De la Cruz-Busto: About school

I HAVE several reasons to complain about things at my son's school here in Manila, which is located in a Makati village. I have been telling my husband about my sentiments over and over but he seems unaffected or unsympathetic, probably maybe because he sometimes could not relate as mothers are usually the ones easily affected. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the piece written by former senatorial aspirant Adel Tamano about schools stressing-out their students.

One of the things that I do not like about my son's school is the way the school staff and faculty treat their principal as if he was a living saint. Oh well, he may be a priest but certainly, he is not a saint in the lines of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. But the school would usually celebrate the principal's birthday as if they were celebrating a patron saint's feast day. I should know because I also came from a Catholic school back in grade school.

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I have nothing against their principal because I could see the children love him and he seems to be fond of them too. What I could not understand though is the treatment that school officials are giving him. During his birthdays, the school atmosphere becomes very festive complete with buntings, posters, and streamers hanging all over the school. And I thought priests or those in the same vocation had a vow to live an austere and simple life. It seems an irony then that the school does not observe this when celebrating his birthday.

A few days before the principal's birthday, it was like my son's homework, artwork and other school activities revolve around the former. They would make cards and letters for their principal and you could just imagine imposing that on more than a thousand grade school students. I do not know about high school students if they are also asked to do the same thing.

I believe that this "thoughtfulness" should be voluntary, not compulsory that it has become some sort of a competition among the children because the one who makes and writes the best, gets to have their works displayed on the school bulletin boards. And this was all just supposed to be about greeting their principal-priest on his birthday. Are parents paying almost 80 grand in tuition for this?

Another thing I do not like about my son's school is the number of assignments and home works given the students, which was also the main sentiment and concern of Tamano in his national broadsheet column. I realized I, along with most mothers or parents in general, share the same sentiment with Tamano regarding the assignment overload most schools are giving their students.

I remember writing a note in my son's diary asking his teacher if the load they are giving the students was normal considering these assignments would average from five to ten in a day. I was being realistic when I also wrote that the students do not normally do the assignments by themselves but with the help of their parents. So I surmised that not only are the children stressed but the parents as well. As Tamano wrote in his column, the amount of scholastic work for pre-school and grade school have reached the point of becoming unreasonable.

In my case, I have a 24/7 job that requires me to be on call anytime when situations arise such as natural calamities like typhoon Ondoy, national elections, and other such incident that involves national crisis, interest, safety, or security. Despite this, after coming home from work, I sit down with my son to do his homework which, as I have earlier written, averages to five on ordinary days.

But doing these almost everyday is really nerve-wracking even if I am, on ordinary days, confined to doing paperwork. Sometimes, doing assignments with my son result to fighting as my son wants to take his time doing it while I want to get them done fast so both of us can relax. That again, adds up as another stress point on both our parts.

This is the reason why I recently hired a tutor for my son because I would not want both of us to keep on arguing about school work. I realized that I am not alone in making such move. In fact, a former colleague has posted in her Facebook account that more and more grade school students are availing tutorial services. This only means one thing: school work overload.

As a working mother, all I can do is try to balance my son's activity. After all a child's life should not be just about school work. I do not aspire for my son to solely focus on his studies and become number one in class. If he excels academically, then thank you. But if he does not, fine. School after all is not just about medals, it is about learning about life in general, and this can be achieved only if they are able to balance everything and be the children that they still are.