When love is sown

That school year, I was assigned to be the homeroom teacher of class 3 at Trung Vuong Primary School (Vung Tau City). Class 3 - the age when children are still very innocent and hyperactive, but are starting to take their first steps into the world of emotions and understanding others. Some children are innocent like blank sheets of paper, some are shy and quiet. And there are also those whose eyes shine with such innocence that they seem to not care about their surroundings. They are too young to understand the pain of others, but are innocent enough to feel the warmth of a hand holding a hand.

They know how to love and help each other in their studies.

Standing among those pure hearts, I asked myself: "What must I do to sow the seeds of love in my children's hearts?"

I do not choose to teach through theory. Instead, I choose to tell stories - real and simple. I choose to open up to the children's eyes the lives of the less fortunate through short films, photos of children in the highlands who do not have sandals to go to school, or children carrying their younger siblings across streams to school. These things are to help the children feel, live, and witness the simplest yet most profound things about sharing.

Emotional stories and images are also incorporated into each lesson. In a Social Science class, I showed the students a video clip of a child of the same age holding a tattered notebook, standing behind the school gate. At that moment, the whole class suddenly fell silent. Then there was a whisper: “He is so pitiful!”, with red eyes. I started asking questions: “If you were me, what would you do?”. One of the students suddenly blurted out: “Teacher… I have some new notebooks at home. I want to give them to him!”

That innocent, sincere sentence made my heart ache. A small ray of light, a gentle movement - but enough for me to know: the first seeds had begun to sprout. And so that lesson became a touching conversation.

Or in the Ethics class, I don’t explain dry theories but I create space for students to draw pictures, tell stories, play roles… I don’t expect perfection. I just hope that students can live in a space with lots of emotions. Some students draw a scene of themselves helping their grandmother cross the street. Some students tell a story about their father giving his raincoat to a stranger. And some students shyly confess that they lied to their mother, then promise to never make her sad again.

Every action, every small thing you do shows love and care for others.

Little by little, little by little, you are learning to be kind people.

We started our journeys of love - no need to go far. It was when the whole class contributed money to put in the "love piggy bank", when the children together packed up their overstuffed notebooks and warm clothes to send to their friends in the highlands. Some children skipped breakfast, others collected every penny. "I want my friend to have enough pens to write", one child said when praised by the teacher. Children are like that - not flashy, not fake - but have thoughts and words that make even adults speechless.

I still remember that rainy morning when the whole class went to visit an orphanage. One of my little students, who was mischievous and liked to tease his friends, suddenly took off his jacket, bent down and put it on a little kid there. “I was afraid he would be cold, so I gave him my jacket.” He said it innocently without waiting for a thank you.

I thought to myself, maybe I don't need to teach too much, just create opportunities for them to touch real stories, meet real people, their hearts will naturally open up a stream of love.

It doesn’t have to be a long trip or a big gift, sometimes love is simply the simple moments in the classroom - where children silently hold hands to overcome difficult math problems and tricky letters. I once saw two children engrossed in a book. One child explained the lesson to the other over and over again, his eyes patient, his hand pointing to each line.

At those times, I don't need to say anything. Because I know: Kindness is not just about giving something, but also about staying by someone's side when they need it, even if it's just a nod or a look of understanding.

In the classroom atmosphere, friendship is present in every corner: on the blackboard, under the seats, amidst the rustling sound of chalk or in the year-end yearbooks. Students have learned not to abandon their friends when there is still an empty seat in the group, learned to give in to each other in each game, each working hour. And even when arguing together, they also learn to listen, accept and move forward with each other - like true friends.

Is there any love deeper than that - when little hearts know how to laugh together, be sad together, and grow up together?

We did not stop there, we also expanded our experiences with the parents. Some children went with their mothers to distribute charity rice, some took the elderly neighbor’s hand to the market, some read books about humanitarian stories and then turned to their mothers and asked: “If I were that character, what would I do?”

And then parents themselves become companions. They encourage their children to read books, tell stories, participate in housework, and go with them to places that need sharing.

Our journey of sowing love is accompanied by parents.

At the end of the school year, I not only saw my students write better and do math better, but more importantly, they knew how to spread love naturally and warmly without being reminded.

Teaching compassion is not about teaching dry lessons. It is a journey of silently planting, watering and waiting. That is when we believe that even a small drop of water can cool a dry land.

And I, the teacher in the classroom, received the greatest gift from my students - happiness: The greatest happiness of a teacher is not teaching children to become talented people, but teaching them to become loving people.

CAO THUY LINH

(Teacher at Trung Vuong Primary School, Vung Tau City)

Source: https://baobariavungtau.com.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202505/khi-yeu-thuong-duoc-gioi-mam-1042782/