Organizing experiential activities for students: Viewed from the general education program

There are many different opinions on this issue, but basically, they can be grouped into two groups: those who oppose it and those who defend and justify it. The main criticism group believes that the school is taking advantage of organizing experiential activities to overcharge, or that organizing experiential activities is unnecessary, costly, wasteful and potentially dangerous. In particular, recently, a school in Hanoi, while organizing experiential activities for students, had a heartbreaking incident where a student drowned.

So, is this experiential activity necessary or not?

Experience, according to the Vietnamese dictionary, is “going through, going through” (Center for Lexicography, “Vietnamese Dictionary”, Da Nang Publishing House, 2007, p.1577), that is, the subject’s involvement in a certain content. However, this definition does not seem to clarify or fully explain the concept. In fact, according to the most common understanding, experience is the going through and accumulation of certain knowledge, skills, and experiences from that “going through, going through”. Experiential activities, therefore, are extremely necessary for every person’s life, especially practical experience in the chaotic, complex, and constantly changing life of modern times.

Students participate in hands-on experience. Photo courtesy

1. It cannot be denied that, since the story of family planning, along with the rapid development of science and technology, children are increasingly pampered and cared for in a highly safe but extremely cramped space. On the other hand, the pressure of achievement, even from parents, has also pushed children into a life of poverty in both spirit and understanding of the outside world, and this obviously has negative impacts on the process of forming the child's personality. A child growing up in the countryside, when going to the city, is like being thrown into a strange land, a child growing up in the city sees a buffalo and doesn't know what it is, that is no longer just a joke. And parents always want their children to live forever in that safe space, rushing to take extra classes to achieve high academic results without realizing that children, like people in general, are born first to live deeply in a life that is always changing, with many promises but also full of pitfalls and risks. For example, a child is four or five years old, but when playing with dirt and sand, grandparents are afraid of dirt, when going outside, parents are afraid of the sun and wind... many of those children grow up foolishly in the loving arms of their parents without thinking. A child who plays with a knife cuts his hand because he has not learned how to use a knife, or at least how to stay away from a knife when his hand is not strong enough or skillful enough to cut; the phenomenon of drowning has been happening quite often for a long time, the fault is not entirely due to children not knowing how to swim, but also because children do not have the experience to learn how to stay away from rivers and lakes... Experience is the opportunity for children to grow up.

2. It is true that there are still opposing opinions about the program and especially about the textbooks, but anyway, the program has been put into operation. Accordingly, "experiential activities (primary level), experiential activities, career guidance (junior high school and high school level) are compulsory educational activities carried out from grade 1 to grade 12. Experiential activities and experiential activities, career guidance are educational activities designed and guided by educators, creating opportunities for students to approach reality, experience positive emotions, exploit existing experiences and mobilize the synthesis of knowledge and skills of subjects to perform assigned tasks or solve problems of school, family and social life appropriate to their age, thereby transforming the experiences they have gone through to form new knowledge, new understanding, new skills, contributing to discovering creative potential and the ability to adapt to life and future career environment". It can be seen that the practicality and humanity of experiential subjects. Thus, there is no longer any debate about whether or not to organize experiential activities for students.

3. The problem is how to organize experiential activities? For a long time, when the 2018 education program has not been issued and experiential activities have not become a compulsory subject or activity, many schools, especially primary schools in urban areas, still organize these activities regularly or irregularly. But parents do not complain, because these activities are still organized within a fairly safe scope with very limited financial resources mobilized from parents, even almost zero. But these are quite monotonous activities and often aim at political education rather than life skills, creative skills and adaptive skills, as well as paying little attention to the comprehensive development of qualities and abilities (such as visiting the Military Zone 4 Museum, visiting model schools, making pilgrimages to Uncle Ho's hometown, visiting Truong Bon Historical Site...). This activity is very practical and has important significance in educating the qualities of the new Vietnamese socialist people, but it is not really comprehensive and has not really contributed to developing the capacity to operate and be creative in real life and career orientation, nor has it aimed at comprehensively educating the qualities and capacities of global citizens for students. Note that in some countries with advanced education, the organization of experiential activities for learners is often very practical. For example, the UK's "Open Horizon" program focuses on adventurous experiential activities with the statement of the program makers: "We believe that every child has the opportunity to experience knowledge about adventure - adventure as part of their education in life" (Do Ngoc Thong, "Creative experiential activities from international educational experiences and issues in Vietnam"). Meanwhile, in France (where my nephew studies in middle school), the school organizes trips for the children to the forest, encourages them to find their own way and guides them on how to remember the way, mark the way to return to their original location or go to the countryside to participate in production, increase production besides traveling and enjoying. The interesting thing is that my nephew, a 7th grader who came back from France, could not solve the 5th grade math problem of Vietnamese students, but could handle household electrical problems, screw, and drill walls to hang things very well.

4. The most complained about issue is money. Millions, one and a half million, or a few hundred. As a parent myself, I think that, in addition to collecting too much compared to the budget needed, it is impossible to confirm whether that amount of money is much or little. It needs to be equivalent to the experience and maturity that the learner receives. Of course, when the experience activity is fully realized, I believe that there will not be too many complaints, and fewer people will attack the education sector. A small suggestion is that if the budget is beyond the family's reach, it can be socialized. Of course, to socialize in this category, each educational institution needs long-term strategies.