A television program was held right at The Dewey Schools Theater, featuring activities such as fashion shows, debates, essays, film screenings, artistic performances, and dramas. While initially perceived as entertainment, it turned out to be a Vietnamese Literature report session for Grade 9, titled “Language and Thinking.”
After six months of research, preparation, ideation, and production, Grade 9 TDSers hosted a brilliantly successful project presentation, evoking various emotions among teachers and the audience. With the theme “Expressing thoughts on life’s paradigms,” students sequentially presented on crucial issues such as human and environmental interaction, death and beauty, and the divine.
Not stopping at a normal report session, the Dewey Theater suddenly transformed into a colorful exhibition featuring various products such as magazines, essays, posters, drawings, bookmarks, and themed publications. The Vietnamese Literature subject became even more intriguing and captivating as TDSers incorporated knowledge from other disciplines such as Performing Arts, Visual Arts, and History into their project works. The performances, films, plays, and songs showcased in the program all aimed to convey the students’ thoughts and ideas.
In addition, the essay presentations by students Minh Anh (9Dublin) – “Beauty and Liberation” and Thanh Mai (9Copenhagen) – “Why are Humans Fear God?” also received praise from the panel of judges. When asked “whether using “Beauty” for healing is only reserved for philosophical figures like Tagore, what about ordinary people like us?” Minh Anh (9Dublin) responded, “Even Tagore, whether as a writer or a poet, had to utilize the beauty of everyday life to satirize and criticize the society outside, alongside expressing his own longing for a society with complete freedom. So, there’s no reason why we – ordinary people – couldn’t use that simple beauty for healing. Regardless of who you are, or what you are like, each of us deserves to use beauty for healing.”
This is an opportunity for Students to have profound moments of contemplation on five essential issues in life, providing TDSers with a space to pause, reflect, and ask themselves, “Who am I?” and “What do I want?” These are pivotal steps in the maturation process of students.
Ms. Nguyen Van Anh – Specialist of the Social Sciences Department, shared, “Students have matured and become much more confident than in previous years, especially in developing soft skills and knowing how to convey meaningful messages to the audience. Through this project, they have also enhanced important skills such as information gathering, research, analysis, synthesis, … crucial for high school and university levels.”
