I felt a bit uncomfortable the other day when I clicked on a post on Weibo and saw three pictures showing a teenager holding an umbrella for a taller lady walking beside him. The feeling grew stronger when I learned that this was a primary school student who tried to shade his teacher from the scorching sun while the teacher, wearing sunglasses, fanned herself with a fan and looked pretty cozy, a stark contrast.

Many people would share my feeling. It was perhaps this discomfort that prompted Chinese netizens to launch fierce criticism against the female teacher surnamed Gu in Shanghai and the educational authorities have urged her to watch her behavior in future.

Gu explained that the boy offered to hold the umbrella for her as she gets along well with her students and hence she didn't put much thought into how it may be seen. But this doesn't seem like a convincing excuse.

When I was in college, I used to teach English to some students in primary and junior high schools during summer vacations. These children wanted to get close with me and offered their help with some chores such as cleaning the blackboard and the classroom and handing out exercise books.

Also back in my school years, my classmates and I took it as an honor if our teachers asked us for some help since then we could get more attention from teachers.

Chinese people have long held the tradition of showing respect for teacher and attaching enormous importance to education. As an old saying goes, a teacher for one day is a father for a lifetime, although this affection for teachers is mixed with some utilitarian intentions.

However, the students can display their respect for teachers as they like, but a teacher should bear in mind the boundary for what's appropriate in handling the relationship with students and responding to their kindness.

A survey launched by Sina Weibo found that of nearly 9,000 respondents, up to 51.2 percent thought that whether the student offered to hold the umbrella willingly or not, Gu shouldn't have let him while about 28 percent took this as a normal expression of respect for a teacher. Gu should have declined the boy's goodwill and held the umbrella by herself, or at least shared the shade.

In fact, teachers can deliberately ask some favors from students to help cultivate their qualities, such as a sense of responsibility, but they need to be careful if the favors are purely for the sake of the teachers.

Yi Xiao, a college staff member in Beijing