In recent days, public opinion has been debating again about the poem Bullying by author Nguyen The Hoang Linh in the 6th grade literature book, volume 1, Connecting knowledge with life (Vietnam Education Publishing House).
The poem consists of 8 stanzas, talking about the bad things about bullying others and advising students not to bully weaker friends.
Many people think that the poem has easy-to-understand language and criticizes school violence, but some people also think that the poem's artistic value is not high, its educational value is unclear, and it is not suitable to be included in textbooks for students.
Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, poet Le Thieu Nhon - member of the Poetry Council, Vietnam Writers Association - said that depending on the level of education, the works included in textbooks have different aesthetic values. For primary school level, poems do not need to be too excellent but still have to meet criteria such as elegance and educational value.
"Poems included in textbooks for primary school students help shape their personalities. If we randomly include any poem, it would be very dangerous. Previously, we had many poems by authors such as Pham Ho, Dinh Hai, Nguyen Ngoc Ky... that nurtured the soul and helped children grow up to be decent people. We cannot say that because of textbook innovation, we include poems based on our feelings," Mr. Nhon shared.
Talking about the poem Bullying by Nguyen The Hoang Linh, poet Le Thieu Nhon commented that this is a work of "pretending to be stupid", the language in the poem is not the language of children.
"Reading the poem, I find it very forced, there is a big difference between innocence and fake naivety. The poem speaks in the name of "children" but is not for children. I understand that the poem was criticized in 2021 but was still reprinted in the following school years, so maybe this is the editorial team's point of view.
They maintain their own opinions without basing them on poetic art. The editorial team did not listen to public opinion and still used this poem in the textbook because they were too confident, which is why they received another backlash," Mr. Nhon commented.
Master of Literary Criticism Dinh My Ha said that the 7x and 8x generations used to memorize many poems in textbooks because they were good poems, had rhyme, were aesthetically pleasing, and taught good character, but with the poem Bullying , she found it very lacking in charm and lacking in artistry.
"A poem written for fun or read for fun is fine, but if it is selected to be included in a textbook, it must be of high standards and artistic value. I found the poem " Bullying " very ordinary. I don't understand what is so "sparkling" about it that it should be included in a textbook. How did it pass the content review board?
The last paragraph is confusing and has no connection to the rest of the poem, especially the sentence: Because bullying stinks. It's not for nothing that the poem has received such constant backlash," Ms. Ha said frankly.
Poet Nguyen Phong Viet expressed his opinion that including topics such as school violence, bullying, etc. in poetry and literature should be supported, but with the poem Bullying , he thinks that only a few suitable excerpts should be included to illustrate the theme instead of including the entire poem.
"From a reader's perspective, I find some passages interesting and cute, and some passages are a bit forced, awkward, and illogical... However, poetry depends a lot on the reader's personal experiences and emotions, so there is no formula to generalize that this is good and that is bad," said poet Nguyen Phong Viet.
Talking about the current children's poetry market, Mr. Phong Viet said that Vietnamese people write a lot of poetry, publish a lot of poetry but rarely sell it.
"The number of poets who print and sell their poems is very modest. Particularly in the children's field, very few people are willing to write: First, it is not an easy topic for poets. Second, children's poetry is not easy to sell compared to stories and comics with the same topic, so we rarely see children's poetry," said poet Nguyen Phong Viet.
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