Posted by chujoe on September 1, 2010, at 9:09:50
In reply to Re: Inappropriate ADHD diagnosis, posted by sigismund on August 26, 2010, at 18:51:17
Sig, I saw this before & meant to post something in response, but then got distracted & forgot. Anyway, I've spent a lot of time in Vietnam & lived there for extended periods and have taught literature courses at Hanoi university. I don't have a lot of experience with elementary education, so I won't say unequivocally that your information is wrong, but only that I'm suspicious of its accuracy. Vietnamese culture is certainly more authoritarian than American & European culture, but it is not rigidly so. Also, if these were after school language classes, they would have nothing to do with the "state system" of education, but would be privately run. Contrary to popular conceptions of Vietnam, there is a tremendous amount of free enterprise. One thing that is certainly true is that the Vietnamese are very serious about education & students are taught to be respectful of their teachers. In fact, it was difficult for me to get my students to ask questions because they were so used to simply being told the right way to read a story or a poem, etc. On Tet, the lunar New Year, the most important holiday in Vietnam, the first day one visits and pays honor to one's paternal grandparents; the second day, to one's maternal grandparents; and on the third day, students take gifts to their teachers in order to honor their important place in the Vietnamese value system.
poster:chujoe
thread:959607
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100829/msgs/960932.html