The unpredictable consequences of focusing on "teaching letters" more than "teaching humanity"

From the story of a teacher being cornered by students in the classroom, National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, said that children are a mirror reflecting the behavior of adults, and no one is innocent in this sad incident.

National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga said that the incident of students insulting a teacher in Tuyen Quang is unacceptable. (Source: National Assembly)

Moral decline in schools

The incident of students forcing a teacher into a corner of the classroom and throwing sandals at her at a secondary school in Tuyen Quang province has exposed a serious gap in the spirit of respecting teachers. What is your perspective on this story?

First of all, the incident in Tuyen Quang made me feel very sad once again. This is not the first time the alarm bell about school violence, about the moral and cultural degradation among a group of students has been sounded. However, with this incident, everything seems to be more serious. Because the perpetrators of school violence are junior high school students - children who are "not yet full, not yet worried", still very naive and immature in the eyes of their parents and relatives. And the ones who suffer the violence are the teachers who directly teach the students.

If I had not directly watched the clip posted on social networks, I myself would not have believed that students who were only in 7th grade could insult and humiliate the teacher who was teaching them, throw sandals at her, put trash in her bag... Because those are terrible behaviors that go against the nation's moral traditions, go against the efforts of the entire education sector in building friendly schools, active students, and building a civilized school environment.

Through following the incident, I saw many debates from the public. Some people defended the students, saying that the teacher had also committed violent acts against students, such as chasing and beating students with sandals; or that she had behaved and made inappropriate statements... However, regardless of the reason, the actions of the students in this incident cannot be excused in a flattering way. They were wrong, both morally and legally.

We need to be strict with these wrongdoings. Not strict enough to punish the students severely, but strict enough to see that such actions are not allowed to take place in the school environment - where students are learning to be human, learning both the foundation of knowledge and the foundation of morality so that they can become positive people in the future.

This is a sad story for us to ponder and act on. On the school side, we need to reconsider our responsibility in educational management (students disrespecting, opposing, and insulting teachers has happened many times). On the teacher side, we need to seriously reconsider our own shortcomings. Teaching is a special profession. I think the most important teaching "material" is not the books or the knowledge of the teacher, but the personality, dignity, and behavior of the teacher.

No matter how good the admonitions to students are, they are not as effective as the example set by the teacher himself. Families also need to reconsider the way they educate and discipline their children. Each individual in society also needs to look back at what they have done to create a healthy "cultural atmosphere" for their children to grow up in. Children are a mirror of the behavior of adults. I think no one is innocent in this sad incident.

Photo taken from clip. (Source: NLĐ)

Teaching people is better than teaching letters.

Some people think that nowadays, educating students about personality, manners, ethics, lifestyle, and respect for teachers is not given due attention, and is even given second place to grades and achievements. Do you think so?

I agree with this statement. It is a fact that when it comes to the achievements of a school, a class, a student, by habit, we are almost only interested in achievements and learning results.

The greatest expectation of parents for their children is always that they should be excellent, and excellence is measured by the scores of subjects at school. Therefore, the training of ethics for students is sometimes not really given due attention. This is the source of many unfortunate incidents, of which the recent incident in Tuyen Quang is an example. Training ethics for students is not only focused on a specific subject, not only shown in the external manifestations in the behavior of students with friends and teachers.

Moral education for students is a comprehensive education about lifestyle and outlook on life for them. Many times, the seemingly small behaviors of adults have a greater impact on children than theoretical teachings. It is difficult to ask students to be honest if we ignore cheating and lying. It is difficult to teach students to be polite and respectful to teachers if the teachers' behaviors are not up to standard.

Therefore, I hope that moral education for students needs to be focused more, from the depth. If we only focus on "teaching words" rather than "teaching people", the consequences will be unpredictable. A person who is good at knowledge but lacking in morality will be dangerous to society and the community.

Need to promote personality education for children

As one of the National Assembly Delegates who has repeatedly spoken about the alarming situation among a segment of today’s youth – that is, the decline of social morality and the increase of school violence. In your opinion, to limit heartbreaking events and phenomena such as school violence, what drastic changes are needed in education?

I think that in educating the young generation, the responsibility is divided equally between the family, the school and society. Many people think that educating students is the responsibility of the school alone. Problems that occur in schools such as school violence are not only the responsibility of the school. The family cannot be "innocent" in this matter. And the social environment in general cannot be innocent either. Are the students who casually insult and throw sandals at teachers influenced by their families? Are they influenced by society? I think so.

When parents are completely unaware of how their children behave towards teachers at school (the incident in Tuyen Quang happened more than once), or know but do not promptly correct or advise them. When social networks are still full of bad and toxic information and violent acts that children can easily access. When the culturally deviant lifestyles of some people who influence young people are not promptly condemned and corrected but are instead praised... then it cannot be said that families and society do not have some responsibility for the children's mistakes.

Therefore, the first change I think is to immediately stop the blame-taking mindset. Whenever students are at fault, it is only the school. The responsibility of educating the younger generation does not belong to anyone alone. Each individual should think that their daily behaviors and actions create the cultural and social environment. And the younger generation will be influenced by that environment to form their personality.

Every family should pay more attention to the education of their children. We need to pay more attention to protecting children from the negative impact of social networks. And we need to emphasize more the role and position of teachers. In the near future, the Government will submit to the National Assembly for consideration and promulgation of the Law on Teachers. I hope that this draft Law will clearly and reasonably stipulate the legal status of teachers. Only then can we hope to prevent and end sad incidents like the recent one.

Thank you, National Assembly Delegate!

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