"Teacher" at age 10

(Baonghean) - Although only in 5th grade, Ngo Duc Huan (11th grade, Trung Do ward, Vinh City) confidently stands in front of the class and teaches his peers. The 10-year-old "teacher's" classroom has a blackboard, chalk, lesson plans for each lesson, rewards, praise, and even strict criticism...

The English class taught by "teacher" Ngo Duc Huan starts at 7 am and lasts until almost noon. Since the class opened, "teacher" Ngo Duc Huan's family has been busier, and everyone tries to be quiet and discreet to avoid disturbing the class. Teacher Huan, who only finished 5th grade this year, is much more mature than his peers. Huan started 1st grade a year earlier, but he has consistently been at the top of his class every year. He has a special talent for English and recently won a Silver medal in the national IOE English competition. At a young age, he could read and write at 3 years old and was proficient in chess and checkers at 4. While still in kindergarten, his mother enrolled him in English classes with the idea of ​​"letting him learn while playing." After a year of study, despite being the youngest in the class, Huan confidently rose to the top and won a scholarship. English has become Huân's favorite subject. She can learn English anytime, anywhere by listening to music, watching clips, and through cartoons on CNN.

"Teacher" Ngo Duc Huan instructs his "students".

The idea of ​​opening an English class was proposed by Huan. Initially, when his parents and grandparents learned of his intention, they just laughed and thought, "He's just saying that because he likes it." But then, Huan actually started recruiting students. The students were none other than his neighbors, and some parents who were friends of his parents, who, seeing the class as "interesting," also registered their children. The opening day was very lively, with the participation of all the parents and students. Huan addressed the children as "teacher" and acted very strict. At first, everyone thought the class was just for fun, as long as the children had a place to play and wouldn't be so mischievous during the summer break. But Huan didn't think that way; he organized the class scientifically, with clear time for learning and play. In each lesson, Huan spent more than half the time teaching, and the rest was assigning homework and directly commenting on and correcting the students' work. The students said that "Teacher" Huan was very strict, grading and commenting even more thoroughly than the teachers in the classroom. Once, Huân cleverly assigned advanced exercises to his classmates, resulting in all four students getting them wrong. Huân graded their work in their notebooks with the comment: "Poor, you were tricked by the teacher on 8 questions." Or sometimes, he would meticulously write comments in accordance with Circular 30: "You need to try harder, it's too sloppy, go home and memorize the grammar." Following the comments was the punishment of copying the lesson multiple times for the "teacher" to check. Huân's innocent criticisms made many people laugh. Mr. Ngô Đức Hoạt, Huân's father, occasionally posts his son's comments on Facebook and jokingly says: "Teacher Đức Huân has some really 'awesome' comments." Ms. Ngô Thị Châu, Huân's mother, also shared: "Huân is an independent boy from an early age, so his parents don't have to remind him much. He is very conscientious in his studies and has known how to proactively plan for himself since he was little."

Huân attends three classes a week, and although he believes it's a case of "learning through play, playing through learning," he takes it very seriously and prepares his lesson plans thoroughly. If he's not satisfied, he asks the teachers at the English center he's attending for their feedback. To make the class feel comfortable, Huân incorporates grammar lessons and games into each class to expand the students' vocabulary. Huân is a very professional teacher, perhaps because teaching is a family tradition, and his parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles are all lecturers at universities and colleges. Huân's father successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in Mathematics before he was 30. And even though his family is involved in education, Huân's parents have a very simple approach to their son's education and don't put too much pressure on him. Huân's father also shared a very touching message on his personal page on the day Huân graduated from 5th grade: "So, you've graduated from elementary school. With your current achievements and abilities, getting into a gifted school is within your reach! Many people ask why we don't apply for you to a specialized school. I think, 'Going to a local school is fine!' I believe that if you try hard, you can do well anywhere!" Perhaps it's because of this simple mindset that Huân developed very naturally and was never pressured by achievements or exams. The boy also quickly became responsible, conscious of others, and always strived to be a useful person, even though, in his view, "young children can only do small things." Recently, Huân's family was also commended by Vinh City for raising a good child on Vietnamese Family Day.

Text and photos:Ton Duc