Thinking about teacher-student relationship today

(Baonghean) - Recently, many online newspapers reported about Nghe An, such as on October 2nd, teacher Pham Xuan D, Dang Thai Mai High School, Thanh Chuong District, entered the classroom and saw a student with a shaved head who looked indecent and unbecoming of a student, and he criticized him. Not only did he not listen to his "master's" advice, this student thought that his teacher had offended his self-esteem, humiliated him... and considered it a grudge, so he went home and invited two more close "disciples" to fight back and teach his "master" a lesson.

After school, on the way home, Mr. D was blocked and beaten by three masked rebels with sticks until he collapsed on the street. At a famous high school in Vinh City, not only did a masked student beat his teacher with a stick until he collapsed, but in broad daylight, the student also used a butcher knife to mercilessly cut off his teacher's heel just because he dared to collect his cheat sheets in the exam room...

Every November 20, Vietnamese Teachers' Day, in cities and towns, seeing parents of students gathering with bouquets of fresh flowers and gifts to give to teachers, I feel sad and remember many teachers "staying" in remote, mountainous areas, without flowers, without gifts... These days, somewhere, villagers and students think of teachers and teachers only as bouquets of wild flowers, sugarcane, squash, bowls of simple sticky rice... And somewhere in the forest "sleeping in the clouds all year round", teachers and poor students are gathering around the fire to warm themselves through the winter without warm clothes... More touching is the story of teachers in a poor commune of Quy Chau district who contributed their salary, though small, to give poor students boarding at the school each week more pens, books and some fresh meals. Although not much, "a piece when hungry is worth a package when full". That is the immeasurable love between teachers and students...

Sadly, with the story reported in the newspapers as mentioned above, the traditional morality of "Respecting teachers and valuing education" of our Vietnamese people has begun to break down, no longer intact as it was thousands of years ago? Some people say, the erosion of ethics in schools has now reached an alarming level. The ancients said, "There is a cause and effect", in my humble opinion, the alarming decline in many aspects between teacher and student relationships, and teacher and student relationships now... has reached a high level, and it is very difficult to prevent, if there is no strong reform of education!

Minh Thu