Bridging parent-teacher gap

A video of a man complaining about his child’s teacher recently went viral.
近日，一名男子抱怨孩子老师的视频在网上引发热议。

After a 34-year-old father in Jiangsu province quit a parent-teacher WeChat group, he posted a short video in which he said that the teacher, instead of checking his child’s homework, had assigned the job to him through the group. “Isn’t checking homework supposed to be a teacher’s responsibility? If you can’t fulfill your responsibilities, then stop being a teacher,” the father said.
江苏省一名34岁的父亲在退出家长群后，发布了一条视频，视频中，他称老师不检查孩子的作业，而是通过家长群将这一任务布置给自己。“检查作业不应该是老师的责任吗？如果你不能履行自己的职责，那就别做老师了，”这位父亲说道。

This raised a heated discussion online. WeChat groups between parents and teachers were supposed to be an easy communication channel. However, many said that some teachers are transferring (转移) their work to the parents, making them feel pressured. Some parents said they’ve even been asked to help their children clean the classroom and help with food service in the school canteen.
这在网上引发热议。家长群本应是方便与老师沟通的渠道。然而，很多人却表示，一些老师将工作都布置给了家长，让家长们倍感压力。有些家长还表示，自己甚至曾被要求帮孩子打扫教室、在学校食堂里帮忙打饭。

In fact, many teachers are less than happy about the chat groups as well because they have to answer questions and requests from parents at any time.
事实上，很多老师也并不喜欢家长群，因为他们不得不随时回应家长的各种问题和要求。

One teacher surnamed Liu from a middle school in Beijing told CGTN that he felt “afraid” of WeChat because there were always a lot of unread messages from parents.
北京一所中学的刘老师在接受中国国际电视台采访时表示，他对微信产生了“恐惧”，因为总是有很多家长发来的未读信息。

Local authorities and educational institutions have come up with potential solutions.
地方相关部门和教育机构已经提出了一些可能的解决办法。

On Nov 11, education authorities in Liaoning province banned teachers from asking parents to grade their students’ homework, People’s Daily reported.
据《人民日报》报道，11月11日，辽宁省教育厅禁止教师要求家长代为批改学生作业。

Education authorities in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, and Beijing also issued similar regulations forbidding teachers to ask parents to help with homework, clean the classroom, or like, share and repost links on WeChat. Temporary group chats related to school assignments have to be deactivated after the work is done.
山西太原和北京的教育部门也发布了类似规定，禁止教师要求家长批改作业、打扫教室卫生、或者在微信上分享转发各类链接。与教学任务相关的临时聊天群在工作完成后必须解散。

This move has been welcomed by parents and teachers alike.
此举受到家长和老师的一致欢迎。

Lin Lei, a 35-year-old father, agreed that teachers, parents, schools and education authorities need to make some changes. “Everyone feels exhausted ... Teachers are already overworked and don’t want to spend their free time being bothered by parents,” he told China Daily. He said such groups have increased the anxiety of parents and teachers.
35岁的父亲林磊（音）同意老师、家长、学校以及教育部门都需做出改变。“人人都感到筋疲力尽……老师们已经超负荷工作了，也不想空闲时间被家长打扰，”他在接受《中国日报》采访时表示。他认为这样的家长群令家长和老师更加焦虑。

“Parents should make sure their kids finish their homework on time – and that’s enough,” Wang Yu, a high school biology teacher from Jilin province, told the Global Times.
“家长应该保证孩子按时完成作业，而这点就足够了，”来自吉林省的高中生物老师王宇（音译）在接受《环球时报》采访时如此说道。

However, Wang added that parents still need to join in some school activities with their kids to better understand their children’s education.
但王宇也表示，家长仍需和孩子参加一些学校活动，以便更好地了解孩子的教育情况。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高一813期