By: Telly Gonzaga-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?
