TASK

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teacher were more appreciated and valued by society in the past than they were nowadays.

TASK RESPONSE.

Viewing that teachers play an essential role in cultivating one's talent, parents are always eager to provide their children with the best educational resources. However, from my perspective, teachers were more respected and admired by the public in the past than nowadays.

To start with, compared to the past, people now focus more on standard grades and turn a blind eye to personality cultivation, which blocks the communication channel between teachers and students. In other words, living in a competitive contemporary society, students have no choice but to devote most of their time and energy to absorbing exam-oriented knowledge, lacking time to build a personal relationship with their tutors. On the contrary, in ancient China, teachers shouldered various responsibilities such as shaping students' personalities and world views, teaching literature and even imparting KongFu, a Chinese combat art. As a result, compared with the modern era, students used to know about their teachers from diverse dimensions and angles, which invokes enormous appreciation. Take my experience as an example. In high school, I was overwhelmed by arduous school work and struggled to keep up with the teacher's rapid pace, let alone associated with them. Undeniably, it is impossible for students to admire and appreciate their teachers if they regard them as teaching machines and spend no time exchanging perspectives with them.

Furthermore, teachers were the embodiment of knowledge in the past, while there are alternative information resources and training opportunities with the advanced technology nowadays. Before the reform and opening up, most Chinese were underprivileged farmers whose enlightenment relied on local schools and tutors. However, with the booming media and increasingly sophisticated Internet, the public has access to receive a comprehensive education through colorful channels such as online open courses and academic forums, which undermines the authority of teachers. For example, in sophomore year, I would rather read digital books and discuss problems with peers in online chat groups than take monotonous and boring traditional classes. Frankly speaking, if I lived in the past when technological platforms and other learning aids were hardly available, I would have shown more respect to my motors. Obviously, the value of teachers was more emphasized in the past since students could build a solid foundation only by following their instructions.

In a nutshell, people were more thankful and respectful to their mentors in the past, considering the declining communication and waning authority.