Love - The autobiography of a teacher without a podium, Le Duy Niem, is written by two authors: Le Duy Niem and Quach Trong Tra, his student, currently a freelance author. The work was written by Quach Trong Tra with his teacher's permission as a way to repay his debt of gratitude for following him for decades; after many revisions and arrangements of ideas, the work was finally completed, revealing to readers the portrait of a village teacher who loved "knocking children's heads", amidst a picture of many changes in the country's history before and after 1975.
La thuong - The autobiography of the teacher without a podium, Le Duy Niem, was published on the occasion of Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20.
VIETNAMESE WOMEN'S PUBLISHING HOUSE
The life of a village teacher is told consistently, throughout history, without choosing to fall into a specific period, to see the process of "standardizing" a teacher - a person, and through that also see, how "correcting oneself" to "correct others" takes place continuously in the mind of an educator .
Born in Quang Tri , a land where "sand flies into the mouth", in a family of many generations, and surrounded by poverty during wartime, little Le Duy Niem, however, grew up in the love of his parents. In the first few dozen pages of La Thuong , readers witness a boy Niem who is innocent and carefree, sometimes feeling sorry for himself because he has to be away from his parents, and sometimes almost lacking in love from his father, but there is absolutely no complaint about his circumstances, or lack of spirit...
Le Duy NiemGrowing up in a time when education "had not yet standardized a teacher", the young man Le Duy Niem became a village teacher, then after many hardships, had to drift and live, teach in Minh Hai province (now Bac Lieu and Ca Mau), then drifted to Saigon. Life was tossed around many times but the teacher was always smiling, his smile was more or less restrained, more mature, innocence gave way to maturity, and at that time, the "fire of the profession" in him boiled even more...
Le Duy Niem did not cover his 60-year life reminiscences in a whisper, although he confided that he was "old". The author wrote: "When you start to reminisce, it seems like you're starting to get old... I've been old for quite a while. Because for quite a while, I realized that I was starting to absentmindedly pick up the memories that I had accidentally or intentionally scattered along the way... This autobiography is like a gift I give myself to be able to fully return to the memories filled with love for people and the land where I was born, grew up, then matured and tasted the sweet and bitter flavors of life...". He wrote the work in many voices, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes youthful, sometimes warm.
But even though he admitted that he had "reached the end of his sixty years of life", was old, and thought that his work had been completed, Le Duy Niem was still very "young"! How could he not be young when, after so many storms of life, through many ups and downs and once having to leave his country, his loved ones, his "children" today are still full, his small house in the suburbs of Thu Duc still resounds with laughter. How could he not be young when, as a teacher in his 60s, his students still affectionately call him: "Ma Niem!". His students also called him by many names such as father, dad, teacher, but perhaps the word teacher is rarer. He once confided that he "craved" to be called teacher by his students, but the problem was that the children did not only consider him a teacher, but more than that, they considered him as a substitute for their parents, entering and nurturing their lives.
Book cover : La Thuong - Autobiography of a teacher without a podium Le Duy Niem
VIETNAMESE WOMEN'S PUBLISHING HOUSE
As Che Lan Vien once wrote: "When we are here, it is just a place to live/ When we leave, the land has become our soul...". The 10A Bac Lieu specialized students of the 1993-1994 school year still visit him in his "small house in the suburbs". Students from all over, many of whom have now become famous, some are engineers, authors, businessmen... still return to affectionately call him "teacher". Or like a friend who lived in Bac Lieu for decades, but later moved to Saigon to live, was still present on the day he launched his book! Not to mention his student - his co-author - who has also accompanied him for decades.
Why do students still maintain courtesy and affection towards him after such a long time?
Because during his journey of several decades trying to stick to that profession, he has fulfilled his duty to life. All the gold and silver he gave to life has now been returned to him, as writer Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hai commented on the work.
And also because the passion for the profession in Teacher Niem was kindled from the time he was very young. Loving the profession turned into loving people without realizing it. Only seeing the portrait of Le Duy Niem appearing at the beginning of the book still has a lot of innocence and instinct, but the further on, the more deeply imbued in his philosophy of "growing people". And that love of people of his makes him have different ways of "teaching", the way of dealing with communication is also "unlike anyone else"... Teacher Niem's philosophy is "teaching like playing, teaching like living", teaching children with awareness, proactively to become a self-aware, responsible person later. And he adjusts and teaches depending on the situation, not putting all the children into a certain model. This flexibility and "timeliness" is both easy and difficult, and in his own way, he has taught many generations of students.
So no matter where he went, his "big family" still followed him. His love became contagious, an invisible glue that bound everyone together.
Le Duy Niem 
Many old and new students and colleagues came to celebrate with teacher Le Duy Niem at the book launch at the end of November.
"Come back and arrange..." The life of the gentle, honest teacher Le Duy Niem, who had been arranging things for decades, has now temporarily calmed down. Every day, he still goes back and forth from home to school. Occasionally, he returns to visit his "second hometown" Bac Lieu, to meet some of his old students, whom he now considers his confidants, his brothers...
In the last words of La thuong , the teacher concluded in a contemplative tone: "Now the teacher has completed a life cycle of 60 years of black and white. The 10A students have gone through almost 3/4 of a lifetime of joy and sadness every day. Still meet each other. Still have each other. Still see many things in each other to make life more interesting and meaningful. [...] People often say, having a good teacher is receiving great kindness. Having a good friend is receiving great kindness. I feel my fortune is full of kindness. Having noble teachers, soul mates, and the love of students for generations. There is nothing better. So when I encounter confusion and turmoil, clearly seeing the sincerity of teachers, friends, colleagues, and students for me, I suddenly feel complete faith in life. I feel steadfastly holding on to my heart. Even though at times that heart is weak and cannot carry my life!..."
As a colleague commented at his book launch, one swallow does not make a spring, but that is not true for Le Duy Niem, because wherever he goes, love is always present, he creates his own spring. Le Duy Niem makes everyone happy and he himself is happy. Because it is simple: all you need is love, that simple! No need for a reason to love or for something to love.
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