Kenneth Futernick
California State University, Sacramento
Much has been written on the teacher’s role as moral educator. In “The Morality of Niceness,” Suttle considers a related topic that has received far less attention — teachers as moral agents. He argues that a teacher’s obligations should not be limited to the achievement of academic objectives, but should include being a caring, sensitive, and sympathetic person with one’s students. In short, teachers have a moral and professional obligation to be nice. The problem Suttle sees is that many people, including philosophers, regard being nice as supererogatory — that is, going beyond one’s obligations. He tries to convince us that within the context of teaching, being nice is not supererogatory. If he succeeds in demonstrating that teachers have a duty to be nice, he believes he has established a “morality of niceness” which entitles us to say that teachers who are not nice are incompetent and morally irresponsible.
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