It is true that whether teachers play a bigger role in children’s knowledge and social behavior compared to others when children get to school has become a debatable matter. While I acknowledge the reasoning for that statement, I believe that teachers can affect the growth of their students both in education and social life.
On the one hand, I understand why not only teachers but also other factors like family or environmental life can interact with young children. First, parents are the first adults to educate the youths. To specify, research shows that parents always have many arguments at home, which impacts the young when it comes to developing their social skills. Therefore, they can tend to behavior problems in class such as violence, bullying or misbehaving. Second, the environment also can guide children in personal habits. For example, some elements like living in slums or near high crime rates, connecting with bad friends make them imitate and have a bad influence on social activities. However, in modern life, the problems are gradually mitigated because of the development of education. Children spend a huge time on classroom activities and their growth can be easily influenced by those teaching them. Asian countries such as VietNam, China, and Thailand are examples, which prioritize education and degree, so that teachers have an important impact on children.
On the other hand, I believe that the influence of teachers on the growth of their students is undeniable. To begin with, teachers not only provide knowledge but also social skills for their students. For instance, by attending group work assignments or creative games organized by their teacher, not only can students learn skills, such as team work or communication, but they can also boost their different kinds of intelligence, like problem solving or logical thinking. That is easy in a class environment instead of teaching them at home by their parents. Besides that, students, especially young children, are highly sensitive to people’s behaviors around them, so teachers’ praise and criticism can affect children’s psychology. For example, there are some cases shown that children are scared to come to class because of pressure from teachers. Opposite to that, children can be good students and have more academic achievement if they are educated by inspiring teachers.
In conclusion, the youths are impacted by not only their teachers but they are influenced by other individuals such as their family members and their social life. However, I believe that when children are young, teachers have a huge influence on them.