▶ Your Answer :
Even though it has been a long time ever since I graduated from
school, there are several teachers who remain as a part of my youth and come to
my mind in certain situations, and I found myself asking what she or he would
advise me. Most of them were not only good at teaching their subject
effectively but also treated me as one single person rather than one of many
students in his or her class. Looking back my personal experiences, I fully agree
with the idea that a teacher’s ability to relate well with students is more
important than the ability to give knowledge. I would like to give some more
details for this opinion with following reasons.
Firstly, there are more and more sources where we can get the knowledge
from comparing to the close past like 1990’s, when there were very limited way
of getting the knowledge. That can be also read as that the role of the teachers has
changed as well, and teachers don’t have to be difficult beings anymore to the
students. I went to elementary school in 90’s and thinking of all the
circumstances of that time, now I can understand the teachers who used to assign
me loads of paper homework every day, asking to transcribe the textbook, which doesn’t
seem productive. As far as I can remind, most of them were all very strict and tended to make me bored during the
whole classes. But that must have been the most effective way to teach the kids under
given situations. I believe that made teachers very difficult group of people to talk to
or even to ask some questions, naturally. But now things changed. I don’t think
students expect teachers to be super clever and sometimes students even challenge
teachers after searching on the Internet presenting detail references. This
means that teachers are not in the absolute position in the scholastic aspect;
rather they give some tips to students when they need them.
Secondly, under above circumstances, students would definitely follow
the teachers who they like or admire rather than strict and scary teachers who
seek for the ultimate effectiveness. Whatever the areas of study are, they
should have some points where from students can get motivation. I remember my
first politics teacher in high school who was like my sister in that she treated
me like her little sister and had lots of background knowledge for every class.
I have to say that it was the very first point when I started to cast doubts on
Korean politicians and history. She tried to give me as many chances as
possible to think about the country where I lived in, even off from the class,
and assigned sensible homework which can be done only after I had enough
research from many types of books. It was a tough work to do but I willingly
carried it out with the sole desire to be like her, with my own perspective
about the topic she thought seriously. I really don’t think I would have done
the same if the teacher had been my elementary school teachers. It was her, who motivated me by being my another sister, who made me to think more about the country.
On the whole, relating well with students is more important than the
ability to give knowledge under current social and educational circumstances. This
is because the role of teachers has changed comparing to the past and that
means teachers should be able to motivate students to find the knowledge rather
than give students the knowledge directly. |