. Liviu Lebrescu, who taught at Virginia Tech University. When the massacre occurred at Virginia Tech, he blocked the doorway to his classroom with his own body so that the students could have time to escape out the windows. I'm sure he realized he would not live through it, but Dr. Lebrescu was a Holocaust survivor and had seen many things, and I'm sure he knew he could not live with himself if he did not do all he could to save the students. Here is an excellent article about him: We Remember: Biographies - Virginia Tech.
And what about our belief in personal liberty? We do believe in that strongly. But many of us who are on this forum believe that we only have freedom because many people before us were willing to give of themselves so that we would have it now. Look at policemen or firefighters or soldiers. Look at the risks they run. They could not possibly be paid enough to give their lives, and yet they do it every day, because that is what they have sworn to do, to protect others. Freedom is nothing without personal honor.
Perhaps others will disagree. But I believe we protect others because it is the right thing to do, not because we are being paid for it. I think that deep down, the Chinese people believe that too, which is why there is so much talk about the teacher who ran away. No, he was not being paid enough to sacrifice his life for his students. No one in the world has that much money, to pay him for that. But it sounds as though most of you believe he should have protected his students because it was the right thing to do, not because he was being paid for it.
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