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老师 is a title for life
老师 does far more work than teacher. It attaches to a surname as respectful address for anyone whose expertise you are acknowledging — an editor, a senior colleague, a musician, someone who taught you anything at all — and it does not expire, so a person who taught you at eighteen stays 老师 permanently. The old formula 一日为师,终身为父, one day a teacher, a lifetime a father, gets quoted half-seriously. Teachers' Day falls on the tenth of September, and former students who send a message then are doing something entirely ordinary.