On the family gathering day of September 2, just after dawn, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Chieu, 85 years old, called his wife, `Grandma, wake up.`
At 6 a.m., the sound of clinking knives and chopping boards and the sound of busy footsteps.
In the 1970s, all the children were hungry and their faces were as green as leaves.
So the 5 boys and 5 girls (born from 1956 to 1976) were all `discouraged` by their father who was a physical education teacher and their mother who was a farmer to go to school.
`Dad pampered mom very much because in the past she was so miserable. During the days when dad teached school, mom stayed home to take care of 10 children, pulled plows instead of buffaloes to earn rice, so her health deteriorated quickly,` said Ms. Hang, the 7th child of
One day, Mr. Chieu’s principal came from afar to visit.
The children sent the 9th boy to the neighbor to borrow salt to dip the boiled pumpkin.
To have money for his children to study, Mr. Chieu `works as a teacher, as a worker, goes to the market, and works as a farmer.`
`Being a low-paid teacher and being a physical education teacher is not respected, but I still try to follow, because it is the only opportunity to interact with people with progressive ideas,` Mr. Chieu said.
After many years of having to borrow money, Mr. Chieu’s family had debt everywhere.
Knowing that their father had high self-esteem and had to suffer because of his children, his children were even more determined to change their lives.
`People came to collect debt, my sisters and I still hung our hammocks on the branches of a sapodilla tree to study. They shouted too loudly, so we went into our rooms and closed the doors to study. In the middle of the night, the two oil lamps ran out, we said.
At night, Mr. Chieu and his wife do not remind their children to study, on the contrary, they often have to ask them to go to bed early.
Ten children passed university entrance exams, 7 of them chose pedagogy.
Around the late 1990s, Mr. Chieu’s children went to work and gradually paid off all their debts.
Mr. Chieu has never had to use a whip.
If including the in-laws and grandchildren, Mr. Chieu’s family currently has an associate professor, 5 doctors and 20 masters.
Mr. Ngo Thanh Thuy, Chairman of the Van Ly commune’s study promotion association, said: `Mr. Chieu’s family is the most famous family in Ly Nhan district for being eager to learn. From early childhood until now, he has always been a missionary.
Mr. Chieu and his wife currently live with their 9th son. All of their children are successful, but they do not rest.
`When we entered the world, we also faced many challenges, but we learned from our parents the word ‘patience’, perseverance, resilience. We were never jealous of each other, because of our long lives.
This year’s September 2 ceremony, after lunch, the 10 children gathered to `chat` under the canopy of a 60-year-old sapodilla tree – where in the past they used to hang hammocks to read books, hiding from debt collectors.