An old teacher provides a lesson or two
Viet Nam News, June 17, 2003
By Hoai Nam
At 73 Luong Van Trung lives in the poorest of circumstances.
But his life has a richness that the most prosperous might envy.
The owner of several thousand books, collected over 50 years, he prepares students for university from his residence at Hong Viet commune in Thai Binh, the province neighbouring Ha Noi.
Trung began his voluntary work six years ago and since then 56 of his charges have won places at colleges and universities. "It’s very simple," he explains.
"I began by using my knowledge to help poor students prepare for their university exams – a process that at present wastes too much money. Then many families and the parents of students in neighbouring communes began asking me to instruct their children each summer."
Trung’s students are drawn from poor families and are selected by the directors of surrounding secondary schools.
His rundown house and lack of household appliances – a bicycle with neither chain nor mudguards propped against a rough wall is the only concession to modernity – is proof that his students pay no fees.
The war of resistance
Born in 1930 and raised in the Dong Hung district village, Trung is no stranger to the plight of the rural poor.
But his parents struggled to provide him with an education and had finished both primary and junior secondary school when the general uprising of 1944 began.
Trung helped disseminate information throughout the villages in support of the resistance before finishing senior secondary schooling at a communal house in Khuoc Village.
He was an excellent student and graduated in history-literature-geography, mathematics-physics-chemistry and English in three years while his fellow students took the same time to finish a single subject.
In early 1950s, Trung participated in mass education classes to eliminate illiteracy while helping to prepare for war against the French Colonialists.
Trung was then assigned to completing a training course at the Viet Bac Teachers’ Training College and to become a lecturer after graduation as part of the effort to build socialism in the north,
But Thai Binh then had no secondary schools so Trung taught at the Nam Dinh Agricultural School and the University of Agriculture No.1.
Then, to help meet the need for manpower, he worked at the at Ben Hiep glass and fire-brick plants as part of the industrial plan for both the province and the entire north.
Still a teacher
Early summer, the hottest months of the year, is also the busiest time for Trung as students who have just finished their final secondary school examinations prepare to be tested for colleges and universities.
So how do his students respond to their elderly mentor?
"He is a great teacher with wide and deep knowledge and a good memory," says first-year University of Transport student Nguyen Duy Duyen.
Duyen and classmates at the Tien Hung secondary school, joined the elderly teacher’s English-language classes three years ago. But Trung has also helped them with mathematics, physics, chemistry and other subjects.
"At first, I did not believe that Trung had such wide knowledge, says Duyen.
"We were surprised that his lectures could be so attractive and that he could teach us so thoroughly by combining the old and the new.
The poorest of the students, Pham Quang Dieu, is now his first year at the Military Academy.
But Trung does not confine himself to the academic. He also teaches his students of the need to be patient and ethical in their everyday lives.
Duyen tells of a day when it rained heavily and only three students attended class. "You should come whatever the conditions." their teacher told them. "But young people fear difficulties."
Trung’s books are carefully stored in 54 galvanised boxes in a ‘small tower’ that could be a pigeon nest and throughout the house.
"There were 22,460 books at last count in 1973," he says.
"But I have collected many since then and that does not include the 22 volumes I gave to the provincial library."
Trung’s fondness for reading began in childhood and he has bought books regardless of the cost.
They range from science, economics and politics to history and literature and include volumes written in a variety of languages.
A private life
As a young man he studied and taught in Thai Binh, while the wife cared for their five children.
"His appearances at home were rare after he began his teaching career, his wife, Nguyen Thi Teo, said.
"He has continued teaching the village children and tutoring students about to sit their university entrance exams."
He retired because of poor health in 1977 and draws a monthly pension of VND162,000.
The money together with the family’s almost 400sq.m of agricultural land does not allow him to keep buying books.
"He is a special citizen in our village," says Hong Viet Commune People’s Committee Deputy Chairman Luong Quynh Kha.
"On teachers’ day and at Tet dozens of students who studying at universities and colleges crowd into the lane to visit their old teacher."
Poor health and empty pockets has not made Trung feel sorry for himself.
"I’m very happy whenever my students present me with books or I hear that they have passed their examination," he says. — VNS
