I don't agree that teachers were more appreciated and valued by society in the past than they were nowadays. Let us focus on the status which teachers had in the past 200 years. 200 years ago, because of the incomplete economy and technology, the pollution of people is not as dense as it is now, and educated people is much lower than nowadays.At that time, teacher is a great work. Teacher is regarded as knowledge. And the deal of teachers is also very tiny. So at that time, people pervasively respect to teachers. For salary, especially in China, teacher have much more salary than others. For instance, Lu Xun, a famous novelist in China, living in about 100 years ago, was just a teacher instructing in a primary school. But his salary have over 100 times than a formal police man.Using up all of his salary, it can buy 4000 pounds beef at that time.It's an evident show how reserve people have about teacher.But now, the reputation of teacher has absolutely been reduced. One of the reason may be rapid risen of pollution, government can't afford such big amount funding on teachers. It's uneven for others.