Universities no place for undercover missionaries

• Source: Global Times
• [21:57 January 18 2010]
• Comments

The organizations will pay the teacher's salary directly and only receive a small payment from the university, letting the school spend a fraction of what they would normally pay for a foreign teacher. They also often donate textbooks, teaching materials, or other resources to the school and award student scholarships.

Some of the bigger organizations have even been known to fly university officials to the US to be wined and dined. Because of all these benefits to the university, officials are usually will-ing to turn a blind eye to the proselytism the foreign teachers engage in.

If a teacher happens to be religious and a curious student brings up the topic, there's nothing wrong with a teacher explaining what their religion is all about in an even-handed manner.

But when great lengths and expenses are undertaken to put students in pre-concocted positions of intellectual and emotional vulnerability, then an ethical, as well as a legal line has been crossed.

These teachers are abusing the respect and authority that comes with their job so they can manipulate the feelings of impressionable students.

While the universities may get many significant benefits from these organizations, they can't sacrifice the quality and integrity of the students' education by hiring teachers who are only using their job as a pretext for propagating their own religious beliefs.

The author is a teacher and freelance writer in Nanjing. globaltimesopinion@yahoo. Com