Folk games become top teaching tool

      Do Huu Phu, a secondary student at Phan Dinh Giot School, is surfing the internet gathering children’s songs to accompany traditional folk games.
With the new Friendly School, Active Students Programme set up to introduce students to folk games, both teachers and students are encouraged to collect games to play at school.
In recent years, cultural activists and educators have recognised there is an important role for folk games among children.
Folk games are played at festivals and as extracurricular activities, but through the Ministry of Education and Training programme launched last year, they are being introduced to schools.
"Games are integral to children," says Dr Nguyen Van Huy, former director of the Viet Nam Ethnology Museum. "They are more than entertainment, they contain Vietnamese culture.""Folk games are being gradually lost. Children are at a disadvantage, if they don’t have a chance to play them."
Folk games help develop creativity while improving children’s health and attitudes towards friends, family and the country. So bringing them to youngsters is necessary, he says.
Many city-born students, who have little knowledge of folk games, get their fun from football, badminton and online games. Most only know folk games from discussions with their parents. As a result, they may be confused when first introduced to them.
Teachers and students welcome the programme, but say they have difficulties introducing the games.
"Introducing games, as well as the traditional culture, is a great idea," says Truong Thu Thuy, a secondary teacher in Ha Noi. " But we haven’t any curriculum notes so we and the students collect information from different sources."
Selecting games for students is difficult for teachers like Thuy. Finding time is another difficulty, because it can be influenced by the number of classes. Students have five-minute breaks between lessons and a playtime of 20 minutes during their classes, so teachers have to choose games suitable for the time available. They also find some could be unsafe in the school environment. Folk games such as danh du (bamboo swinging) and nem con (throwing a ball through a ring) could be dangerous if not properly supervised.
Let’s play
Phu, who is interested in folk games, and his classmates often play during their breaks.
"Folk games are much more attractive than games online, because I can play and have fun with my friends instead of playing alone," he says.
When students are fond of folk games, parents don’t worry they may be involved with useless or harmful games.
Nguyen Trai Elementary School in the Thanh Xuan District of Ha Noi was among the first to introduce games to students. Students spend an hour a week on games and other public activities.
Thanh Giang, whose son attends the school, no longer worries if she is late picking him up after school. She was concerned about undesirables around the school gates, but now knows her son will be playing where he is safe.
The games are simple, easy to join and play and suitable for different terrain and areas. Small areas can be used for marbles, nhay day (skipping rope), choi chuyen (passing a ball from hand to hand with chopsticks) and da cau (kicking a shuttle cock).
Larger areas are more suitable for hide and seek, rong ran len may (tig follow a leader) and bit mat bat de (blindman’s buff).
Based on educating movement, folk games are divided into four groups.
There are exercise games, which improve health, including hop, blindfolded vault and skipping. Educational games to develop brain power include o an quan (Vietnamese chess) and ban bi (marble ball mini-billiard).
Games where children make toys from natural materials develop their creative and aesthetic senses. These include making pin wheels and grasshoppers from coconut leaves and buffalo from banyan leaves.
Imitation games involve children copying adult activities such as buying and selling goods, building houses and cooking.
Most folk games are accompanied by songs, which are passed down orally among children. Each game has an individual song to illustrate the action. They are easy to remember with funny accompanying melodies to make the games more lively and fun.
Many schools in Da Nang and in the southern province of Phu Yen have introduced games to classes. Teachers from October 20 Kindergarten in Da Nang have collected nearly 100 songs to use with games. They will be introduced during the coming school year, says principal Huynh Thi Tho.
Teachers at Nguyen Cong Sau School (Quang Nam Province) have a curriculum of folk games with lively pictures. The syllabus outlines the clear purpose of each game along with instructions, rules and a game’s meaning.
Separate areas have been designated within the school grounds for games.
Students, who face a heavy burden learning, now find schools are more friendly where they have games, and so look forward to going to school.
Teachers and students expect the programme will be widely followed and say administrators should support schools with instructional material to ensure all students are introduced to folk games.
When that happens, they say the cheerful sounds of folk songs and games will be familiar at all schools.