Social Issue: Are Teachers in the United States Being Disrespected?

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Once I was in my business class, in which the Professor seldom gave us break, a student in the front row raised his hand and asked 'Professor, are we going to have a break in the middle of the class?'. Professor agreed and a 5 minutes break was given to the whole class after a while. After the break, another student sitting beside me raised her hand during the lecture and said 'Professor, I do not mean to interrupt you. But what I want to say is I paid for the tuition fee and that's why I would like to have a complete 1 hour 50 minutes lecture. That would be so unfair if you take away 5 minutes from us just because one student in the class requested for a break'. I can tell the Professor is a bit embarrassed, but still he continued the lecture without a clear conclusion or any reaction. As a Chinese student who has just started her first quarter in an American school, I was shocked. Not only shocked, I was angry in fact. I really felt bad for the professor. The thing that surprised me the most is when the lecture was finished, some classmates went towards that girl and said something encouraging and positive and they thought that what the girl has done is brave and reasonable. At that moment, I think to myself 'Are teachers in America being disrespected? Are they having a low prestige in society?' After the business class, the cultural anthropology class followed. We were asked in class to think of an issue on campus. Eventually, what had just happened has become my inspiration. I decided to understand the whole story and answer the question in my mind from a cultural perspective objectively. In China, teachers are highly respected, especially in a country with strong traditional thoughts. We are educated that teachers are at a higher prestige level and we should respect and obey them. Started from middle school, students were asked to bow to the teachers

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