What impact if any might the moral arguments offered
herein have on the profession of education? Alan Goldman has offered an
observation on this matter.
To the extent that professional behavior, even ideal
behavior, as viewed from within the professions themselves, is to be
casually explained in nonmoral terms, we might expect that moral arguments
will be ineffective in influencing it.
Traditionally new members were indoctrinated into the practices
articulated in the codes in subtle and nonexplicit ways. Practice was
inculcated simultaneously with factual knowledge, and the deeper moral
questions were evaded in the professional schools.
For a professional to alter his mode of practice and its central
norms is for him to change his personality….The hope for flexibility
and openness to rational moral persuasion is the hope that for the
healthy and well-integrated personality, the Aristotelian ideal, the
role of the good person, will at least limit all other roles a person
may play. .--- Goldman, Alan. The Moral Foundations of
Professional Ethics. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield,
1980. p. 292.