Discussion Forum

This provocative prompt reminds me of the controversy that arose after the publication of "Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother", which revolves around the conflict between rigid parental discipline and creative growth. This "Fascist" method of raising is deeply rooted in Confucian teachings, which grant the elders profound, almost unquestioned authority, over the children, who are considered naive, helpless and in desperate need of guidance. Certainly such teachings will strike any Westerners as outrageous, encouraging not growth but unbridled suppression, but Confucius did warn that judicious power goes with responsibility (i.e tirelessly cultivate, question and refine one's ethical behavior), and if the power is not morally warranted, the people would not follow. 

I've had the opportunity to meet both the Fascist and the sage during my high school career. Both exerted tremendous power over their students explicitly, but one was detested, the other revered. One ruled out fear that his power will be threatened, and a sullen silence would reign over the class whenever he entered. We obeyed him on the surface (becausehe wielded lots of power in the school and could wreck your gpa in a blink of an eye), but most of us disregarded or ridiculed what he said. The other would also have been labeled "a dictator" in Western sense ( although until i got here it was the only righteous way of teaching I knew, and even now i'd still call him "a sage"), but his punishment was just. How do i know it? Because it always took him some time to reach such a decision, and I respect it because he did think over it, and not react reflexively out of the fear that if no punishment was issued his students would consider him weak.

How can we tell a sage from a Fascist, albeit that they are using the same method? I think it depends on our ability to sense the degree of consideration that lies beneath their exertion of power, something that we feel intuitively during our interaction with the teacher. I agree that even those with our best interests at heart may not always give sound advice, but education is an issue of trust and thus risks are inevitable. Your life is always put in the hand of the others before you're capable of taking hold of it. There are phases in life when you have to trust others more than yourself. And of course teachers are not gods. They struggle to define and redefine truths and virtues themselves. The only thing we can ask of them is that they think about what they're doing.