My chosen assignment is the Jeremy case study, which I will discuss and evaluate using different ethical points of view. First, from a contextualist point of view, the teacher's decision not to punish Phillip for punching Jeremy can be seen as justifiable. This is because the context of the incident was that Jeremy had provoked Phillip to the point that Phillip was behaving in a manner described as out of character. Given that Jeremy is known as a low-level troublemaking student, it can be argued that Phillip's retaliation was actually in everyone's best interest. Obviously it is difficult to justify one child hitting another; however the fact that Jeremy calmly continued with his work suggests that the punch didn't hurt that much or even that he felt he deserved to be hit. Furthermore, the teacher can be thought to be right in not taking action after Phillip hit Jeremy, as it was morally right. This links to Buzzelli and Johnston's belief that “teaching itself involves moral action” and that “teachers are moral agents”. This adds to Homan stating that “ethics is the science of morality”. Therefore, even taking these theories into account, the teacher's failure to recognize (Phillip's behavior) can be seen as ethical, since it was morally correct for the extremely provoked child to react. On the other hand, it can be argued that it is never morally correct to hit another person, whatever the situation. In this regard, it should be noted that everyone's moral code is different and that, in this scenario, the teacher's belief that Jeremy was hit on the shoulder is justifiable as it prevented him from being disruptive, it cannot be seen as irrefutably right or wrong. More generally, the co...... middle of paper ...... er, at this moment, another student might provocatively punch Jeremy because he thinks Phillip hasn't been punished. The teacher's lack of response to the situation could be seen as justified, from the perspective of consequentialism, since the ends (Jeremy calmly continuing with his work) justify the means (Phillip punching Jeremy). However, the negative consequences of other pupils perhaps recognizing that Phillip was not punished for punching Jeremy (creating the idea that they can punch anyone who provokes them) might suggest otherwise. Furthermore, the same could be said of the fact that the teacher did not intervene at all, even when the distress occurred. If the teacher had intervened, it would (probably) have prevented the situation, but (at the same time) it would also have meant giving Jeremy the attention that, perhaps, he desires; as well as disturbing the entire class.