Letters and Blogs

Purify Teacher's Day practices

Teacher's Day has been an opportunity, in line with Chinese tradition, to show our esteem for teachers. In recent years, however, the solemn day has been stained because many students as well as their parents capitalized on this occasion to hand over gifts, usually precious ones, to teachers. Hence, some commentators are outraged by the fact and called for abolishing Teacher's Day.

It is not appropriate to abolish Teacher's Day, since the key to the problem is quasi-bribery gifts to teachers rather than the day per se. Even if Teacher's Day is abolished, students and their parents could still find other opportunities to give gifts. We need an occasion like Teacher's Day to pay tribute to teachers, whose dedication is important for the country's future, and, therefore, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.