Perhaps my path to the profession is different because it is true to the saying "what you hate, God gives you". I did not choose to study pedagogy even though in my family, especially my maternal side, everyone is quite good at teaching because I do not like being a teacher. The image of teaching as I see it from primary, secondary, and high school is encapsulated in the word "boring". "Boring" here refers to the nature of the job: going to class - lecturing - grading - going to class - lecturing - grading,... Just thinking about it makes me feel that I am not suitable for it at all. I like to experiment, fly, and change in many environments. I dream of the glitz and change here and there in businesses, so I choose to study a major that I find satisfies the necessary and sufficient conditions: "nothing to do with pedagogy" and "dynamism and mobility". Even when I was in college, I still pouted at the blunt statement of my classmate who was known as having a “fifth and a half sense”:"In the future, you can have a stable job like a teacher.". It is true that “life is not like a dream” when I did not choose a career but the career chose me. After a few twists and turns of life, and whether by accident or on purpose, I had the chance to go to university. My friends were surprised, my family was astonished and I really “never thought of it”.
The first class of the young lecturer
The first class started when I went to assist Mr. Vu Cao Dam in a specialized class for students in the class right after me. Before the class, I had a hard time sleeping. In my mind, imaginary images of the first day appeared with many scenarios. I was scared. I was worried. I was trembling. But I was also excited for this first "presentation". The next day, everything was not as I thought. When I entered the class, it was still the same class that I had been attached to since I was a student, but now, I was not standing there to recite the lesson but with a completely different role and responsibility. Standing in front of the students, I felt like I had transformed into a different person: more dignified and more mature, but also a bit lacking in confidence. I still feel immature, inexperienced with countless fears: fear that I am not capable enough to convey, to answer the difficult questions of the students, fear that the class is not attractive enough, not enough students love the subject I teach,... The first time I stood in the lecture hall was when the teacher asked me to guide the class in doing a discussion exercise. The moments standing on the podium were full of shyness and awkwardness because it was the first time standing in front of so many students, so I was very nervous, sometimes I forgot what I wanted to say, even forgot the discussion script I had outlined at the beginning. Looking into the eyes of the students, I could clearly see the doubt "You are too young, I wonder if you have enough experience to teach me?". However, after the first few minutes with the confusion of both the teacher and the students, the lesson passed with the students' attentiveness, active participation in the lecture, the harmony between the teacher and the students; and the teacher's voice, the somewhat awkward exchanges between me and the students. But before that, in my mind, I thought that being a lecturer standing on the podium, I had to show authority, control the class and act cold to make the students afraid, willing to study, not talking loudly because I was young and could easily be bullied.
After the lesson, the teacher sat down with me and discussed the "good" and "bad" points of the "teacher" in class: from the way of addressing, from the way of walking, leading discussions and concluding, the way of "putting out fires" while lecturing... The teacher emphasized that the tone of voice, gestures, attitude, and facial expressions of the lecturer are all very important. And little by little, I grew up. The teacher also told me about the first day he taught at the University of Science and Technology more than 50 years ago and that day he taught to the students of the next class. The emotions he experienced were the same as mine now. My teachers are also masters of psychology when I heard many stories about the first day in the lecture hall. Teacher Dao Thanh Truong told about the first time he taught in the same unexpected, unforeseen situation. Perhaps, that first day was not only for me but it was always impressive and full of emotions for all the teachers.
Over time, lecture halls have also changed a lot towards being more modern, intelligent and convenient: air conditioning, sliding boards combined with projection screens, etc. But no matter how much technology changes, one thing is always there: the passion, concentration, enthusiasm and worries about life and the future of students who are in adulthood, and, I still see myself nearly 10 years ago.
Generations of lecturers in a lecture hall
Speaking of the lecture hall, I would like to tell you more about the unique “special thing” that I think is very rare when here – the Faculty of Management Science – there are up to four generations in the same lecture hall. At first, it sounds like an impossible thing, but in reality, it is true. I should have drawn a diagram to make it easier to visualize, but in an essay like this, inserting a diagram would be a bit “wrong”. Therefore, I will give an example from myself: Mr. Vu Cao Dam is Mr. Dao Thanh Truong’s teacher, Mr. Dao Thanh Truong is the homeroom teacher of Ms. Vu Cam Thanh, and Ms. Vu Cam Thanh is my academic advisor. Each generation, each generation succeeds each other, the previous generation passes on the passion for the profession to the next generation. I suddenly remembered the poem “Vietnamese Bamboo” by Nguyen Duy and I saw the shadows of my teachers and me in it:
“Young bamboo shoots are young bamboo shoots,
Has the straight, round shape of bamboo.
Years passed, months passed,
Old bamboo and new shoots grow, nothing strange.
Later,
Later,
Later...
Green land, green bamboo forever green bamboo color.
(Excerpt from "Vietnamese Bamboo" - Nguyen Duy, White Sand, People's Army Publishing House, 1973)
Yes. When it comes to the lecture hall and the teaching profession, my feelings can be summed up in two words: “Responsibility” and “Pride”. To keep the land green and the bamboo green forever, it takes the dedication, tolerance, caressing, and sacrifice of the generations of “old bamboo” and “big bamboo”, and the efforts and breakthroughs of the “young bamboo” generation. If you have a destiny to come to this profession, you must have the HEART to keep it.
Source:Faculty of Management Science Union
