It's Schooltime!

My aunt is a 9th grade teacher at a school in My Tho, a city in a rural province south of Saigon. She took me along for their last day of school, where I was able to witness her interact with her students and sit in on parent-teacher conferences. It was really interesting to see how Vietnamese schools operate and the stark contrasts from the American public school system.

First of all, we arrived there at 6:30 am (!!).The students were already there and my aunt had them all line up, where she then read individual student’s end of the year score out loud, in front of everyone else. The kids didn’t seem bothered by this at all, which for me would be horrifying no matter what grade I received. Then, my aunt ordered them to pick weeds from the schoolyard. And they all did it! It was so bizarre seeing them all crouched over, picking grass, whereas at American public schools, teachers have a hard time just getting students to open their textbooks.

After this child labor, my aunt met up with their parents. Unlike most American teachers, she gave these parents the straight talk about their kids…in front of other parents. “Your son isn’t capable and he will not make it. Put him in vocational school.” “No matter how much your daughter tries now, she won’t get into that school. It is best if she goes to a second tier school.” It was all very blunt and kind of hard for me to listen to. The parents, however, were very receptive to this kind of talk because in Vietnam, the teacher is highly respected and always right. I’m sure all my aunt’s points were true, but as an American student from a generation that was constantly told we were all special and capable of anything we wanted to be (no matter if that was true or not), I was taken aback by all of this.

The unfortunate thing I learned is that because this is a rural province, a portion of these students are poor and their parents illiterate. These students face challenges that put them at a greater disadvantage to succeeding than their peers, in an already disadvantaged region. Not being able to pay school fees, extra tutoring, or even having enough to eat can really deter these students from succeeding. Fortunately, despite my aunt’s bluntness, she cares for her students in and out of school and really tries her best to see her students succeed and to look after their well-being.

In all (and despite the last point), I had a fun time at the school. I got to see all the kids were dressed up in their uniforms, teasing each other, just enjoying their last day before they were off to different schools for the next school year.