Medical Education US

A health teacher has conducted some sort of sick social experiment for his own gain (with students.)

They first told all students that they had to write a letter to their parents; specifically, what they would write to them if they were to die the next day.

When a friend of mine protested this, he told her that if she didn't do it, she would fail the class automatically.

So she did it.

Then, the next day, he sent all of the letters to the parents of his students, without any explanation as to what they were.
So my friend's mom starts freaking out, yeah? I can imagine that it would cause some sort of trauma, and warrant grounds for some sort of punishment for the teacher. But what happened to him?

Nada, nobody complained. Everyone's scared that if they say something, they'll get flunked. This is really bothering me, so I wanted to ask your opinion: Why do you think he did this, and what should be done about it?

I would hope that the teacher explained the purpose to the class. Without knowing all of the details, it is impossible to guess as to why the teacher would do this. As to what should be done about it - I don't know that I have any strong opinions, nor would I think that a website would be the best place to get suggestions for something like this.

Having said not to put too much weight into suggestions from here, I would suggest your friend talk to her parents about it and see if they feel anything needs to be done.

That definately sounds like a very odd assignment that the teacher had you do.

Sure it might be nice if the student had loving thoughts to express to his or her parents or legal gaurdians, but what if he or she didn't. I think that the health teacher should have thought about all of the possibilities.

If the teacher didn't explain to the parents or the students what the assignment was before he sent the letters or assigned the work, that is pretty sick. I could think of some parents who would have objected to this kind of assignment.


It seems impossible for the student who didn't want to participate be automaticly failed from the class for not wanting to do one assignment.

I think it is very inapropriate and maybe the school's administration or counselors would be able help with this situation if you feel that strongly about it.

[ Edited by Silverdragon on 2006/12/6 10:32 ]

[ Edited by Silverdragon on 2006/12/6 10:34 ]

[ Edited by Silverdragon on 2006/12/6 10:35 ]

You see, that's the thing. The teacher didn't explain what it was for, and I think that either the school doesn't know about it, they don't care, or they're trying to keep it quiet, seeing as it doesn't have much funding as it is. If word of this got out, parents of students would probably vote against raising the budget, the salaries of the teachers, etc.