Should teachers retain elevated status? If you are Thai, your
answers must be “Yes”. But, there are many people in other countries might say “No”.
Why? What is wrong with those who believe so? Or What is wrong with Thai
culture?
The consequences
of two researches have a coincidence in which teachers in China are considered,
by attitudes to professional status, trust, pay and desirability of teacher,
the highest respectable person from the public comparing in 21 countries. In “Teachers in China given highest level of public respect”
also significantly states that UK, although it is in a lower range than China,
display positive views toward teachers that they should be supported better
salaries and had more respect by students.
In Thai
culture, it seems common to pay respect to any teacher, even though he or she
doesn't teach us in a class room. We have been taught that teachers are our
second parents who both enlighten and take care of us. Similarly, as the
article say, Chinese teachers are compared with doctors. That is to say, China
is likely to have a cultural emphasis on the important of teachers as Thailand.
On
the other hand, some countries, such as US. and Japan, have different views.
The first country compares teachers with librarians. The second one compares
with government officials. Do they suggest that they have different sets of
value? Frankly, I’m not sure that I know
well about those cultures, but I do think it might be concerning seniority,
especially in western culture where people believe in equality. Teacher might
be considered as adults who love teaching people as a career. Anyway, this supposition
is probably not compatible with Japanese culture in which respectability is
found in any level of society. But as a Japanese manga lover – a fan of comics created
in Japan - I know, form many comics that
I have ever read, Japanese respect every elders. Then, in my opinion, the low
level of public respect must relate to teachers’ salaries, which is one of
studied factors.
__________
Reference
Respect is an interesting thing. Should results and performance matter? For example, if I fail to actually teach you or to help you improve your academic English performance, should you respect me? I think not. If teachers don't actually teach, then why should they be respected? In fact, if all they do is turn up in a classroom and demand respect, then I I think that they do not deserve respect but something very different.
ReplyDeleteI like Ying's reflections in cultural differences as well. On the issue of respect, which cultural attitude, or set of attitudes, is better do you think?
On reading it again, I just realised that Ying has not clearly answered her own question. Do teachers deserve respect? More specifically, do Thai teachers deserve respect?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a school student in Australia, I respected a few of my teachers, but only those who deserved it because they did their jobs well, both teaching and inspiring students. But others did not. I thought that they were fools, and I don't respect fools. On the whole, I think the national statistics show that Australian education is good and compares well with international standards, so I guess that the teachers are doing good job - it's not surprising that there will be a few bad ones. I was probably lucky. I went to private Catholic schools and if a teacher was not good, he or she was quickly gotten rid of. I don't think that the state schools funded by the government could so easily get rid of their bad teachers.
I guess my attitude is that if someone is a teacher I respect them as a teacher unless I have some reason to think that they can't teach very well. But then, that's exactly what I do to everyone else. Engineers fill an important role in society, as to cooks, doctors, cleaners and lawyers. They all deserve respect, both in their area of competence, and because they are persons.