VietnamNet Bridge – The use of a text that (apparently) was incorrectly attributed to the American president Abraham Lincoln has stirred a tempest in Vietnamese pedagogical circles.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet

In this specific case, the quote was taken from a book published by Tre (Youth) Publishing House. I think this is a reliable source.

I have been told that the Abraham Lincoln Association is not sure that the letter was actually written by Lincoln. And this is a problem. There is a famous poem of Ly Thuong Kiet (a Ly dynasty general [11^th century]) which we have been teaching students for many,many generations. Now it’s said that the poem was not written by Ly Thuong Kiet.

I think it is not important whose are the pieces of work. The more important thing is their contents, the messages they convey.

It is impractical to query cultural agencies or embassies in Vietnam every time we use documents of foreign famous men. Moreover, the Lincoln letter just a document for reference, not for the core curriculum.

Le Quan Tan, Director of the Secondary Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training

Arguing about the authenticity of a document is not a new matter for those who write textbooks. I think that the authors who write literature textbooks are cautious, as a rule, because they have had many lessons before about controversial extractions from works.

Prof Phan Trong Luan, the principal author of the literature textbook

I will explain about the matter, that is, say the letter was extracted from a book published by Tre (Youth) Publishing House. If the letter was really not written by Lincoln, the Tre Publishing House will have to take responsibility for this. Scientific knowledge is not constant, but always moving on. We have to correct and update knowledge if the knowledge is backward and incorrect.

Tre Publishing House:

The stories in ‘Nhung cau chuyen ve nguoi thay’ (Stories About Teachers) should be used for reference, not for important exams, especially the university entrance exam.

Nhung cau chuyen ve nguoi thay was published on the Vietnamese Teachers’ Day as a gift to Vietnamese teawchers. The collector and author of the book is Hoang Thach Quan, Lecturer of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanity, who is now studying in the US for a doctoral degree.

This is a book which aims to encourage people to be good, not a research work which can provide exact scientific information. Further, at the time when the book was released, the Berne Convention had not entered into force in Vietnam, so the stories in the book did not show their origins.

VietNamNet/TP