Cherish the value of your life to know how to love others.

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc participates in a free teaching program. Photo: Duc Anh

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc is also a former student of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and is a dedicated teacher with many concerns about her profession, especially the innovation process of the education sector.

One day in early 2021, she had an interesting conversation with Nghe An Newspaper during a business trip to Vinh city.

Teaching must be associated with teaching humanity.

PV:It has been a long time since you returned to Nghe An and participated in a free teaching program. I also know that for more than a month now, many teachers have been excited about the program you taught with the theme of “bringing life values ​​into the classroom”. Can you share more about this class?

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc:As we know, UNESCO has outlined 12 basic values ​​of each individual: Cooperation, Freedom, Happiness, Honesty, Modesty, Love, Peace, Respect, Responsibility, Simplicity, Tolerance, Solidarity, from which to develop courses on life values. Since 2000, UNESCO's "Living Values ​​for Youth" program, developed by many famous educators in the world, has been introduced to Vietnam. Currently, the program has been applied by a number of schools and has created a spread of positive life values ​​to students.

Photo: Duc Anh

Meanwhile, the new general education program issued by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2018 has oriented towards building the image of students with 5 essential qualities that need to be developed: Patriotism, Responsibility, Honesty, Diligence, and Compassion.

However, in order for these 5 qualities to truly become fundamental values, forming students' personalities, it is necessary to have a team of leaders and teachers who understand the role of life values ​​and convey those qualities into the content of lectures, class activities, educational projects, and vivid images of the mission and core values ​​of a school.

The meeting point of UNESCO's program with the general education program of the Ministry of Education and Training is that the two programs have proposed many qualities that students need to have such as: Love, Responsibility, Honesty.

On that basis, we designed a course that combines activities to form life values ​​as proposed by UNESCO's program, to help teachers have specific instructions to build 5 qualities for students according to the orientation of the new education program.

This is also a problem that comes from reality because in the current quality education activities in schools, there is a fairly common situation that schools and teachers have not yet designed and built a practical and effective life values ​​program. Once life values ​​do not create a foundation, do not reach students through close activities, do not "touch" their perceptions and emotions, they will become rigid, dogmatic, and strange.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a support program to help teachers design activities and projects to convey lessons on character and personality education into the classroom in a gentle and close way. As with the class I just organized for teachers in Nghe An, I did not teach about 12 life values ​​but taught how to weave those values ​​into the lessons.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc has 17 years of experience in the field of education. She is a former student of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted; taught at Huynh Thuc Khang High School (Vinh City, Nghe An) and is currently a teacher at Dinh Thien Ly Secondary and High School (Ho Chi Minh City).

She is the founder of the project “Learning Literature to Live”. The project won first prize in the field, third prize overall in the “Integrated Teaching” competition of the Ministry of Education and Training in 2013. The project won first prize in the “Creative Teachers on Information Technology Platform” competition in 2015.

She has experience in organizing many successful projects on life values ​​such as: I choose Honesty, Responsibility, Red Ribbon, Good - Evil and Smartphone, Memento Mori (Live another life)...

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc instructs teachers in Vinh City. Photo: Duc Anh

Must arouse the spirit of self-study in each student.

PV:You are a homeroom teacher who has received a lot of love from your students and I can feel your heart and love for your job through the letters you wrote to your students. What were you thinking when you wrote these letters?

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc:Actually, when I write these letters, it is simply because it is my duty, because I am a homeroom teacher and every year a graduating class will have a speech. But when I write, I do not consider it a speech, but rather the things I want to say, to talk to my students every day. Therefore, I put all my feelings into the writing. And maybe, because it is written with my own emotions, it will spread by itself.

PV:Up to this point, many parents still believe that they want their children to study well, pass exams, and have many titles. Do you personally support this?

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc:In my opinion, knowledge is only a factor but it does not determine success. And even success is not equal to happiness. But happiness itself has no scale. Each person will be happy in a different way. Therefore, for me, a good child is not as important as the child understanding himself and loving and cherishing himself. Because when you love yourself, you understand others and loving yourself will know how to love others. Therefore, in life, it is a story of values... Actually, teaching children all the knowledge of Math, Literature, Physics, Chemistry - which will certainly be outdated in the near future because the 21st century is the century of artificial intelligence, of technology affecting the whole world, no knowledge is enough. But preparation in terms of values ​​is preparation in terms of foundation from which people will know how to choose knowledge.

A lesson by teacher Minh Ngoc. Photo: PV

PV:So, is it true that nowadays, parents are putting pressure on their children, especially pressure about grades? What is your personal opinion on raising children?

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc:In fact, the 2018 general education program offers 5 qualities, so the program itself is moving towards change. Therefore, when talking about the pressure of scores, we must also look at many different issues. For example, this year, the Ministry's document requested to reduce many initial scores and tests, increase tests for speaking and writing students... But this policy was met with complaints, some teachers were afraid that this would make it difficult to evaluate students, and parents also reacted "my child goes to school but has no score". So, to have better education, it is not only the responsibility of the Ministry, of a teacher, but also the responsibility of the whole society and most importantly, the family.

In the past, I was not only a bookworm but also a person who valued winning and losing. However, that was not due to family pressure but due to my own pressure because I had studied at a specialized school since middle school. There was a time when I studied so hard that my parents had to pull the fuse and turn off the lights. My biggest shock was when I failed the national team in grade 12. At that time, I was so sad that I got a stomachache and had to go to the emergency room. Later, I still said that if I had children, I would never let them go to a specialized school or selective class.

Teacher Nguyen Minh Ngoc and her students. Photo: PV

Now, I think that learning is very broad, learning at school is just a part that children can learn through experiences, let children learn according to their passion. Of course, scores are important because they evaluate children's efforts and attempts. Even the change in scores up and down evaluates children's performance, stability and attention. But it is not everything, similarly it is just a corner of a picture. Therefore, I can still discuss with my children about scores but do not pressure them to see it as the only thing but will look at it from many other aspects. We humans, when it comes to education, must be created from 4 elements: family, school, society and the children themselves. That means once education has developed into a self-learning ability, each person will learn according to their needs and expectations.

PV:Thank you for this conversation!