What his family didn't count on, and didn't support, was after graduating high school he began studying to become a pre-school teacher.

“My parents once advised me to register for the pedagogy college in HCM City, but they were astonished to learn that I had chosen to join the early childhood sector,” Binh told Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper.

Binh understood that social norms and traditions had created a stigma for male pre-school teachers. Taking care of children was a job people would see as something that men shouldn’t and couldn’t do.

However, Binh decided to follow his passion and prepared himself to join a female-dominated environment at college. He was among two male students of the college.

After graduating, he applied for a job at Pre-school No1 in the city. The school needed a teacher to take care of a class of two and three-year-old children – the smallest kids in the pre-school.
The first week was a disaster as Binh felt overwhelmed by the job and told a colleague that he would quit.

In the second week, the screams of children calling him ‘Teacher Binh!’ and their bright faces running to him and looking for a hug changed his mind.

Binh said caring for children at the age of two and three was much harder than older kids as most didn’t know how to go to the toilet properly or feed themselves.

After 14 years of working as the only male pre-school teacher at the school, Binh has realised that winning children’s hearts was difficult, but winning trust from parents was much more challenging.

Ngo Thi Lan, mother of a two-year-old kid, said she doubted Bình’s ability and felt worried when leaving her kid with him.

“He was quite young and had no experience,” Lan said, “I thought it was weird that a man took care of children as they are usually clumsy in this job.”

Lan kept close watch on her child during the first weeks at school.

“I was surprised as he kept talking about teacher Bình. He was even more eager to go to school,” she said.

When Binh was assigned to take care of children aged five, he thought it was time to find a more interesting way to teach children.

“Teaching pre-school kids is not only about teaching them singing and dancing. Getting them to be involved in the lesson, attentive and remember it is quite difficult. A teacher needs to be creative to stimulate the children’s interest,” he said.

Binh recalled a lesson on hot air balloons. Instead of using pictures and lecturing, Binh instructed children to make hot air balloons to learn about them.

Binh also created games for children to help them improve their movement capability.

“I’m happy with my job. My happiness is very simple – that I can go to class to see my students every day,” Binh said.

Huynh Thi Tuong Anh, principal of Preschool No1, said Bình was a creative and dedicated teacher.

To the surprise of many teachers, he won first prize of outstanding pre-school teachers at the city-level award, she said.

Luong Thi Hong Diep, head of the city’s Department of Education and Training, said Binh was among five male pre-school teachers in the city.

He has worked hard to gain trust from parents and proved himself a creative and dedicated teacher, she said.

Binh was also recognised with the Vo Truong Toan Award, which honours outstanding teachers from all schools in the city, who have innovative teaching methods and made great contributions to the education sector.

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