Our teacher

In La Gi, those who lived 30 years ago still remember the day of the funeral in the rain and wind for history teacher Le Van Ho, a martyr in peacetime. That was the image of the procession of people sending him to the cemetery, 3 kilometers long, during storm No. 10. That day, the people standing watching said to each other: This was the saddest and most crowded farewell to the land of our coastal homeland.

During our student days in the 70s and 80s of the last century, those who studied at Phan Boi Chau School (Phan Thiet) and Ly Thuong Kiet School (La Gi) each time met each other and admitted that they were students of Mr. Le Van Ho, they happily shook hands as if they were friends from a long time ago. Last month, by chance, we met two friends, Le Tran Hieng and Nguyen Thi Lien Tam, representing class 10B3 of Phan Boi Chau School (1973-1974), at the private home of Mr. Le Van Ve (Mr. Ho's younger brother) in Phan Thiet. Although we had just met Dr. Lien Tam for the first time, when we heard that she was Mr. Ho's student, we happily shook hands and greeted each other. Mr. Hieng, 70 years old, is a doctor of economics and a retired colonel of the Binh Thuan Police, while Ms. Lien Tam has a doctorate in literature. After the party, Mr. Hieng invited me to Phan Thiet to light incense sticks to commemorate the day our teacher returned to the earth. As a soldier holding a pen, having experienced many places, having interviewed hundreds of characters to illustrate the article, but when I met old friends with white hair and degrees who invited me back to my hometown to burn incense for my old teacher, I was surprised and moved. After that meeting, the image of Mr. Ho from a long time ago kept appearing clearly in my mind.

Our teacher, a time to remember

In this coastal region of the South Central region, those who studied at the baccalaureate level from the early 70s to the early 90s of the last century all admired the history and geography teacher Le Van Ho, some of them considered him as their idol. Mr. Ho was a cheerful and dedicated person, who formed the personality and survival skills of his students through his lessons. His class was the golden hour of our young, sparkling eyes eagerly looking back to our ancestors, who once carried swords on bare feet to open up the land. Because history and geography are the land, the frontier, the mountains, the seas, the soul of a nation with ups and downs. Every time Mr. Ho taught a class, there was almost no student absent, sometimes even when the next class was empty, they would squeeze in to sit and remember the sacred soul of the mountains and rivers.

His teaching style was engaging and extensive, because following him, we learned history to remember our ancestors and the spirit of the country. During class, he would speak while holding a piece of chalk and sketch out the geographical location, rivers, mountains, etc. of any country in the world in a vivid way. At that time, we imagined that this world was entirely in his brain. Through each lesson, we learned more poetic regional folk songs and thrilling legends.

Mr. Ho died at the age of 49 during a trip to translate for the border guards near La Gi estuary right when storm No. 10 hit on October 23, 1994. Vietnamese people often say that the age of 49 is a year of bad luck. He was born in the year of the Rooster 1945, his hometown was Phong Nam, a coastal area of Phan Thiet. He was an orphan, his family was poor, but he studied well, passed the Baccalaureate with a grade of average in mathematics. In 1968, he studied history at Saigon Pedagogical University, then continued to enroll in the Faculty of Literature to get a bachelor's and master's degree. For more than 20 years on the podium, he planted the seeds in the brains of the young generation at that time of a strange writing style about knowledge of being a human being in a sovereign country. In his teaching career, he succeeded in the "Bach nien chi ke, mac nhu thu nhan" (hundred-year plan to cultivate people)" of the Chinese thinker Quan Trong in the Spring and Autumn period.

Incense sticks for the martyr teacher

In late October this year, at the invitation of Dr. Hieng, his former students from many places gathered at the ancestral temple of his house in Phong Nam. At the time of lighting incense, the gratitude ceremony was disrupted when dozens of uninvited guests came by themselves. They were students from La Gi from the 1983-1985 school year, led by Tran Quang Dung. When asked about the voluntary pilgrimage, Dung confided, "Hearing that the senior class was going to Phan Thiet to burn incense for Mr. Ho, we made an appointment to come together to show our gratitude, because he was a teacher we respected at one time, so we wanted to show our gratitude. However, when meeting the seniors who are doctors, masters, writers, journalists, and then army colonels and lieutenant colonels in their 70s, experienced intellectuals with hair grayed by the wind and weather, we felt small and silent, not daring to say anything, even though we are over 50 years old and not small anymore...".

In front of the ancestral altar of his hometown Phan Thiet, 72-year-old Le Van Ve, the teacher's younger brother, on behalf of his family, thanked the presence of 60 educated, silver-haired students of his older brother in the past. He confided in tears, “This is the first time after 30 years since my brother passed away that his students have come here to commemorate and burn incense. It is a noble gesture that reflects the spirit of respecting teachers from the past until now. That speaks to the prosperity of a sovereign nation, because according to the law, a country that respects its teachers will never lose its soul. In 1993, during the opening ceremony, your teacher Ho asked to teach for another year but could not do so because the translation trip encountered a big storm and had to stay in the middle of the ocean. I still remember when he was brought to Tan An La Gi cemetery during storm No. 10, the wind was blowing hard on his face, but the procession of people to see him off was nearly 3 kilometers long in the stormy rain and wind. After the burial, everyone dropped the last mound of soil on the coffin. There was a 12th grade female student wearing a long dress soaked with dirt and sand kneeling before my brother's grave, crying in agony, “Teacher! The teacher said that next week, he would buy me a new bag to replace my old one, but now he has left us, teacher...!". As teacher Ho's younger brother, I helped him stand up with tears in my eyes. At that moment, many students also covered their faces and cried. That was a sad and respectful image of their teacher that had troubled me for many years. And now, the students gathered here with their gray hair, proving that the spirit of respecting teachers in our country is immortal. On behalf of the family, I would like to respectfully thank the parallel sentence of class 10B3 Phan Boi Chau in 1973, which gave the teacher the words "PHU HOI VILLAGE GIVES BIRTH TO THE TEACHER, A VIRTUOUS TALENT / LA GI PORT, FAREWELL TO THE PERSON THAT MANY GENERATIONS MISS...".

Mr. Le Tran Hieng, former class monitor of class 10B and head of the organizing committee, read the memorial speech for the teacher with sadness. At times, he had to stop and wipe away his tears when 60 of his teacher's silver-haired students accompanied the song Chalk Dust in a quiet and orderly manner. Dr. Hieng's memorial speech was quite long, but the last part remained: With deep emotion, I respectfully offer a stick of incense in memory of the teacher - A kind heart, an example of education and morality. And also in the incense smoke at that time, Mr. Tran Dinh Tuong, representing the La Gi group, recounted the impressive image of the teacher in early 1976, when class 12C of Phan Boi Chau and Ly Thuong Kiet schools organized a picnic at Cu mountain in Ham Thuan Nam. Here, the teacher stood on a rock and talked about the history of the formation of the Cu mountain complex, echoing in the middle of the vast forest. Therefore, every time he had the opportunity to pass by the foot of the mountain, he imagined the teacher's voice echoing from above. After the gratitude ceremony was the reunion party of the students at the age of 70, Mr. Tu Hieng announced 2 hometown dishes that were also Mr. Ho's favorite dishes when he was young. They were mixed vegetables wrapped in rice paper with boiled pork dipped in fish sauce and sour duck cooked with young banana stems, dishes that preserve the hometown spirit and nostalgia of Phan Thiet people. It was this rustic dish that formed the glue that connected the teacher-student relationship and the soul of Binh Thuan people.

The day I left Phan Thiet to return to La Gi, in my mind I still remembered Dr. Hieng's whisper: "The lessons and field trips that Mr. Ho taught us all contained the meaning of forming human qualities and survival skills according to the Japanese and Jewish high school curriculum." I remembered the confession of Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Tam when she posted the news of the ceremony to honor Mr. Ho on Facebook and someone asked: You are a doctor who has studied with many teachers, but why did you only organize a ceremony to honor Mr. Ho? I remained silent and did not answer, but in my mind, I remembered the American proverb: Let your deep heart speak.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/nguoi-thay-cua-chung-toi-125755.html