Should Chinese teachers protect their students?

The Ministry of Education in China is getting around to revising its code of ethics of teachers, and this time around they are thinking about including “protecting students,” a move no doubt in part spurred by the memory of teachers protecting students during the Wenchuan earthquake. Some who have argued against such a move say that teachers are humans too, and making it obligatory for the teacher to put life and limb in danger to protect students is going too far. They say it’s natural to want to protect the young, but to codify it might create more problems (of interpretation) than it would solve. Another more sarcastic reply was that perhaps they ought to include karate as part of teacher training from now on, and if you don’t pass muster you will not be qualified to be a teacher.