by Telly G. Ocampo
School was fun with play when we were young!
When I was 5 and 1/2 years old, I was already in grade 1. That
was in school year (SY) 1951-1952. At that time, the start of
classes was in the month of June. I remember so well that it
didn’t take us, the pupils, a long time to learn our alphabet.
Since I was born immediately after the war, there was no
abundance of school materials in the stores. Amidst this
situation, we still learned our alphabet quickly and joyously.
My mother was a teacher and I saw her making sure that the
black and white alphabet was always mounted on the wall in
front of us, just a little above the upper rim of the blackboard. Its
location made it comfortable for us to read and read and read
and finally, to know by heart all the letters from the alphabet.
I was also sure that it was the teacher’s ingenuity and creativity
that caught the pupils’ attention and imagination. Even if it was
only during the Christmas season that we could have a full bite
of the apple, yet, we always believed in our teacher as he/she
would let us repeat after him/her: “Capital letter A and small
letter A – the first letter in the alphabet. ‘A’ stands for apple.
Everyone, please say APPLE.”
Kinalamian gyud ang apple sa among linghod nga mga
panghunahuna niadtong panahona. There was no picture to
represent the word APPLE. So, the teacher would draw the fruit
on a sturdy sheet of paper and would color it maroon or red.
And we had our crayons always ready. We had our
imaginations craving for the scent and taste of apples.
“B is for boat. Everybody, please say, B – boat.” All of us
followed what the teacher said. Then we made our paper boats
with our double-lined sheets of paper. Each of us used a big,
black pencil called “Eboy” which indicated that the user was
enrolled in Grade 1.
Teaching, then, was integrative. We had each letter of the
alphabet associated to an image and its color allowing and
aiding pupils to gradually use their sensory and motor skills.
“C is for chair,” our teacher said. The picture of a chair that
immediately registered in our minds was one made of wood.
We never imagined plastic chairs. We never had one before.
We also had another way of producing our representation of
the chair; it was done through the arateles seeds. We were
asked to gather arateles seeds and with those seeds formed a
picture of a chair. We learned while we had fun.
“D is for a dog,” our teacher continued. It was easy
recognizing a dog because we had plenty of this roaming on
the streets. Dogs had the liberty to go around and everywhere
since they were not bothered by trucks passing by. There were
only few trucks plying the road. Dili gyud kuyaw molabang ug
molatas sa pikas kalsada sa among kapanahonan. We
depended more on bicycles. We depended most on our feet.
My mother was assigned as a teacher in barrio Guiwanon of
Baclayon. We usually walked going home in the afternoon. My
mother’s co-teacher carried me on his back as we went home
every afternoon. But in the morning, because we had to hurry
to school, we took a bus under the Bohol Land Transportation,
Co. This company was owned by an American surnamed
Oghan (I am not sure of the spelling but it sounds like it).
That’s why there was a song that ran like this: Trak ni Oghan,
kusog modagan. Pilay plete? Tulo baynte. Ida-bwelta tulo
kwarenta. Trak ni Oghan kusog modagan.
When we were done with the alphabet during our primary days,
we started writing the letters. Before the school year would end,
we already knew how to write our names. This was in
preparation for our promotion into the second grade. On our
third grade, we were already initiated into the long hand writing
style. The letters in the alphabet were still mounted on the
blackboard. Little by little, colored images were found above
each letter in the alphabet. And we enjoyed reading the
alphabet and singing songs to memorize the letters and we had
fun and we learned a lot.
But what is this fuss I am hearing all over? “Visual aids are to
be removed from the classrooms per memorandum from
the Secretary.” Whattttttttt?
