[September 2004 journal entry]
Imagine: A teacher singles out for preferential treatment two students of the thirty-three students in his/her class. The reasons could be any combination of factors – e.g., ethnicity, intellectual gifts, familiarity with parents, gender, appearance, . . . . Or there may be no reason/s. The preferential treatment occurs unambiguously in front of the entire class (e.g., tutoring, seating, extra credit, field trips, . . .). The teacher simultaneously and intentionally discourages/deprives the other students of assistance/resources that would be beneficial to their education. The ignored/harmed students and their parents object to this blatantly unfair behavior. Ethics question: What should the two students singled out for preferential treatment think? do? Theological question: How can individuals who would object to such behavior on the teacher’s part use/approve/advocate ‘God’ language that is strongly similar to the imagined teacher’s preferential treatment of the students?
