Thursday, June 05, 2008 So: Give back to UP High By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
SHORTAGE of classrooms in public schools is a complaint I hear every year from education officials. There’s always a dearth of something in the public educational system—teachers, facilities, quality students, alumni willing to help raise funds for their alma mater.
A product of the public educational system, I didn’t think of cramp classrooms or the gazebos as an indication of classroom shortage. What my classmates and I were more worried about was finding a chair with an arm rest.
Looking back at my high school days at UP on Gorordo Ave., Cebu City, I see some discrimination of room accommodation against freshmen. The freshmen got the gazebos, gecko lizards and goats while the sophomores, juniors and seniors were educated in classrooms. Upgrades come with seniority, I suppose.
I don’t mean to be nostalgic but I promise to help spread the word that the University of the Philippines Cebu High School Alumni Association Inc. will celebrate the UP Centennial Year with a grand alumni reunion on July 12-19.
A state-run school like UP High has logistical and budgetary problems that date back to the batches whose members now run sub-sectors of government and some socio-economic enterprises that influence the country’s direction.
The school is blessed with alumni that give back to the institution that had provided them with free education for four years. If the alumni are generous to their alma mater, they have their teachers to thank for it. They have been molded to become conscientious citizens what with all those homeroom hours and Bulfinch Mythology readings.
This is to say that all the UP High alumni out there ought to help keep the school going. Let’s be part of the grand reunion, if not actively, at least financially. It’s not so much for the event itself than for its purpose: to help poor students get free but good education.
There was a time when a number of the enrollees at UP High spent their summer and semestral breaks abroad and spoke English with the accent of the affluent. It was known as a public school for the rich. But it was the school where the rich kids learned not to act like one. The teachers at UP High broke down economic barriers and treated each student fairly.
So if you feel attributed here, listen to your conscience. Help your alma mater. A P2,000-dinner is peanuts (I don’t know what the menu will be but I’m sure it’s not going to be just peanuts). If you are a tightwad, you can solicit for the souvenir program and be spared from paying P2,000.
Cash sponsorships range from P1,000 to P10,000. We will not stop you if you want to give more than P10,000. The more you give, the more praises you will hear from your teachers even if they remember you as the one who vandalized the walls in the CR. You can even donate a lab room, a gazebo or a new CR.
So, Miss Sophie Alino-Logarta, this is my way of making up for my absence at the presscon you invited me to. I wrote about it. Yes, I will contribute and yes, I will be at the reunion. No, I didn’t spend my summer and semestral breaks abroad and no, I didn’t vandalize the CR.
