Teacher-student relationship: past and present

(Baonghean) - In ancient Confucian society, teachers had authority and a particularly important position, just below the king, even above their parents. That was the ethics of King - Teacher - Father that ancient Confucian students had to absorb and follow. Teachers were respected to the point that as students, they not only had to repay their teachers, but also had to live up to their teachers' family obligations. Confucian students often pooled money to buy fields, divided the plowing and harvesting to support their teachers. Teachers' children, even if they were younger, were still considered elder brothers and were respected by their students. When the teacher passed away, the students worked together to support their teachers' wives. The gratitude of students to their ancient teachers was truly immense.

The reason why teachers were so respected in the past was partly due to the social context. In ancient times, Confucianism was used as a measure of success and status, only those who were well-educated and had high scores were allowed to become mandarins and take on important responsibilities in the state apparatus. Therefore, the examination and mandarin system of feudal society developed very early and was systematic, but public schools were rare and not as popular as they are today. Sometimes, the whole district, even the whole region, had only one scholar, parents had to carry rice and gifts to ask for their children to be admitted to the school from the time they were born, the teacher had the right to accept or not accept the student, and once accepted, the student would follow the teacher until he took the exam and passed (bachelor, bachelor, doctorate).

Therefore, Confucian scholars in the past, throughout their entire educational journey, often only had one teacher, at most two or three. The gratitude of a student, once he had passed the exams and achieved success, towards his teacher was therefore extremely profound. In addition, the teacher-student relationship in the past was not simply gratitude, but also respect and admiration because the teacher not only taught words, but also had to be a moral example with a standard, honest lifestyle for the student to follow.

Later, when feudal society declined, teachers still had a certain position in society and were placed on the same level as parents. Gratitude towards teachers was still one of the respected moral principles, expressed in idioms and proverbs such as "The first day of Tet is for father, the second day of Tet is for mother, the third day of Tet is for teacher". Teachers, along with parents, were placed among those whom we must support and repay while alive and even after death ("Live for Tet, die for death anniversary").

These ideas and morals are now almost only found in the generations of grandparents, at most our parents, who, no matter how many years have passed, still remember their first teachers with respect and gratitude. Many students who have reached the pinnacle of glory and are respected by the whole society, still bow their heads politely when they return to their old teachers' house, as if no time has passed and the teacher-student relationship has not changed because of the student's success or fame.

The time when parents had to take their children to bow to their teachers, pay respect to them, and ask them to accept them, and the teachers held a monopoly in imparting knowledge to students is no longer. Today's students, leaving the school gate, how many still remember the teachers of the past? Is it because students' learning is no longer as difficult as before and the teachers' teaching has now become the duty of a salaried worker? "To cross the river, one must depend on the ferry", but the ferry trips of the past and present are very different, from the boat, from the number of passengers crossing the river to the different rivers. If in the past, the ferryman only took five or seven students across the river, and crossing here meant crossing the river of the sages' letters (Han characters, Nom characters), crossing the river of the Huong, Hoi, and Dinh exams, to reach the shore, then today, students have to cross countless ferries: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, ... and then all the exams, tests, etc.

The ferry trips are now more crowded than before, so it is difficult for the ferryman to take care of and bond with his passengers, and the ferryman also encounters countless other ferrymen, so the teacher-student relationship today is "diluted" and much colder. Not to mention, nowadays books are everywhere, mass media is developed, students have free access to knowledge that teachers may not have the ability or time to impart. The dynamism and autonomy of students on the path of education not only allows students to diversify their knowledge, but also makes the distance between teachers and students become more and more distant.

Asking ourselves about our gratitude and responsibility towards our teachers, we can see that the morality of respecting teachers has been lost a lot today, or at least its nature is no longer based on sincerity, gratitude and affection, love, but often just a relationship of "give and take for mutual satisfaction", a courtesy, an exchange with full motives and purposes. That is why the teaching profession today is no longer respected and respected as it was in feudal society! Those who work in the profession of knocking children's heads now have to struggle with a meager salary, struggling with the worries of food, clothing, rice, and money, while their lives are still mediocre and their social respect is increasingly decreasing.

We often use the decline in responsibility and ethics of teachers as an excuse for our cold and indifferent attitude, but let me ask, is that number large enough to "sour" the whole "pot of soup" of those in the teaching profession? Have we ever looked at and evaluated those teachers with "problems" in ethics and responsibility with a more generous and humane perspective, to see their degeneration and corruption, which is ultimately the result of an unfair and disrespectful treatment regime, causing teachers to fall into countless temptations, instead of living a standard, honest life and focusing on teaching students.

Many young people today dream of standing on the podium, but in the face of the decline of teacher-student ethics, they inevitably wonder and hesitate about the future of the teaching profession. If today's society has considered teaching as a purely business form, then let me stand on that point of view to predict the future of this market: from the scarcity of the old society, to now, we are moving towards saturation in the number of teachers, leading to inflation and loss of value of the teaching profession. But it is also this depreciation that will lead to a shortage in the near future, threatening the country's education and the education of our children.

Is the above argument too pragmatic and inhumane, when comparing teachers to commodities? I hope that, before criticizing the writer, please review your own attitude towards the teaching profession. Please ask yourself, if today's students do not love and respect their teachers like their parents and grandparents did, whose fault is it? Is it the teachers, us, or the whole society?

Hai Trieu (Mail from Paris)