BEIJING, June 27 -- To run or not to run: that is the
question.
"Runner Fan", nickname of Fan Meizhong, has created a
controversy because he ran out of the classroom leaving his students behind when
the May 12 quake struck.
The country's top education authorities now say the
high school teacher should not have done so to save his own life and left the
students to fend for themselves.
A draft of the new State ethics regulation for
primary and secondary school teachers says for the first time that protecting
students is the moral responsibility of a teacher.
Education officials have placed "protecting students'
safety" under the third clause of the first revision to the regulation that came
into being in 1997.
The revision, online for public scrutiny till July
30, reduces the existing regulation from eight to six clauses and says teachers
should "be good mentors and helpful friends".
The draft, posted on the Ministry of Education
website (www.moe.edu.cn) on Wednesday, is a timely re-examination of public
values after the quake.
The case of "Runner Fan" has been one of the most
talked about cases. What's added fuel to fire is his justification for his
action.
Last month, Fan attended the popular Tianya online
forum to recount his quake experience, and said his immediate reaction was to
run for life. Not a single student followed Fan out of the classroom but
luckily, the school building was not damaged.
Fan, a Peking University history graduate, justified
his action by saying there is no regulation that says a teacher should try to
save his students over his own life in an emergency. His faith in liberalism, he
said, made him prioritize his own life before all others, including his mother.
Fan, fired from his post, said in an earlier
interview: "It (what he did) only challenged the traditional ideas of education
and morality People believe a teacher ought to be a model of virtue for others,
and in the face of disaster, students are the weaker group so a teacher has to
help them."
"But the fact is that when a quake strikes, a teacher
is weak too ... I love my life more."
Netizens have treated his words as strong and a
direct violation of traditional Chinese values. They think his action and words
insult the people, including teachers, who sacrificed their lives to save
others.
No officials with the education ministry were
available for comment.
(Source: China Daily)
