TOEFL: 'anticipation of more intelligent class discussions'; teaching is harder than it once was

prompt: Do you agree or disagree with the statement that teaching is harder than it was in the past?

Thanks in advance.

Today's society is much more diverse, complex, pluralistic and swiftly changeable than ever before,making every social member a sailor driving on the sea under complex weather condition. Thus, teachers play a more important role in leading teenagers to prepare for their future. Some people hold the view that teaching is more and more harder than it was in the past, while others provides counterarguments to it. As far as I am concerned, it is true that education is a more difficult process than before.

To begin with, what teachers need to teach is harder and more than before. To illustrate, with the rapid development in all the fields, the world's knowledge industry has witnessed unprecedented boom in recent years. Therefore, if a teacher wants to provide the latest results in a certain filed, he must introduce the process of development at first, and then exactly explain what is the critical point in the process, why it changes and even what will it turn into in the future. Obviously, it was much easier to do in the past, especially when it comes to time and amount. Researchers at China Academy of Social Science conducted a survey in 50 key high school in Shanghai. They drafted a list of questions centering on level of knowledge taught in school and asked teachers to fill out the questionnaire. Among the 6000 teachers who wrote out their answers, over

75 percent of them mentioned the harder knowledge and more amount preparation for lessons. Thus, we can see teachers in school now take more time and energy to prepare for their lessons, due to the developing process of knowledge.

In addition, it is a new challenge for teachers to teach their students in the current situation, not only because of the more personal students, but also because of the more sensitive parents. To be specific, children, who were thought possession to a family in the past because of the poor society, now are just family members. And then more and more families hold only one child. So both their parents and their grandparents care more about them. In other words, if children are hurt in school, their parents may think it is not their children but the teachers who will be to blame. Actually, it really do harm to teachers psychologically. On the other hand, the spoiled children always do something personally. Just as the common notion in psychological filed, a personal man usually create a mental acknowledge to others and satisfy himself materially and mentally. That means the only child even can lie to himself to continue his behavior without anxious feeling. For example, my neighbor Kimi, who never accomplishes his homework, once told me he would be a scientist, so it's unnecessary to learn all the easy thing in school. What's more, he thought others trying to persuade him to study were so stupid that they could not understand his great dream.

In conclusion, it is difficult and much knowledge, naughty students and even the surrounding situation that transform the problem of education into a mountain from a hill. So there is no doubt that we should give more attention to both the education and teachers, in order to establish a complete system. Teachers, students and even their parents are on duty.

While you do present some interesting topics in defense of your thesis, I believe that the prompt is asking for something deeper than a comment about the technical aspect of teaching such as methodologies or spoiled kids and demanding parents. I would suggest that you try discussing this essay from another point of view, the view that because of technology and the advent of the internet, teachers need to stay one step ahead of their students. So they need to be able to anticipate more complex and confusing questions from students.

You can argue that teaching now harder that in the past because there was no internet before that allows the students to access information about their lessons far more thoroughly that they could in the past. The internet is the endless encyclopedia of knowledge that has required the teachers to up their teaching game so teaching is now harder for them than before.

Remind them that before, teachers were considered to be the most learned person a student would ever meet. They were expected to know everything and have all the answers. Since students just need to do a quick search on the internet these days, the access to information has been leveled for everyone. So the students might already know or already know more than what the teacher is prepared to teach in class. So this anticipation of more intelligent class discussions has also made it harder to teach class.

I am sure you have some experience in this area. Where the students ask some questions that threaten to unveil the teacher as not really knowing everything about something they are teaching. You could use that as a sample of how it is harder to teach not than in the past.

Of course this is just my understanding of the prompt and my suggestion as to how I would answer it. Feel free to use my idea if you want to try another way of answering your essay :-)

I happened to write an outline about this topic !!! how do you think of it? lol :)

Nowadays, as the technology is developing rapidly, the massive of information gives more challenge to both teacher and student. As my mom, a teacher with 20 years of experience, said:" I think I'm trapped in a big obstacle, my students are more and more tough, my teaching skill seems cannot meet present requirement." While some people hold that technology construct a immediate and access-easily bridge between teacher and student, I claim that it is harder for my mon and other teachers to teacher than it was in the past.

Admittedly, high-tech equipment is beneficial for teaching.

Receiving more and more information, students are capable of suspect all the conclusion from teacher.

Teachers are supposed to make tireless efforts to keep up with developing knowledge and science.

To sum up, the new challenge from students and changing world cannot be counterbalanced by several high-tech tools. My mother, alone with many other teachers, are facing unprecedented challenges, in the meantime, it can elicit teacher's potential ability to contribute a more comprehensive and advanced education to students.