In one obvious sense, the question of ethics in teaching is more straightforward than complex. The ethics to be followed are simply those of the controlling body, or authority. So if one is teaching in a faith school, the conduct of teaching is informed by the ethics of the religion in question: Catholic, Episcopalian, Muslim, Jewish, and so on. If one is teaching in a state school, the ethics are those authorized [Page 300]explicitly or implicitly by the state: explicitly through a body of prescriptions and proscriptions, or implicitly through curriculum and assessment requirements that promote compliance with certain practices rather than others. Variants of a state-authorized ethics of teaching are to be found in democracies as well as in totalitarian countries, in local education ...