Teacher-student Relations

Recently, we had a Chinese Current Affairs Discussion, or Hua Gang Lun Tan. Our original topic was about relationships between teachers and students, but the school decided at the last minute that the topic was unsuitable and replaced it with the ability, or rather lack thereof, of secondary school students to protect themselves. Because the topic was cancelled, I will now make a blog post about it.

The notes about the topic were quite detailed, with several cases for the student to analyse. There was also a very good analogy used to describe it. The analogy was of the student as a prized object, like an artefact, and the teacher as an observer. If the teacher is too close, he will be unable to see the big picture and will be disappointed to see the many flaws. If he is too far, however, he will not be able to see the details. Thus, the teacher has to keep just the right distance between he and his student.

I agree with this viewpoint. However, I think that while the teacher has to maintain his/her status, he still should be friendly with his students, if only to get their liking. If a teacher is disliked by his pupils, they will not listen carefully in lessons and will not give him their attention. Likewise, if a teacher is too popular, the students will not listen to his instructions and will be rowdy. Thus, the teacher, in my opinion, should be a bit friendly with pupils during times like recess, but be stern and not be afraid to reprimand them during lesson time. This will give the best compromise for how a teacher treats his students.