Chapter 657 – Teachers’ Day, Teachers’ Day Suffering
From 1985, China Government states that every year’s September 10th will be Teachers’ Day. This date was fixed until even before Feng Yu returned to this life.
The purpose of Teachers’ Day was to appreciate the teachers’ contribution to society. During the turmoil times, teachers were criticized for being “Stinking Old Ninth” and were considered to be the bad influences. During that time, many teachers were beaten up by their students and humiliated by forcing them to live in the cowshed and hanging a spittoon on their neck.
Although the turmoil times were over, and the government advocates the people to respect teachers, but there were still teachers that were beaten up students and parents. This caused many teachers to protest.
This was why the government implemented Teachers’ Day, and the date was discussed several times.
In the end, it was set on September 10th. This date was chosen because the new school semester had just started.
The Chinese government also implemented a few policies to show its support for the teachers. For instance, the welfare and benefits for teachers were better, a reward system, changes to their appraisal system, better housing, medical, etc. Many resources were allocated to the education sector.
Even before Feng Yu returned to the present life, the teachers were still enjoying these benefits and welfare.
All these implemented for the teachers in the first place, but as time passes, many things changed.
As the status of teachers became higher, many parents felt that studying was the only way for their children to be successful. If their children were educated, they would not need to work in the farms or be low wage workers. They can even be officials or leaders and work in offices.
To let their children be well taken care of, these parents will try their best to please the teachers. In this era, there were no “teaching by their aptitude” or “Quality education.” The only thing that matters was the results.
Furthermore, the policies for the previous years were University graduates will be recruited into the government service and will be a leader once they graduated!
This was why respecting the teachers slowly became pleasing the teachers. Parents will try all means to satisfy their children’s teachers. Everyone wants the teachers to give special attention to their children.
For example, if the students do not understand a question or subject, they can approach the teachers after school. The teachers will also take note of the students to make sure the student will not skip school or be bullied.
In the era, most families were dual income. Both parents were working and had no time to look after their children. Even their children were bullied in school, they also do not have time to go to school look for the bullies.
Then what should the parents do? They can only rely on the teachers to look after their children. But in a classroom full of students, why should the teacher just look after your child?
Giving a gift to the teacher!
There was a saying in China that there’s no harm giving more gifts. Furthermore, in the olden days, it was a must to provide teachers a gift or set up a banquet for them. They were only following old traditions.
So, the teachers did not only get special treatment from the government, but they were also taken care of by the parents of their students. This period was the time when students can still receive physical punishments in school. This lasted until a few years later when the State Council reprimanded the Minister of Education during a dinner. From then onwards, there was a regulation that teachers were not allowed to punish the students physically. But some teachers still do that behind closed doors.
After the year 2000, people’s lives got better, and many people realized that even without high education, they can still make money. This was the time when the parents no longer tell the teachers: “Please take care of our child. If he misbehaves, you can beat them up.”
It was changed to: “Please take care of our child. If he misbehaves, let me know. I will scold him. Please ensure that he is not bullied in school, and this is a token of our appreciation. Please accept it.”
There were even some people who spoiled their children. Most of them were grandparents of the child. If the teacher lay a finger on the child, the grandparents will go all out for that teacher!
At first, the most common gift for teachers were some pens or cards. There were not worth a lot of money, and it was only a token. But later, people start to give the teachers eggs, meat, food tickets, etc.
As time passes, the gifts became more and more expensive. Bicycles and even home appliances were given to the teachers in return for special treatments to their child.
Many teachers became accustomed to receiving expensive gifts. They no longer want to receive pens or cards. They only look forward to expensive gifts.
There were still many upright teachers around, and even if they did not receive any gifts, they would also do their best to educate their students. But when many people treated teaching as a job, the teachers’ quality dropped. Teachers’ Day also became a day for teachers to compete to see who received the most gifts.
Someone once said. Teachers might not remember who gave them gifts. But they will remember which student’s parents did not give them gifts! To make sure the teachers remember the student, the gift must be valuable.
In the current era, not only the teachers feel this practice is normal. Even the parents think it is normal to give the teachers a gift. No one thinks that teachers should not be receiving gifts.
But what gifts should be given? This was a headache for everyone. You want to give the teacher a bicycle? But the teacher already owns one. What’s the use of having one more bike? You want to give an expensive gift, but you can’t afford it. You also can’t get anything cheap. Alcohol and cigarettes? What if it was a female teacher and she doesn’t drink?
Giving money was the most direct solution, but there were still problems. Money was not as obvious as other items. 1,000 RMB was only ten 100 RMB notes. You can’t even feel it if it was in an envelope.
But if you buy a 1,000 RMB item, it will surely be obvious. Furthermore, most parents could not afford a 1,000 RMB gift. At most, they were only willing to use their one-month salary as a gift. It was only a few hundred RMB.
It would not look nice if the parents were to give a few notes directly to the teachers. Many teachers also do not dare to accept money directly from their parents. The parents were also worried that other parents might give the teachers more than them.
So, to many parents, Teachers’ Day was also suffering for them.
Almost everyone does not know what gifts should they prepare and how much should they spend.
But now, shopping cards will solve this problem!
Giving the teacher a shopping card was the same as preparing the Red Packet for weddings. People can discuss the amount to be given. It was not like giving an item. No one would give the same thing as others.
The teachers can use the shopping cards to buy whatever they like. It was not like cash when the teachers were embarrassed to receive it openly. But for a small card, the parents can just stuff it into the teachers’ pocket or their hands discreetly.
This was the current practice in China, and it will not be changed for the next few years.
The new school semester was about to start. Many students were looking forward to it. So were many teachers…….