Love is the most modern and enduring form of education.

Báo Thanh niên•20/11/2023

Love is the warmth that is transmitted, from one heart to another, from the heart of teachers to the heart of students; it only needs to be gentle, but it has the power to spread throughout the atmosphere of education .

I was given a small booklet presented in a very childlike style: "Education Through Love ." I also guessed it was a book that didn't need to be read in any particular order. So I randomly flipped to a page... If it truly was about love, then it wouldn't need any particular order.

Yêu thương mới chính là cách giáo dục hiện đại, vĩnh cửu - Ảnh 1. — Students made heart shapes to express their love. According to Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, education through and from love is not just a philosophy, but a necessary practice of education.

LESSONS OF EMPATHY

A random page turn led me to the story "A Special Lesson: Eating in the Dark." A teacher organized an experience for sighted children to eat blindfolded in the dark. And it wasn't just meals; folk dancing, soccer competitions, musical instrument contests… all took place "in the dark" to foster empathy for visually impaired students.

Is there a difference between the perpetual darkness that plagues the lives of blind children and the temporary darkness behind the blindfolds of sighted children? Certainly, it's a difference in circumstances, a difference in the adversity that befalls one and not the other. And that difference can be the source of the indifference and discrimination that sighted children show towards their less fortunate peers.

Yêu thương mới chính là cách giáo dục hiện đại, vĩnh cửu - Ảnh 2. — The cover of the book *"Education Through Love,* " a collaboration between *Thanh Nien* Newspaper and Vietnam Education Publishing House, compiles articles focusing on using love to educate students.

This story reminded me of the Dalai Lama's words: "When educating the intellect of the younger generation, we must not forget to educate their hearts." But even if we don't forget to educate the hearts of our children, perhaps we still don't know how to do it? Teacher Thuy in the story of "meals in the dark" must have placed herself in the darkness of her students' fate, allowing the heart of someone who loves children to design the special experience of "meals in the dark." I only wonder, how much love in that teacher's heart was enough to light such a warm candle in the children?

EDUCATION SHOULD BE A GIFT

This is just one of many heartwarming stories in this collection of journalistic reflections on education. Each story is only a few pages long, perhaps taking just a few minutes to read, but requiring much more time for reflection. The warmth of love in educating children shouldn't just be a story to read on paper and praised with a few empty words. As Aristotle said: "Education of the mind without education of the heart is no education at all." Love is the warmth that is transmitted, from one heart to another, from the heart of the teacher to the heart of the student, gently but powerfully spreading throughout the atmosphere of education.

Why can't education be like a small gift that adults give to children every day, in a very natural way, but which will deeply penetrate their minds? Why do teachers have to strain themselves with countless slogans that are considered modern? While love is the true and eternal modern way of educating humanity.

Education is about transformation, about cultivating the human spirit.

Education Through Love is a small book compiling short essays that record small things, events, educational situations, or even just an emotional state or a moment in life. Although these are very small things, the issues addressed and expressed in these short essays are extremely important in education: using love to practice education and to solve educational problems.

Education through and from love is not just a philosophy, but a necessary practice of education. Educators need to have open hearts, be selfless, sharing, and tolerant.

Education is about transformation, about cultivating the human spirit. Love has a special power and ability to spread, a vast, inexhaustible, and profoundly deep source of energy. This energy can nurture and increase the love of both the giver and the receiver. The energy of love can change others, can erase all differences; it is a special kind of wisdom that awakens even the most difficult-to-awaken individuals and changes those who are most resistant to change. Love can unite, guide, and nourish the human soul.

Reading the stories in this book, I was deeply moved by the perspectives and approaches of those involved and the journalists, as expressed through their viewpoints and attitudes. The greatest, longest-lasting, most sustainable, and most sacred goal of education is human development. Educational reform is a huge and difficult undertaking, but it begins with small things, addressing specific issues like those in these stories, not just grand, distant matters.

Thank you to the journalists, authors, and everyone who conceived and produced this book. Thank you for your profound and insightful educational spirit.

I believe this little book will have a profound and far-reaching impact.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Kim Son (Member of the Central Committee of the Party, Minister of Education and Training)