Performing arts to celebrate Vietnamese Teachers' Day in schools: Should it be too costly?

Actually, no one knows since when, perhaps since the country's potential and people's lives have become more decent, non-traditional festivals (understood as not originating from the history and annual regulations of the State) have appeared more and more. And when it comes to festivals, the so-called welcoming performances are indispensable. The need to please guests, promote the image and express personal pride has made the organizers and festival proponents busy to make everything go smoothly, thoughtfully and "grandly" as possible.

Of course, the entertainment is usually the opening program, so the more spectacular the better. To be honest, many people who attend commemorative programs, seminars, gratitude programs, etc. only have an impression of the welcoming performance. But it is important to remember that each such entertainment program can cost billions, even many billions - an amount of money that could be used for investment and other more practical and humane things. That is both humorous and bitter.

More importantly, recently, public opinion has been quite heatedly discussing the story of the head of the parents' association of a middle school mobilizing a large sum of money to organize rehearsals and performances of art.Happy Vietnamese Teachers' Daywith the figure up to tens of millions of dong. Looking at the level of finance that is (expected to) mobilized, it really makes us startled.

However, if we look at the social logic, it is normal, even, looking at the logic of the school movement, except for the huge amount of money, there is nothing strange. Because, for a long time in schools, the story of renting costumes, directors to win a small prize to get competition points between classes and teams is not unheard of, if not quite common, as well as the buying and selling of scientific research competition topics at the high school level, or buying and selling scientific works to calculate points for academic title records that have been talked about quite a lot in the media for a long time.

I do not understand how the teachers, especially the teachers who have been working at the school mentioned for a long time, will feel when they know the above information. I myself, although not related to that school, am still really sad. Showing gratitude to teachers on the occasion of teachers' day is really a good thing to do, and should even be encouraged, especially in an era where trust in the education sector, social respect for teachers and teachers' love for their profession are significantly declining.

However, how to express gratitude is another matter. I believe that most teachers will love their profession more, be more dedicated if on this occasion, they receive a flower, just one flower, or a greeting card worth five thousand dong, to receive the sincere love and respect of students and the real honor of society, rather than receiving large gifts and then having to feel remorseful and sad because of the disrespectful attitude of some students or parents.

Organizing cultural activities to celebrate Teachers' Day should of course be encouraged, but it should be done properly so that neither side is hurt. While not all parents of a class are well-off, even if they are, not all of them want to contribute a large sum of money to an activity that they feel is excessive. I wonder since when, on death anniversaries and Tet, people rarely prepare their own meals to worship their ancestors like Lang Lieu did day and night pounding rice, making sticky rice, and making banh chung to offer to their ancestors?

I wonder since when people have forgotten that teachers are only truly warmed when the performances congratulating them are real artistic products of their own students, no matter how simple, no matter how clumsy, rather than those beautiful, flashy performances that are the product of a process of renting from the director to the costumes and props? The "professionalization" of those performances should not have been done, and will become offensive when people invest too much in them.

I think this way of doing things does not honor anyone, but instead, through gossip and arguments, only hurts both sides. Let the teachers enjoy the short-lived joy of their fast-passing holiday./.