VietNamNet Bridge – Educators and parents are blaming each other for allowing students to sing a love song targeted to adults, with some saying it is a “deviation from cultural values”.

A two-minute video clip has been posted on Internet showing the image of thousands of students at primary schools singing “chac ai do se ve” (Someone will Return) at a school’s official event.

The song, a hit of Son Tung, is very popular among youth. The “love song for adults” was sung by primary school students, children aged 6-11.

Phi Thi Thanh Huong, deputy headmaster of Dong Thai Primary School in Tay Ho district in Hanoi, confirmed that the images were taken at a music performance at the school last week.

Huong said that when she received her former students who returned to greet her on the occasion of Women’s Day on March 8, she asked the students to sing songs to warm up the atmosphere.

Huong and the teachers of the school were surprised that thousands of students sang the song with the older students.

Huong said she knew that the words of the song were “absolutely not suitable to primary school students,” but she was unaware that the children knew the song and could sing it.

Vietnamese children listen to songs every day. In many cases, they cannot understand the meaning of the words, but they still can sing the songs.

A debate on education forums criticized educators for “unreasonable education methods”.

Meanwhile, educators believe that parents and family members also have responsibility, emphasizing that both school and family play decisive roles in forming children’s characteristics.

“Parents should act as the filter which prevent bad things from their children,” a teacher at a high school in Hanoi said. “Parents must not rely on schools.”

Dr. Huynh Van Son, deputy chair of the Vietnam Social Psychology Association, noted that it is understandable why small children know the song by heart.

“Children bear the biggest influences from media, technology and outside factors,” he said. “Their brothers, sisters, parents and people around them all can accidentally be the sources from which they learn things about life.”

Parents tend to blame teachers on students’ unreasonable behaviors.

A parent in HCM City several days ago sent a letter to Nguoi Lao Dong’s editorial board, complaining that a physical-exercise teacher at the Hung Long Secondary School in Binh Chanh District of HCM City beat his daughter’s foot, causing it to become black and blue, because she had forgotten to tie her shoelaces during the lesson.

Meanwhile, teachers say parents need to be vigilant about their children’s activities and protect them from negative societal influences.

VTC