Ethics and Professionalism

13. The Pedagogical Imperative

o 13 THEPEDAGOGICAL IMPERATIVE The obligation to serve all in need clashes head on with respect for client autonomy when clients do not consent to intervention in their lives, yet lack the power or rationality to care for themselves . When vital interests are at stake, paternalism is an option. Something is lost whatever the decision. Therefore, it is an obligation of the professions to minimize occasions when it is necessary. The obvious way is to seek consent from clients to the actions judged to be in their interest. Consent, however, can be manufactured, it can be misinformed or illogical, and it can support decisions that ought to be resisted or rejected. Not every form of consent makes an action nonpaternalistic or contributes to its justification, only the right kind of consent secured by the right kind of measures. Such consent cannot always be secured and some paternalism always will be necessary. However, much can be done to prepare people to take part in professional decisions and it is the obligation of the professions to see that this is done. I shall develop this theme under the metaphor of the professional as a teacher. The pedagogical imperative is essential to achieving the proper balance between the obligation to serve and respect for client autonomy . The Athenian Stranger in Plato's Laws explains why a legislator should append a preface to every law that defines terms and gives reasons. The Athenian remarks, I/[Isthe legislator to offer] never a word of advice or exhortation to those for whom he is legislating, after the manner of some doctors?" He proceeds to contrast two sorts of doctors and two sorts of patients. The slave- 308 THE PROFESSIONAL IDEAL doctor does not understand the principles behind medical treatment and never discusses the complaints of slave-patients with them. The slave-doctor prescribes what mere experience suggests, as if he had exact knowledge; and when he has given his orders, like a tyrant, he rushes off with equal assurance to some other servant who is ill; and so he relieves the master of the house of the care of his invalid slaves. The legislator should emulate another type of doctor: the other doctor, who is a freeman, attends and practices upon freemen; and he carries his enquiries far back, and goes into the nature of the disorder; he enters into discourse with the patient and his friends, and is at once getting information from the sick man, and also instructing him as far as he is able, and he will not prescribe for him until he has first convinced him; at last, when he has brought the patient more and more under his persuasive influences and set him on the road to health, he attempts to effect a cure.' The professional should be like the freeman-doctor, who seeks causes before he prescribes cures and tailors his cures to the individual. Too many professionals treat clients in the manner of slaves or, in the modem equivalent, as machinery in need of service. Our critique of paternalism rejects the slave-doctor attitude though allowing limited forms of the behavior that follows from it. We must explore the implications of the conception that professional service is an interchange among equals and how it follows that the role of the professional is that of teacher as well as partner and agent. Since good teachers are also good students (of the needs and circumstances of their students as well as the latest developments in their discipline), the pedagogic model also represents professionals as learners and those whom they serve as teachers. The Teacher as Paradigm Professional The place and limits of paternalism are perhaps is more problematic in the schools than anywhere else in contemporary society. Teachers are expected to stand not only in loco parentis, but in 309 THE PEDAGOGICAL IMPERATIVE loco civitatis. Reminiscent of the educational philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, they are expected to inculcate right opinions before children are able to think critically, both for the children's own benefit in adjusting to society and for society's benefit by making them good (i.e., obedient) citizens. Some paternalism is integral to good pedagogy but less than sanctified by the expectations of society. If discipline is imposed, it is to enable students to learn self-discipline. If it is true that teachers know what is better for students, they should equip students to know...