There are many benefits for the friendship between teachers and students. In my view, Friendship, in its proper meaning, is a healthy, respectful connection between two people and is the ideal connection between any two people, especially when those people are in some sort of productive situation, such as teaching and learning. To start with, such a relationship helps with the students’ growth. Young students are at a critical stage of life, during which they are in bad need of communication with somebody they can trust and share their experience with. Teachers, as intelligent adults, are able to contribute a lot to such a healthy and reciprocal relationship.
Secondly, the sound teacher-student relationship facilitates the entire teaching process. As stated in the first paragraph, the major/principal role of a teacher should be a mentor, who imparts knowledge or information to the pupils. To accomplish this role, a pre-existing friendship which acts like lubricant oil will eradicate all the obstacles, as the mentor has already won the trust and respect from his students and thus can pass on knowledge in a more convenient way. Thirdly, the teacher can also take advantage of such friendship. Nowadays, reports about the tension between teachers and students are constantly seen on the media. If the teachers can cultivate a good relationship with students, such tension can be ridded.
Teacher’s role as the role model is also indispensible for the students. For teenagers and youngsters, they are at a delicate period of time in life: they are too young to know what’s good and what’s wrong and they are too vulnerable to face the challenges and difficulties alone. In this sense, they crave for some guidance and assistance, which can be from their peers, their parents, and more importantly, from their teachers or tutors. Teachers, who are widely regarded as the mental and behavioral mentors of adolescents, can better fit this role than anybody else. Imagine what kind of achievement Plato could have scored without the instruction and guidance from Socrates.
In conclusion, teachers’ roles are really diversified. To cultivate better citizens and achieve the educational goals, teachers’ roles have gone far beyond the traditional information provider, they can be friends and role models to students.
by
jessie007 (student)
