In the joyful atmosphere of the “All people take children to school” festival, on September 5, Buddhist kindergartens across the country also began to welcome children to school. In the 2024-2025 school year, the number of children coming to Buddhist kindergartens has increased, which is a joy and also a great effort of the founding monks, nuns, and Buddhists who are operating the system. In the cool, peaceful green space of Lam Ty Ni Kindergarten, even though it was nearly 6 p.m., the voices of children laughing and playing still echoed, as they asked their parents to let them stay at school to play after school. This colorful school, located at 23-25 Truong Gia Mo Street, Vy Da Ward, Hue City, was formed from the enthusiasm of monks, nuns, and Buddhists who care about education in Thua Thien Hue. In the 2023-2024 school year, the school opened its first school year, enrolling 126 students. By the end of the school year, the number of parents enrolling their children increased to nearly 200, and the number of parents registering to wait for their children to study at the school is increasing. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, the school welcomed 220 children.
Please stay at school to play after school
The Lumbini school yard is arranged with many small spaces, play areas, so that parents can play with their children. While waiting for his children to play with friends after school, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Vinh (born in 1988, working in real estate) shared that he has 2 children, Nguyen Nha Khanh (22 months old) and Nguyen Nha Thanh (4.5 years old), studying at the school. Every day when he comes to pick them up, the children almost refuse to go home, having to stay and play for nearly an hour. When they come home, they always hum the songs the teacher teaches, then talk about the teacher and stories at school.
The topic ‘Buddhism and preschool education’ was carried out by Giac Ngo with the desire to convey practical stories, warm with love and full of passion of monks who open preschools, making practical contributions to society. Along with the joy, there are also many worries and expectations…
Before sending his children to school, Mr. Vinh went to the school to learn about it for 2 sessions and really liked the facilities with lots of space for the children to do activities, the gentle and positive educational orientation. So he decided to send both children to school. Mr. Vinh shared that on the first day of school, Nha Khanh cried because she was unfamiliar with the teacher, but in the following days, the children sat and played very naturally. Because the teacher was attentive and friendly, the children got used to it quickly. As for Nha Thanh, who studied at an outside school before coming to Lam Ty Ni, her child has improved a lot, communicating boldly, confidently with everyone, and naturally expressing herself in her favorite activities. “Currently, I am quite satisfied with the environment and the way of education here, because it is suitable and my child quite loves the school. My child is developing happily and happily for his age, has many experiences, skills, knows how to behave with people, which is good for his childhood,” Mr. Vinh expressed.
“When the school opened, I sent my two children to school immediately,” said Nguyen Tri (born in 1990), whose children Bao An (4 years old) and Bao Khang (2 years old) are studying at the school. He said that since 2015, when the school started construction, he has been interested. As a Buddhist, he wanted his children to study in a Buddhist school. When his children started going to school, the school was not yet finished, so he sent his children to another school outside. Nguyen Tri added that his eldest child was slow to speak, so taking intervention classes did not improve his speech. Since studying at the school, his children have felt love and safety, opened their hearts to explore, and connected with friends and teachers. They come home happy, want to talk to people, and speak better.
Parental happiness
Like many other parents whose children study at Buddhist kindergartens, Ms. Nhu Hoa (40 years old), currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Tourism at Hue University, has researched quite thoroughly and spent time visiting the actual teaching sessions and educational methods at the school. “I was happy as soon as I came to the school to experience. The facilities are very good, the space is spacious, every design detail in the school is thinking about the sustainable development direction for children and especially my child has been a vegetarian since childhood, so being able to study at Lumbini is the happiness of the whole family,” Ms. Nhu Hoa said.
Observing her child in the role of a mother and working in the field of education, Ms. Nhu Hoa shared that the activities at the school aim to build sustainable development of the child’s body and mind – that is a huge plus. The teacher often participates in a retreat to nurture herself – that is the second plus, because when the teacher is happy, she will educate the child well.
“The philosophies of education, philosophy of love, philosophy of building a school are wonderful. I am currently very satisfied and happy that my child is studying here. I really look forward to and hope that the Buddhist Church will open more primary, secondary and high schools. It is a pity to leave school at the age of 6 because I am studying in such a wonderful environment,” Ms. Nhu Hoa expressed.
A safe environment for children
Venerable Thich Nu Thuan Dinh, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Lam Ty Ni Kindergarten, said that the school currently has 15 classrooms, accepting children from 12 months to 5 years old, with over 40 teachers and staff, including 8 nuns who are teachers, all with a college degree in preschool education or higher. Teachers and administrators of the school always have training courses to learn new things and improve their knowledge. Teachers go to practice and practice mindfulness every month to water the seeds of listening, patience, and loving speech.
In addition to the regulations of the Ministry of Education, the curriculum also incorporates and is inspired by the Reggio Emilia method and applies mindfulness in teaching, creating open opportunities for children to learn, explore, and develop their abilities naturally from natural materials.
The children’s day at school begins with circle activities, mindfulness practice, sharing thoughts and connecting emotions at the beginning of the day. In addition to the main classroom, during the day the children will move to the library (with books made not only of paper but also of fabric), the multi-purpose room (for yoga, martial arts, meditation or watching movies, for children to run and release their energy), the art studio (with more than a thousand natural open materials for children to develop their creative thinking ability into products). The school has open spaces for children to play in the sand yard, with soft soil, play outdoors, play in the sun, in the wind, with water to touch and develop all the senses. Children will learn through projects combined with experiences.
Not only taking care of the body such as what to eat every day, whether it is nutritious and healthy, the school also chooses “food” to nourish the spirit and soul such as music, poetry related to education and personality development for the children.
Usually at the beginning of class, the children will talk to the teacher about their interests and hobbies about a topic and create their own projects.
Nun Thuan Dinh said that the teachers will build a project with the children for a week, two weeks, or even a month to learn about the surrounding things about a topic that the children love. The teacher is the one who observes, learns, listens, records the children’s thoughts, and best supports them in learning what they like. And at the project summary, the children will talk about what they have learned, known, and seen, maybe singing, drawing, or telling stories. Depending on the children’s projects, there will be different extracurricular activities. The children feel that the school is like their home, so they open their hearts to play freely, express themselves, like going to school, and like staying at school to play after school.
“The environment is the third teacher so that children can develop in their own ways, no two children are alike. So, the teacher’s job is just to create an environment for children to develop as they are, they will be very happy and develop on their own. Every child who comes here is observed and listened to by the teachers about their body, mind, and spirit. That’s why, although the school can accept more students, it will only stop at 200 students so that we can create an environment to develop the children’s mind, body, and spirit,” Sister Thuan Dinh shared.
The original Lam Ty Ni Kindergarten was located in the grounds of Dieu De Pagoda. In May 2009, the Provincial People’s Committee approved the project to build the school on an area of nearly 3,000m2 at 23-25 Truong Gia Mo, Hue City.
In 2015, when assigned to be the Head of the Hue Buddhist Social Charity Committee, the Venerables in the Provincial Buddhist Executive Committee trusted and entrusted the school to Venerable Thich Nu Nhu Minh to mobilize for construction. At that time, starting from nothing, but with a passion for education, continuing the wishes of the previous Venerable Nuns, the Venerable Nun, together with the Board of Directors, mobilized Buddhists to support, and started construction until the epidemic year, then temporarily stopped due to lack of funds.
In early 2023, the school was informed that if the school was not completed and put into use, the Provincial People’s Committee would take back the land; Under that pressure, Venerable Thich Hai An, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Permanent Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lam Ty Ni Kindergarten – Venerable Thich Nu Nhu Minh had to borrow money, mobilize monks, nuns, and Buddhists at all costs to put the school into operation. Up to now, the school has been completed with a total cost of more than 30 billion (the school still owes 12 billion).
In September 2023, the school opened its first school year 2023-2024. Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Venerable Chairman of the Board of Directors said that the school always takes the motto “love, understanding and sharing” as the guiding principle for all activities.
“I think the path of education is very necessary, children should be taught lessons of love from a young age, because if they are not taught from a young age, they will be very violent. Therefore, only education can make a difference and make them open their hearts, become happy people to build a peaceful world”, Venerable Thich Nu Nhu Minh shared her passion for education.
Address: 23 – 25 Truong Gia Mo, Vy Da Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue
Hotline: 0355100369 (Zalo)
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