What is a good student?
As a position-based PhD, I am not only conducting research but also teaching and supervising students. This part of my role has become unexpectedly meaningful to me.
Last year, at a conference, a keynote speaker told the PhD audience bluntly: “Don’t waste your time on master’s students.” I couldn’t disagree more.
Many people seem obsessed with outcomes in this game we call life. We chase goals, levels, titles, and accolades—as if we’re all characters in a never-ending competition. But in our rush to achieve, have we stopped to think about the people involved along the way?
The professor who insisted that PhDs should focus solely on their own research—has he ever truly thought about those master’s students? In China, we have a saying: “一日为师，终生为父,” meaning “Once a teacher, forever a parental figure.” Students are not checkboxes, nor are they stepping stones or statistics. They are people—with hearts, minds, and stories.
If supervising students was truly meaningless, it wouldn’t be part of our responsibilities.
This year, I’ve been supervising a particularly bright student. He’s not only intellectually gifted but also deeply kind—a person with a golden heart. Yet, due to some challenges in his past and a quiet demeanor, many colleagues have labeled him as “difficult.” That’s the comment I hear most often about him.
But after nearly a year of working closely together, I see someone entirely different. Yes, he struggles with communication at times—but this is also his strength: he acts more than he talks. It’s strange to see the contrast between how others perceive him and how I know him. When I try to share my enthusiasm about his progress, I’m often met with skeptical looks and, “Oh, that guy…”
How silly of me! I should’ve remembered, my favorite fruit might be someone else’s last choice. And that’s exactly what makes me smile.
This experience reminded me how different our perspectives can be. Not everyone has the same opportunity—or the willingness—to truly see someone beyond the labels. Too often, the systems we build to evaluate and sort people become cages. If we let external standards control what we value, we remain locked inside.
But when we realize that our own genuine experience and emotional truth matter most, we begin to find freedom.
It’s unfair to compare a rose and a blade of grass by how red they are.
Everything in nature has its place, its strength, its timing. The same goes for people. Every student, in their own way, can be a “good” student—if only we choose to see them fully.
What is a good student?
https://emilypeng2017.github.io/2025/05/20/what is a good student/
