As a leading conservationist and museum expert in our country, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Huy pointed out: The depth of each culture is "spoken" through historical and cultural heritages, in which material heritages have great value.
The artifacts in museums and relics are vivid evidences that tell historical and cultural stories to the younger generations. Each artifact and each document has hidden information that those who want to promote the value of heritage must research to answer the questions: Whose is it, who made it, when, where, how and why is it there…? Heritage education is to help the younger generation find and answer these questions on each artifact and each relic.
Need to deploy
Quang Nam is a land of convergence of world cultural heritages recognized by UNESCO: Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son Temple Complex, Central Vietnam's Bai Choi Art and many other provincial and national cultural heritages.
The “Quang Nam - Heritage Journey” festival was first held in 2003 and has been held every two years since then to promote globally valuable heritages and unique local cultural features.
However, heritage education activities for the young generation have not yet attracted full attention from all levels, sectors, schools and the whole society.
The capacity to organize heritage education activities as well as the accompanying conditions (funding, time, human resources, etc.) have not been invested properly. Moreover, the content of heritage education has not been flexibly applied to the characteristics of each locality. The coordination of heritage education forces is not tight, the mechanism and coordination operation are not really effective.
In the program of building “Friendly schools, active students”, there are 2 contents related to protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage, which are: Organizing spiritual and cultural life in schools associated with exploiting folk culture; taking care of heritage associated with learning about historical and cultural relics.
That means including both heritage education and education through heritage, making students understand heritage, thereby having feelings, ethics, and pride in the traditional values of the nation and country.
However, in reality, the number of students who understand the value of cultural heritage is still small, and the state of “blindness” about heritage is alarming. This clearly has a great impact on the effectiveness of preserving and promoting the values of cultural heritage.
Learning through objects
One of the key principles of heritage education theory in modern museum studies is the idea of “looking through the objects”. Accordingly, students are given the opportunity to directly interact with the objects and hear their stories. Museums become classrooms, using objects and other heritage information to expand students’ historical and cultural knowledge. Students will be guided, prompted to ask questions, find answers and draw conclusions from the objects.
Heritage education through experience has the effect of giving students strong inspirations, stimulating their imagination so that they have deep and vivid impressions, promoting thinking, increasing awareness and love of history and culture. From there, they know how to appreciate traditional values, contributing to preserving, conserving and promoting cultural heritage in a more effective and practical way.
This is necessary and a correct direction, in line with current educational practices. Because there is no better traditional way of education than when children are “heard, seen, and touched” to understand the land where they were born and raised, the place where their grandparents and parents made their living and career. Each person’s love for their country must originate from their love for their homeland.
In the capital city of Hanoi, for many years now, the Thang Long - Hanoi Heritage Conservation Center has organized tens of thousands of primary and secondary school students to participate in heritage education programs. The center has organized many interactive areas and experiential activities for students, built heritage education topics suitable for each grade level, and integrated history lessons into the heritage learning program, with topics.
Since 1994, UNESCO has established the World Heritage Education for Youth (WHE) Programme to promote the role of young people in preserving World Heritage. Heritage education is an effective way to teach history and culture, using information and documents of/about cultural heritage. Heritage sites and cultural institutions can become learning places where students of all ages can directly experience and learn.
Hoi An's way
In Hoi An City, after 7 years of testing, from the 2021-2022 school year, the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Conservation has coordinated with the Department of Education and Training to officially introduce the "Heritage Education in Schools" document set into teaching at primary schools in the area. More than 10,300 publications for teachers and students, 5 video clips, and 10 visual thematic documents have been published and distributed. In particular, the content related to Hoi An's cultural heritage and relics stands out.
The implementation of the teaching of the document set has received the agreement and positive response from teachers, parents and students. The presentation of the document is concise and scientific but still ensures richness and vividness.
This helps teachers easily convey the content of the lesson as well as students easily access and absorb it during the learning and experiencing process. In addition to class time, the activity "Let's explore the museum together" has brought students many interesting experiences, helping to equip them with basic knowledge about the land and people of Hoi An. Thereby helping to raise their sense of responsibility, love for heritage, history, and local traditional culture.
Hoi An's heritage education program in schools is highly appreciated by public opinion and is consistent with important recommendations in UNESCO's Conventions on the protection of cultural and natural heritage and intangible cultural heritage.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Ly - Vice President of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association affirmed: “Hoi An has been successful in linking heritage education at relics with educational programs in schools. I think this issue needs to be further researched, maybe we can creatively combine it with social sciences as we do now to achieve practical and in-depth results. If the program is well implemented in Hoi An, it will be an experience recognized by UNESCO. This model needs to be shared with world heritage sites, special national relics, provincial and municipal museums”.
From the new and effective ways of doing things in Hoi An and many other places in the country, it is time to invest in improving heritage education for the young generation. That is also an effective investment for the future.
Museums and relics play a very important role in educating children to build a sustainable cultural foundation and historical knowledge. It is paradoxical that in recent times, authorities at all levels and relevant agencies have invested a lot of money to renovate and restore relics and establish museums, but have not invested in long-term, fundamental projects on heritage education through heritage and museums!
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nghi-ve-giao-duc-di-san-cho-the-he-tre-3144654.html
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