A high percentage of Vietnamese students nowadays believe that teachers need to be grateful to them, because they bring money to teachers which can feed teachers’ families. And this has been described as the shame of the Vietnamese education.
On a well-known students’ forum, a person with the nickname openseason2 held an
opinion poll on the role of the teachers in the modern times. The question
raised was: why teachers need to be respected?, while there were two options 1)
students need to be grateful to teachers, because it is the obligation and 2)
teachers need to be grateful to students because teachers would not have money
without students.
The poll attracted 1000 visitors and more than 70 comments from the community.
Surprisingly, 40 percent of people chose the option two, i.e. teachers need to
be grateful to students, because teachers live on students’ money.
“If we don’t have teachers, we will still live. But teachers won’t be able to
live without students,” openseason2 commented.
“Why do we still have to owe teachers a debt of gratitude, if we pay for their
teaching?” he continued. When someone pays others for their services, they are
not indebted to the others any more.
Though this is just a mini survey with a small coverage, its result still has
raised a wave of anger.
Vietnamese students have always been told that venerating teachers is ex officio
to everyone. This is simply an obligation, and no one would have doubts about if
they should show the deep gratitude to their teachers. This can partially
explain why Vietnam is the only country in the world which has the Teachers’ Day
to glory the teachers’ credit for their devotion to the national education.
And this has also explained why the 40 percent people choosing the option two
have been criticized heavily.
“openseason2 is really ill bred. I cannot understand his understanding,”
nickname Dorry wrote.
“I wonder if he is a human being. If he is, why can’t he feel the affection and
gratitude between teachers and students?” Hector_II wrote.
Dang Cong Hanh, a student of the Vietnam-South Korea Friendship Information
Technology Junior College, replied to openseason2: “How can you complain about
the persons who have grown you up? Will you still live without teachers? You
need to grow up into useful citizens to the society, not simply into a big baby.
Therefore, you need teachers.”
“Venerating teachers is the long lasting tradition of Vietnamese people,” he
commented.
Lovemytalili2 from Hanoi said that she understands well how hard teachers have
to work, because she is now also a teacher.
“Now I am a tutor. I have six small students. I get nearly exhausted every time
when I finish a lesson. Therefore, I have realized how hard the teachers have to
work when dealing with tens of students at the same time,” she wrote.
“Why do you still need to be grateful to teachers, even though you have to pay tuition? The answer is very simple: because teachers not only provide
knowledge, but they also teach how to become real men,” she continued.
However, many people have raised their voice to defense openseason2. buiphan
wrote, that a lot of teachers have been living on students, including poor
students.
Students have to pay “underground fees” to be eligible for becoming students of
the schools for the gifted. A lot of teachers demand “envelops with money
inside” on the Vietnamese Teachers’ Day, or they would give bad marks to
students.
“In order to be respected by students, teachers need to be respectable,” he
said.
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