I could not remember so well how my teachers shaped me, but definitely they did shape me. I appreciate majority of them and their work. If by bad luck, we got a hurting, that is an forever damage in our scar heart. I met a really damaging mentor in California. He gave me that 3 years that I am ever so afraid to turn back to look at. My heart is still trembling whenever I think of or talk about that time when I were under his guidance. Nightmare.

中国的教师,更多遵照着上面的要求,按自己的理解,在塑造着孩子,好象孩子就是一块石头.

I always consider the teachers are two important categories of people (other other is parents) who can shape the personality of kid, and by doing so they shape future via the kid.
However, an educational institution like other organization in a society, has to perform under the law of economics, where each individual has to weight his own cost and benefit.
When I recall my early school time, I think the most important a teacher should do is to maintain some principles, which include to treat everyone with respect and fairness, to stick to the rules. The ultimate goal of education is produce as many as possible the law-biding, moral society members to the society, not produce one or two so-called elites. When a teacher rules his class as a strong man, play some politics among students, I doubt those students can grow up to honor the law and democracy.
If you take care of the justice and democracy in your ordinary teaching, the genius-to-do will take care of themselves.
You have to remember that the little ugly kid that you do not like may become a prime minster some day. What you teach or how you treat today may shape the world, via him or him-alike.