"Never Forget the Sacrifice": A Visit to Chu Van An High School in Hanoi, Vietnam

ur Social Studies Education Delegation to Vietnam, a group of American educators sponsored by the Citizen Ambassador Program of People to People International, was well received the afternoon that we visited Chu Van An High School, located in the Ba Dinh District of Hanoi. We were greeted hospitably by Pham Dinh Dau, the principal of the school, serenaded with American and Vietnamese songs by the students, and given tours of the school by the students and teachers. Women students, decked out in their best ao dais, presented each of us with a bouquet of flowers. Our first visit to a Vietnamese school could hardly have been a more pleasant occasion. Chu Van An had, of course, been well chosen for a school visit by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, where that morning we had engaged in our first academic exchange. Founded by the French in 1907 as the first high school in Indochina, Chu Van An developed an impressive academic reputation over the years. The school history proudly proclaims that “the school has produced the best student groups from amongst the 53 high schools in the city. . . . Since 1982–1983 until now, the school has been the absolute leader in competition for the whole city” (Chu Van An, 80 Nam: Truyen Thong Ve Vang, 1988, 12 [hereinafter, Chu Van An, 80 Nam]). Today, Chu Van An has a faculty of 135 teachers for some 2,400 students in grades 9–12 who take courses across eleven different subject areas. Indeed, Chu Van An’s students have gone on to great heights. Her most famous student, Pham Van Dong, the compatriot of Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap, eventually became the premier of Vietnam. Displayed in a small room off the reception area on the first floor of the main building of the campus, the awards and honors bestowed upon Chu Van An served as testaments to her academic reputation. Emblazoned with strong gold letters on a bloodred background and fringed with gold trim, the banners and pennants that mark the academic achievement of the school and her students cover the walls of the small room. One such award reads simply, “Students Who Won the International Prize” and lists the nine students who have won the International Prize. Another award from the Ha Noi Education Service read as follows: “First Prize among Comradesin-Arms, Best Students, Literature.” “Since 1961–1962 [the year starting student competition in the north],” reads the school history, “Chu Van An students have obtained more than 50 awards in math, physics, Russian literature, and technology” (Chu Van An, 80 Nam 1988, 12). The number and the variety of shapes, and the red and gold of the banners and pennants focused our attention on the honors and awards of Chu Van An School at the expense of the faded and austere photographs that loomed in the background. At first glance, these photographs appeared somewhat incongruous in such a setting, and we had to look more closely to read the simple captions. One photograph showed students in a sort of formation in a courtyard, standing in front of several thatched huts in a rural setting. The contrast between such structures and the present campus of the school was draO