Over the last week, Quách Gia Linh and her classmates from Lý Thường Kiệt secondary school have been eagerly preparing for November 20, Vietnamese Teachers’ Day.

Linh’s mother helped her make a greeting card and choreographed the show.

"We want the teacher to be surprised and to feel very happy,” Linh said with a smile. Linh was also preparing a speech because she was assigned as MC for the anniversary.  

Linh’s teacher Hoàng Thùy Anh was emotional when she saw the performances.

The 12-year teacher said “Every year, when the teachers’ day comes, I am excited and happy.”

Her former students visited her and their old school, and she was proud to share in their successes.

The celebration took place with the participation of parents and students had the opportunity to express their feelings through hand-made cards. Students’ parents also prepared gifts for the teachers.  

While such a day may seem entirely uncontroversial and benign, that hasn’t been the case at Hà Nội-based Einstein High School, where principal Đào Tuấn Đạt encourage students to give their teachers money for Teacher’s Day, to give to charity.

Đạt shared the message on his Facebook page, as did teachers and the school’s own page.

The full message was “Give us many ‘money’ envelopes on 20th November! Don’t give flowers, don’t give gifts, give us ‘money’ envelopes.”

Đạt wrote: “We want to take this opportunity to raise money. All money you donated, along with the money we raised from teachers’ extra-teaching, community and social activities of teachers and students, to buy blankets and winter clothing for teachers and pupils in Pù Nhi Commune’s primary school, Mường Lát District, Thanh Hoá Province.”

“The gift isn’t great, but it is a little warmth we send to colleagues and students in a remote area of Pù Nhi on Vietnamese Teachers’ Day.  

“The gift isn’t large, but is a little spiritual encouragement for teachers and students in the mountainous remote commune of Thanh Hóa Province to overcome difficulties they are facing every day,” Đạt wrote on his facebook.

According to Einstein High School teachers, over the past week, students and parents have responded enthusiastically to this movement.

Explaining why he made the call, the principal said he and colleagues knew parents and students often send flowers to teachers on Teacher’s Day, and realised the money spent on flowers could be spent on useful things.

Vũ Tiến Minh, father of a 7th-grade student, said: “It is a good idea because the habit of giving too much flowers on November 20 increases the amount of garbage, environmental pollution, wastefulness and burden on hygiene workers.”

He said that when the school broadcasted the message, both he and his son were excited to participate.

“I realise this is a very meaningful thing. If other school teachers initiate such movement, poor students and teachers in remote areas will have a meaningful Teachers’ Day.”

Dr Vũ Thu Hương, former lecturer of elementary education, Hà Nội Teachers’ Training College, said as a teacher and mother, she found the most precious gifts weren’t expensive, but from the heart.

“That may be a small gift made by children themselves. A thankful word, a cute card will become invaluable to every teacher.”

Flowers or money weren’t important, but children needed to see their teachers as devoted educators with their best interests at heart, she said.

Let Teacher’s Day be a beautiful memory for children, teachers and parents, instead of a cause of arguments. — VNS