A Little Education, A Little Shopping

Our travels have mostly kept us too busy to do a lot of home schooling. Sometimes we pull out some math questions or make the kids write in their journals while waiting for lunch or in the evening in our hotel room. Our English writing lessons have not gone terribly well. Makaio insists on writing the least amount possible, and declaring himself finished. He also insists on starting each entry with 'Dear Diarrhea Dude,' but he hasn't mastered how to spell 'diarrhea' or 'dude' yet. Math lessons with Rob have gone better - the kids think math is a puzzle that must be figured out, and enjoy the challenge. The kids have surpassed their DPA (daily physical activity) goals. Most days we walk A LOT, unless we're biking or swimming. Both boys have been interested in drawing things we've seen, including some of the sacred animals of Vietnam: the water dragon which is said to bestow good luck and rain, a unicorn-like animal called ky lan, which is merciful and loyal and is often seen guarding temples and pagodas, the turtle, a symbol of strength and longevity, and the phoenix, a symbol of beauty and nobility. We've seen representations of these animals all over Vietnam in temple art, gates, ceramics and graphic design.  
 
While I am certain the kids are learning all kinds of things in our travels, sometimes our lessons are more explicit. While in Hanoi (last week? the week before?) we took a sweaty walk through thick traffic to the Temple of Literature. This sounds like a place I should make a pilgrimage to, right? 

The Temple of Literature was founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Than Tong, and dedicated to Confucius. It honours Vietnam's scholars and literary accomplishments and was also the site of Vietnam's first university in 1076. I had this idea that this complex would house books, but instead there were stelae (stone tablets) on the back of giant turtles with the names and accomplishments of scholars. There was also a fancy tiered gateway, shady ponds, including one called the 'pond of heavenly clarity', formal gardens and a pavilion. While I imagined Vietnam would have more similarities with neighbouring countries Laos and Thailand, the Chinese influence is visible from the dedication to Confucius, to the style of the buildings and the red tile roofs. This makes sense as Vietnam was ruled by the Chinese from the 2nd to the 10th centuries, and then again in the 15th century.

Bonsai details outside one of the temple buildings

Rob and Makaio were happy to pose in the shade by one of the pools.

A giant bell to the side of the main pavillion

Before heading out to the temple we had a short lesson about Confucius. The kids learned that he was a philosopher in ancient China and that he emphasized personal and governmental morality. He followed many of the common Chinese beliefs in ancestor worship and respecting elders. He was also big on "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." After touring the temple complex we sat in the shade and read out some Confucian quotes, like, 'It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop," and "the man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." These might seem a bit like empty platitudes now, but they were written over two thousand years ago and I could appreciate their universal and on-going appeal. My favourite Confucius quote is, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." This seems to me the heart of Piaget's theory of education, that we learn through doing, rather than being told." (This is the only useful thing I learned in Teacher's College. I kid you not.) 

Shortly after we were done appreciating Confucius, and the kids were onto asking for mango smoothies or ice cream, a small tour group moved into our shade and an English-speaking Vietnamese tour guide started talking about his opinion of Confucius. This was a way more interesting lesson that I had put together. The guide explained that he thought Confucianism was responsible for creating a docile society that followed leaders too blindly, and that was the reason communism had come to power in Vietnam and China. He also added that the Vietnamese were a largely un-religious people, even before Communism. I hadn't thought of this before, but it made sense that we were at a temple to literature and not a deity. The guide also added, 'in school if I ask the teacher a question and the teacher doesn't know the answer,  the teacher will become angry with me and call me a troublemaker." Although this stands in contrast to the quote I liked above about learning through doing, I don't doubt this guide's experience of education. This resulted in a long discussion amongst our family on political systems and how they work. Makaio in particular is fascinated by twentieth century political movements, especially the difference between political ideals and political reality.  

While Vietnam is a one-party Communist state, it has one of the fastest-growing economies and a scarcity of material goods is not a problem here. This leads to the other activity we did in our second stop in Hanoi: shopping.  If this topic bores you as much as it pains Makaio, please skip this paragraph. Although I agree with Makaio that yes, most shoes are a 'want' not a 'need' I did explain to him that in my entire adult life I have only owned two pairs of heels and that both were hand-me-downs from my mother. The first pair I wore to my brother's bar mitzvah and my prom thirty years ago, and the second pair I wore when my friends got married twenty year ago. I tried hard to convince my mother to give me a pair of heels she had recently bought in Singapore, but she found the same store in Vietnam and told me it was time to buy my own heels. So, we made a pilgrimage to the Charles Keith store in Hoan Koan. Since I dragged my entire family of extremely disinterested co-shoppers, there wasn't a lot of time for checking out other stores, or hemming and hawing. However,  Dassa tried on a few pairs of heels too and helped me decide between two pairs. Unfortunately I do not have photos of this.

The problem with shopping, is once you start, it's hard to stop, especially when you discover a street called Silk Road. A few other purchases were made in Hanoi, and not only by me. 

The best place I saw textiles in Hanoi, was the Vietnamese Women's Museum. It has a great display of clothing worn by Vietnamese minority ethnic groups, as well as a display on marriage rites of ethnic groups. I loved both the clothing (indigo! batik!) and the video displays of guests bringing gifts to the bride or groom's family depending on whether the ethnic group was matrilineal or patrilineal. The museum also had tools used for agriculture in a display on women's work, and a section on babies. (The boys were fascinated by pictures of breast feeding moms- boobies!) 

Dassa checked out this women's basket carrier, but wasn't quite tall enough to left the baskets.

Although we skipped most of the floor on revolutionary women, in a small room of the main annex was a display I found particularly moving. Dang Ai Viet, an artist who traveled around Vietnam for 3 years starting in 2010, drew more than a thousand portraits of women who had lost their children, or husbands in the Vietnam War, or as they call it here, the American War. The display had a video showing the artist drawing one of the women, as well as the old motorcycle she used to travel the country. You can read more about her here. As I travel around I don't see much evidence of the war, although the guide book we have routinely warns us about straying off paths for fear of unexploded ordinances. This small display on heroic mothers was a window into a huge part of this country's history that we can't politely ask about.
 
On a cheerier note, there was a massive display of pigs in a room off the museum's courtyard. Yes, pigs. Everything from European piggy banks to Chinese pottery pigs. The museum put on this display in honour of the year of the pig. Apparently the entire collection, over a thousand pieces, belongs to a well-known Vietnamese historian, who also is in the government. Some of his collection is from a friend of his, a Spanish chef, which makes sense to me since Spain is the only other country I've visited that is as obsessed with eating pork. I'll have more to say on that in a future post about eating in central Vietnam. 

Dassa prefers dogs, but he was happy to pose (as always) with this ceramic pig.