The editorial Your ugly faces (TMID, 6 February) brings to the forefront certain unethical behaviour by some teacher out of hundreds, if not thousands, who know better. Yet the incident should not be swept under the carpet since usually, if one incident gets reported, many others are not for the same reasons – fear of reprisals against students.

This is not unique and does not happen only in Malta, however such an incident should be investigated and the comments to the students in question, perhaps be evaluated in the context they were made.

I cannot ever imagine a teacher (we know he was a male) routinely referring to his students as a bunch of ‘ugly faces’, unless of course such comment was made jokingly. Jokingly or not, it was rather insensitive but hardly a case of being taken so personally. In fact the teacher was reported to have used the plural (‘ugly faces’) so if there was offence taken, the whole class should have responded accordingly.

The Education Minister did well to inquire and try to obtain more information but it was also ethical that the paper did not divulge the information for two reasons: 1. The paper is duty bound to safeguard the identity of the source and, 2. Getting the minister directly involved would have probably brought a punishment not quite commensurate with the crime.

It would probably be wise if the MUT had to issue a directive to all its members and principals warning that it would not defend teachers who exceed certain limits such as in this case.

In my much younger days, corporal punishment was a routine event for misbehaviour or even neglect of homework, and being called an ugly face would have been preferable to 10 lashes with a wooden ruler, but nowadays such punishments are unthinkable.

But then, teachers had fewer problems with students (and parents) and being punished in school meant getting another punishment at home. Things have changed, behaviour has changed, parental control has diminished – only the teacher is expected to remain constant.

J Martinelli

London, Ontario

Canada