Society

Miss Venus and the 'light' from the pages of small books

Diep Thanh • April 25, 2025 19:02

Not only teaching Vietnamese, teacher Cao Thi Sao Kim also teaches children to live kindly - with a gentle voice, with a love for literature and with the belief that every good story can touch a growing soul.

Readersbook

If you have ever attended a reading class with Ms. Cao Thi Sao Kim, many adults will have the same feeling: Feeling like a child again, drawn into the story as if you were a child, as if the happy and sad atmosphere in the story also touched you, as if the characters in the story were present right here...

Me too. I got to attend the event today.read a bookThe free community organized by Ms. Kim, I could not contain my emotions when Ms. Kim read the dialogue:“I'll always be there, whether your acorns aren't good or whatever. I'll always be here!”, in the warm, gentle voice of the character Squirrel. And like the children aged 5-8 that day, I kept wanting to listen to the "catchy" melody of the song composed by Ms. Kim herself to serve the story and was extremely curious about the reactions of the characters after each scene. After listening to the story, the children discussed the story, were given pens and paper to draw a picture of Squirrel and the Oak tree in the story, imagined themselves as the Oak tree and wrote a letter to thank Squirrel for loving and caring for the Oak tree unconditionally.

As soon as the teacher gave permission, the children eagerly expressed all their thoughts and feelings on the paper. The green oak tree, the yellow oak tree, the round oak tree, the triangular oak tree, the squirrels in the tree, the squirrels on the ground, the red squirrels, the brown squirrels… All received encouragement, motivation and support from Ms. Kim, and every child was proud and honored when presenting their work to everyone.

“The plot is simple, about an oak tree that was shunned by animals because it misunderstood that its fruit was not delicious. The love of a squirrel made the oak tree happy again and helped the animals realize that acorns were actually delicious. At the age of 5-8, I just want children to realize the value of love. But at older ages, I can expand the lesson, conveying messages about how to perceive and evaluate a problem from multiple perspectives, how to love yourself even when no one understands you... This is one of the many books that I really like and want to share with children" - Ms. Kim said.

Not only in free community reading classes, Ms. Kim makes it a habit to read to all of her students, whenever possible.

As a reader, Ms. Kim has made her students always eagerly look forward to lunch breaks, always curious, waiting when the book page suddenly stops telling the story. Just like that, with each page of the book, without knowing when, Ms. Kim's students have formed a love for literature, for the Vietnamese language and much more... Perhaps, Ms. Kim's journey of spreading reading culture is not about the number of pages turned, but about the emotions sown.

Special Class
and her book

Ms. Kim’s Vietnamese lessons at Nghe An Green Wisdom Duc School are always especially loved by students, because what she teaches is not just on the blackboard and white paper. Each of her lessons is always full of fun because of the open learning space, approach to the topic and endless creativity.

“Ms. Kim teaches Vietnamese in a very interesting way. We get to sing, draw, act, and see the trees and scenery around the schoolyard during her lessons. In many lessons, we get to transform into teachers and she becomes a small student in the corner of the classroom. But she is also very strict; if any student is not serious, she will correct them immediately… As a homeroom teacher, she is truly like a gentle mother, taking care of us every day. Whenever we do something wrong, she never scolds us but analyzes each action, each right and wrong. She is the one who understands us best and is also the one who instills in us the love of Vietnamese,” student Nguyen Ha Phuong shared.

The values ​​from the liberal teaching method that Ms. Kim conveyed were packaged by the students into literary works, poems, and creative stories that were extremely pure, innocent, but also very profound and meaningful. In their works, the children expressed their gratitude and love for their grandparents, parents, teachers, the maid, the trees, their pet friends... At the same time, they expressed extremely unique and creative perspectives on the topics of friendship, nature, gratitude...

That is also the reason why the Vietnamese Women's Publishing House agreed to keep intact the works written by Ms. Kim's students to publish as a book titled "Childhood Colors". The book cover was drawn by the students themselves, the book of nearly 180 pages is divided into 3 parts: Literature Corner; Poetry Corner; Creative Story Corner.

The introduction to the book states:“This little book is both a thank you from us to our parents, teachers and school, who have given us the best things so that we can freely explore and feel the world in our own way, freely immerse ourselves and freely explore the beauty of the Vietnamese language; and also aims to raise funds for charity - something we did last year with the poetry collection “Life in Me”.

Accordingly, with the poetry collection “Life in Me” (printed in 2022), Ms. Kim’s little friends raised 11 million VND to give to orphans at Lam Bich Shelter (Hung Nguyen). Similarly, after the launch of “Childhood Colors”, the group of authors, 5th grade students from Xanh Tue Duc Nghe An School, sold nearly 1,000 books, donating 15 million VND from book sales to the people of the North during the flood in 2024... With the same spirit, the small works of Ms. Kim’s students continue to be born in the most lovely and meaningful way. For them, books are not just books – but a bridge connecting people with kindness.

Sharing about her work, Ms. Sao Kim confided: “Before finding my current job, I had gone through many life events, tried many choices, and accumulated many lessons for myself. It was those experiences that made me who I am today with a complete passion for children, and a desire to create for themreading habits, love for literature, from there live honestly, gratefully, kindly and constantly learn every day. Currently, I am really happy with my job…”.