Teacher has been a profession for ages since the existence of human being. As early as Greek time, we have prominent teachers as Aristotle and Plato, while in ancient China, teachers such as Confucius and Mencius. It is teacher that is playing an unceasingly positive impact on the evolution and development of human society. They not only instruct us specific knowledge, which enriches our minds and broadens our horizon, but also teach us philosophy of life, leading us to self-confidence, self-worth and self-realization. Then one problem emerges as we delve into the function of teacher: which is a more important task of teachers, helping students gain self-confidence or teaching them specific knowledge? From my perspective, teacher does both, and there is no absolute judgment of which one is more important. Only those that can do both well are eligible for qualified teachers.

It is undeniable that teachers' top priority is to impart knowledge to students. That is, as a matter of fact, how we define teachers: the person who imparts certain knowledge to others. Take history teacher as an example. Some history teachers are able to make their classes as lively as possible by illustrating their points through interesting historic events and stories. Through this way, they not only attain the purpose of knowledge impartment but also make students love their classes, in turn, love history. On the contrary, other history teachers are simply teaching knowledge for its own sake, without further elaboration of classes. We rarely call this kind of teachers "good teacher". Therefore, due to the nature of teachers, it is undeniably significant for teachers to impart knowledge to students.

On the other hand, equally important is teachers' awareness and ability to help students gain self-confidence. This, to a certain extent, is the broad definition of teacher. With the increasing pace and complexity of modern society, the twentieth-first century is calling for multiple talents, talents who are not only physically and academically capable, but also psychologically capable. Outstanding students with weak psychological state or lack of confidence are surely not the employers wanted. Therefore, people have attained a common consensus as time passes by that students' mentality is of equal importance with the academic knowledge they acquire. Therefore, it is this background that calls for teachers to gain the ability to help students gain self-confidence. Only when students are confident enough about themselves can they have the healthy mentality to perform tasks.

Therefore, it is reasonable to maintain that for a teacher, in the present society, helping students to gain self-confidence and teaching them specific knowledge are of equal importance. It is highly possible that as time elapses, teachers will take on more roles besides the two. However, at present, these two core functions of teachers should be attached of high priority if one wants to become a teacher or if one is judging a teacher. Absence of either one can legitimately take off the crown of the seemingly "good teacher".

Globalization is such a commonly used term in the twentieth century. It simply means that the world has become integrated economically, socially, politically and culturally through the advances of technology, transportation and communication. It is undeniable that globalization has resulted in both positive and negative effects which must be addressed accordingly.

To begin with, globalization has contributed to the world’s economies in many beneficial ways. The advances in science and technology have allowed businesses to easily cross over territorial boundary lines. Consequently, companies tend to become more productive and competitive thereby raising the quality of goods, services and the world’s living standard.

Secondly, several companies from the more developed countries have already ventured to establish foreign operations or branches to take advantage of the low cost of labor in the poorer countries. This kind of business activity will provide more influx of cash or investment funds into the less developed countries.

However, one cannot deny the negative effects which have derived from globalization. One crucial social aspect is the risk and danger of epidemic diseases which can easily be spread as the transportation becomes easier and faster in today’s advanced society. This is evidenced in the recent birds flu disease which has infected most Asian countries over a short period of time.

As large corporations invest or take over many offshore businesses, a modern form of colonization will also evolve which may pose certain power pressure on the local governments of the less developed countries. Unemployment rates in the more developed regions such as Europe may also escalate as corporations choose to outsource to the cheaper work force from Asian countries.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that globalization is inevitable and we must urge individuals, companies and governments to use a more balanced approach by taking the appropriate steps to deal with matters relating to the financial or economical gains verses the social, political or ecological concerns of the world.