The best of intentions…

Strong though his literature teacher’s impact may have been, it was M’s social science teacher, Yang Changji, who was to have the deepest influence on M’s intellectual life. As M recalled later, Yang”was an idealist, and a man of high moral character. He believed in his ethics very strongly and tried to imbue his students with the desire to become just, moral, virtuous men, useful in society.”

Mao Zedong by Jonathan Spence

This passage caught me entirely off guard. I very much believe in the value of teaching and believe teaching to be a method of positively impact a society– a humanitarian effort, of sorts, in that it’s an investment of the teacher into the lives of his/her students. The hope of this is that the teacher will have a positive impact on the students, and through the students, on the world as a whole.

This description of Yang depicts him as, after an effect, the quintessential teacher. He was a virtuous man, who attempted to pass that virtue on to his students, and was able to effectively impact their lives.

But there’s something almost dreadful about this– if you haven’t already figured it out, M is Mao Zedong– a man both admirable for his ability to command power and loyalty and reprehensible for the terrors he affected with his power.

So then how is Yang to be regarded? Is he a hero for dedicating himself to his students, integrity and virtue? Or is he a villain for having given inspiration, guidance and encouragement to a man who was later to become one of the world’s greatest tyrants, in ranks with Hitler and Stalin? How is Yang to be regarded?

Yang has either done too much or too little– to much for giving education and inspiration– aiding and abetting— a life destroying monster or too little for failing to inspire Mao with a sense of humanity, a love of life, or dedication to justice. And how would Yang himself now look back on his actions? Could he laud himself for a life-well lived and discard Mao as being outside of his control? Or would he condemn himself for his influence? Would he wish that he been a farmer or a factory worker, rather than a teacher? Would be be able to look in the eye any of those who perished under Mao’s crazed cultural reforms? Would he say that his best just wasn’t good enough?

I wish that I, myself, could in my own mind absolve Yang of any and all guilt. To say that he was somehow responsible for Mao’s later actions seems somehow ridiculous– but if Yang is allowed/given no accountability for Mao, what is his virtue as a teacher? If he cannot be held responsible for ill, then likewise he cannot be help responsible for anything good. If Mao had later become a Nobel peace-prize winning world leader –one of the greatest humanitarians of our time– who brought an end to war and suffering and hunger… then Yang could have no responsibility or pride in that either, regardless of how much he served as an inspiration.

There’s more to this than meets the eye. Yes– to be an educator is a great humanitarian investment. But I think it’s more– it’s also a risk. It’s a hope that ultimately your investments as a teacher will be for good and not for ill– but it’s a hope without guarantee. Obviously, even the most exemplary of teachers runs the risk of failure.