In a guiding document issued on Oct 26, the municipal education bureau of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, banned schools from asking their students' parents to check and correct their homework.Parents of primary or middle school students know how their children's homework often becomes theirs. If the child has a math homework, the parents are asked to correct the wrong answers; if the child writes an essay, the parents have to polish the language; if the child is given a craft-making assignment, the parents must do everything.Many schools shift such burdens on parents. The document said some schools even ask parents to do cleaning work for the school.
At the root of this problem is the inequality between schools and parents. Once children enter the schools' gates, they are totally at the mercy of their teachers who wield huge influences. By being cold to a child, teachers can destroy children's confidence, whereas by being warm and patient, teachers can boost their morale and shape their characters and future. As there is no way parents can sue teachers even if they are treating their children badly, parents are forced to carry out whatever the teachers or schools ask for, just so that their children are in their teachers' good books.Not surprisingly, the Taiyuan municipal education bureau's move has been widely welcomed on social networking sites. Such intervention and regulation from higher authorities are badly needed to balance the power schools and teachers wield.Of course, this does not mean teachers have poor moral standards. On the contrary, teaching requires patience and all kinds of virtues. However, teachers wield huge power and as is always the case, such power must be caged behind rules.Some parents in Chongqing said their municipality had issued a similar ban in 2018, prohibiting schools from giving assignments that requires parents to labor. We hope that more places follow the example and free parents of a burden that is not theirs' anyway.
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