The ethics of Terence Fletcher’s abusive teaching style in the film Whiplash Anonymous 12th Grade

Whiplash is a 2014 American film directed by Damien Chazelle (2014). There are two main characters in the film. The first is a young drummer called Andrew Neiman, who is a music student at Shaffer Conservatory. The other character is Terence Fletcher, Neiman’s abusive teacher. Fletcher believes the best way to motivate students is to push them to their limits. To this end, he insults them, shouts at them, slaps them and even throws chairs at them. Neiman quickly becomes Fletcher’s favorite target for abuse, eventually causing Neiman to have a nervous breakdown. Despite this, Fletcher still believes his abusive teaching style is justified because he thinks it pushes students to be the best they can be. This essay examines the ethical consideration of whether Fletcher’s teaching style is an ethical way to motivate his students. It finds that Fletcher’s teachings style was unethical, and uses three ethical theories – utilitarianism, Kantian ethics and the ethics of care – to support its claim. First, this essay uses utilitarianism to show that the consequences of Fletcher’s behavior outweigh its benefits. Then, it uses Kantian ethics and the ethics of care to further support the argument that Fletcher’s teaching style is...