PRINCIPAL DO LENH DIEN: "LET OUR STUDENTS  FULLY DEVELOP THEIR POTENTIALS" Even though the interview had been scheduled far ahead, meeting with principal Dien was still a difficult task, since he rarely has spare time. Yet, I was amazed at how easily our conversation flew as few of us students had pictured him to be that friendly and welcome. Mr. Dien laughed joyously as he answered our questions. Because we o­nly had half an hour for the interview, we got right down to business. ..."ALWAYS QUESTION SCIENCE..." 1. Could you tell us about the road you have traveled so far: we know that you used to be a Physics teacher -- What had brought you to teaching, particularly Physics ? In the post-war era, all of my peers graduated and got into college; our professions were assigned by the government. I was allotted to teach Physics; I had no choice and did not have as much profession awareness as nowadays. However, I discovered then that teaching suited my ability as well as my interest. I soon found my joy in teaching and developed a self-attachment with my job. I was o­ne of the every first faculty members at Ams. Before Ams, I taught Physics at Chu Van An High School. As a well-know Physics teacher, could you please tell us how you studied this subject when you were a student? Back to the old days, we self-studied for the most part. We did not go to that many extra classes as you do now. When I was in high school, I signed up for a library card from Hanoi's Libary and went there searching for books. I loved Physics so I read all types of books I could find: from upperclass-level books to college-level o­nes. Besides, we had peer tutoring to help each other out. Being a peer tutor, I had to find out ways to help my friends. In my opinion, not o­nly in Physics but also all other subjects, enthusiasm is the utmost important must. Then, willingness to explore by ourselves the subject matter also helps. In addition, abilities to memorize acquired knowledge and to process and analyze information are also necessary. Finally, you should always question science, ie., you must actively question even your teachers and the scientific propositions you learn in class. o­nly after you have proven the proposition yourself and have fully understood a problem should you be satisfied. This is especially important for those Physics people. In the teaching field, the teacher's abilities to express and present ideas clearly are extremely important. In addition, teaching is the process of discovering and predicting students' mistakes and difficulties in learning, as well as assisting students with those difficulties. We teachers must always try to improve our teaching methods. Sometimes, a small hint can help the student solve an entire problem. Do you think our study methods now are different from yours? Nowadays, students have much more to learn. However, they also have more available reference materials and chance to learn from a greater number of well-trained teachers. These are the great advantages that our students should make use of. But if these are overused or abused, they are very likely to become students' very own weaknesses. They may deprive students of their independence and creativity in learning, which are very essential not o­nly in Physics and other natural sciences, but also in social sciences. These skills are also important when our students graduate and have a job in the real world since since guidance and reference are not always available. Our Vietnamese students are behind some other countries' mostly due to a lack of creativity and independence in learning. 2. Was your transfer process from the faculty board to the executive board at Ams any difficult ? As a teacher I o­nly needed to take care of the teaching, besides, I was o­nly teaching a few classes and concerned about o­nly a very few common issues. But as principal, I must pay attention to all issues and all classes. For instance, when as a member of the Physics Department, I used to ask the School's Executive Board to invest more in my department. Now as the principal, I must also take into consideration the other departments' requests, such as those of the Chemistry or the Biology Department... As principal, I find many tasks difficult, especially the balancing of the school's financial resource allocated to both academic and other school activities, the moderating of various relationships: those between teachers and teachers, teachers and students, teachers and parents, and those between our school and the Board of Education, and the locality. HANOI AMSTERDAM HAS BECOME VERY WELL-KNOWN BY FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD... 3. You have been here since the very first days of Ams, witnessing every step of our beloved school. Now, as the principal, we think you have the best opportunity to look back at Ams' history as a whole. What do you think about our school's development through each stage? The fact is, Ams' development stages overlap our country's. In the first few post-war years, when our nation's economy was still underdeveloped and not that open, we teachers and students focused solely o­n teaching and learning. Then, when the Open Door policy took place, bringing up the economy, our school had more opportunity to further support the academic, athletic, and arts activities while broadening relationship with institutions around the world. The person who set the foundation for our international relationship is my predecessor collegue, former teacher-principal, Teacher Khai. He was very fluent in foreign languages and was able to acquire several scholarships for our students. As I take over his responsibility, our international relationship continue developing. This development is sucessful partly thanks to the accomplishments of our pioneer students who had went studying abroad and helped promote our school's reputation. Whenever I meet up with a foreign school, I always introduce our students and call for their scholarship offers. At this moment I can say that Hanoi-Amsterdam is a name well known by friends around the world. Three years ago, I met the principal of a college in Hiroshima, Japan by chance. He expressed his admiration for our students and our school for all the accomplishments our students had made in various places. I was surprised and moved hearing such thoughts about our schools from a place I had not had any relationship with and from the people whom I knew nothing about. "My view is that we must let our students freely develop their potentials..." 4. Depending o­n each person's situation and personality, each of our principals in the past has left a certain footprint in our school. We would like to know if you have any visions of Ams' upcoming goals and a path for the future soon to come? My view is that we must let our students freely develop their talents. I realize that what our students are doing in school today is just a mind-traning game, a game aimed to train students to acquire maturity. Not all the skills and knowledge that students are learning today will be fully utilized in the future. However, what they need most is the ability to think critically, work independently and cooperatively, and develop creativity to apply in future working conditions. Thus our schools have always made it possible for our students to organize various activities. o­nly Ams has the biggest music nights and talent shows hosted and run completely by students, from hiring singers and performers to setting up the stage and organizing ticket sales. Our school is very supportive of these programs as by taking part in these kinds of activity, our students can develop personal skills in various areas. Of course however, due to the fact that supervision is not always effective, there were a few things in those programs that were not appropriate for students. Thus our school will try to improve this by training the students gradually. Even so the school is still wholeheartedly supportive of the students' activities. And as you can see, graduated Amsers are totally different from those graduating from other schools, and are highly evaluated by our society for their activeness and creativity. Vietnamese students will always remain Vietnamese and direct their heart and soul to the Nation, no matter where they go. In recent years, the numbers of students winning national and international prizes are decreasing, while the number of students studying abroad are increasing significantly. Some have questioned whether Amsers now are o­nly good at foreign languages. What is your opinion o­n this? As for the issues of studying abroad and winning academic prizes, I see it this way: Winning national or international prizes is merely a mark in the very short period of a student's career, but studying abroad to acquire knowledge and working skills from developed countries have long-term effects o­n the student's lifetime careers. The student and his or her family's want to study abroad is legitimate. Our school does not stop, or is able to stop, or has any intention of stopping our students from those long-term goals. Therefore the school tries its best to assist the students with the studying abroad issue, hoping the best future for our students. However, I do not mean that the school does not pay attention to the national and international prizes. The school wishes to have students who acquire prizes and also who study abroad successfully, and we are trying to balance these two. People could also think not in favor of studying abroad for a different reason. o­nce an American gentleman asked me something like this: "How come the number of students who left VietNam tostudy abroad is much higher than that of those who came back?", to which I replied: "Studying abroad has been very common even in developed countries such as England and America.... Thus the fact that Vietnam's economy is still weak and behind that of the world, students who returned to Vietnam immediately would not have all the opportunities to fully utilize their skills and talents. After graduation, students need the opportunities to further develop, test, and apply their skills and knowledge acquired in environments with highly developed technology and strong economies. Nevertheless, with the current growth of Viet Nam's economy, I believe if now there are 10 students leaving Vietnam and 8 having not returned, in few years, there will o­nly be 6, 5, ...Furthermore, the world today is an open world, staying abroad does not mean the students cannot help contribute to the nation. No matter where they go, our students will always remain the people of Vietnam, always heading towards their homeland and thinking of helping their country." THE SCHOOL WANTS THE STUDENTS TO CHANGE THEIR SELFISHNESS 5. Vietnamese students nowadays seem to have trouble with virtue and discipline issues (cheating in school, fighting, racing, attacking teachers...), our Ams though hasn't faced such terrors, but its Executive Board must have had lots of difficulties in dealing with undisciplined students? Of course! Most of our students are good and have much less problems than other schools, but we do have some. There have been cases in which students of other schools had attempted to hurt our students. We had to be especially strict in these cases. Another problem we have with discipline is the uniform issue. We require students to wear uniforms to promote equality among all students, because sometimes dressing style can lead to unnecessary quarrels. As for the virtue of our students, what I am especially concerned about is the students' selfishness. Although very talented but some of our students are so over-cared by their families that they sometimes forget about everyone else. This selfishness is not just shown through how harsh the competitions between students can be; it is also demonstrated through the way students behave: when they draw o­n new equipments such as chairs and tables, excessive gathering at the front gate after school blocking people's way... This is a bad habit that needs to be addressed by the society and curbed. Last time, I called for the school's participation in supporting ParaGames, aiming to teach the students the love and respect they should have for our people, and the will to learn from those who had overcome harsh fates.. 6. This year HAO is organizing a big meeting named HAO-Reunion 2004. Could you please tell us your feelings about HAO? What do you think the school can do o­n its part for HAO? If possible the school will contribute in terms of orienting activities for HAO, giving emotional support, being HAO's legal sponsor, and uniting former students. The school hopes that you the students will have a strong bond, help and support each other in life while thinking of Ams, and assisting the next student generations. Thank you very much for the interview today. We hope to see you again in Jan 2004. See you again. Saying goodbye to us at 5:00 pm that Saturday, principal Dien returned to his desk to continue with his mountainous loads of work. Interview Conducted by Tran Ngoc Diep and Nguyen Minh Trung Translated to English by Tran Anh Dung Edited by Nguyen Quynh My Posted by Nguyen Thu Hien