Big Little Schools
Published on: 17th May, 2010
These new-generation pre-schools are preparing our children to face an ever-changing world with new tools and new approaches
By MILLIE L KILAYKO
Once upon a time, it was a mother’s major accomplishment to have her little child memorize the ABC song before entering Grade 1. Mothers of the baby boomer generation took pride in having their kids sing the ABC song first before the papas, then the lolas, all the way to the titos and titas. Then, Kinder and Prep School came, and children truly became better prepared for higher learning. A few years later, Pre-Nursery and Nursery schools which specialized in early child development emerged. Toddlers were thrust into these special schools and in fact, some mothers no longer became their children’s first teachers.
As modern researches began to prove that children acquire values and mold skills faster during the pre-big school age, the importance of early education in a child’s life has become more prominent. Modern parents have become more discriminating about their choice of schools, and began to devote more time (and money) to the selection of their child’s little school. Lifestyles Bacolod looks into three of these little schools in the city. The three schools are ran by young parents themselves (two by mothers and one by a couple) whose own children are also their students.
Lamblight Catholic School
Marc Lopez and his wife Margot (Varela), parents of six children, put it simply.
“Our children are the primary reasons why we put up the school,” Margot said, to which Marc added a Biblical quote, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). With that he summed up the school’s educational philosophy. Their school, which accepts children as young as 1 ½ years old, is a progressive elementary school, has now reached the Primary Grade levels, but started as a pre-school in Villa Valderrama Subdivision.
The school places the child’s spiritual formation on equal (or even higher) plane with other aspects of the child’s learning. Marc and Margot believe that early childhood education should nurture the child’s personal relationship with God, teach the child how to positively relate with others and with himself, and instill in the child a passion for learning.
“Equipped with the conviction that he is loved by God,” Marc stresses, “the child is able to relate well with others and with himself, and with a passion for learning, we believe that the child will be in a best position to lead others in serving God and country.”
Lamblight applies Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence, designing their curriculum with consideration of the child’s personal strengths to help him learn at his utmost. As Margot puts it, “At Lamblight, we place special emphasis on nurturing the child’s personal intelligences – his being “people smart” and “self smart.” The school integrates the Montessori approach into their curriculum. Each day, their students enter a “prepared environment” which is scientifically designed to build the child’s academic foundation while meeting his developmental needs. Children are provided with specially constructed materials that teach him essential skills such as focusing his attention, coordination and the determination to complete what he starts.
Teachers, in fact, are encouraged to discover their students’ strengths beyond their capability to memorize poems or to add and subtract. When a child’s gift of caring is observed by a teacher, or his capability to spot treasures in the garden which others cannot is uncovered, the teacher helps the child enhance these skills in a personal way.
Lamblight holds a Prayer Bridge session every Friday, during which students and teachers pray for others and pray over one another. Prayer, for a Lamblight child, is not a few sentences memorized. It is conversation with God from his heart.
Lulu Cano Sarrosa, who says she is in her best element when with kids, was a pre-school teacher for a Manila school for five years. She also taught the children’s full basic course program at the John Robert Powers Institute. She moved back to Bacolod when she married her husband GJ and, motivated by sharing what she has learned and driven by the objective of giving Negrenses options in early childhood education, she opened the School for Creative Beginners in 1993.
School for Creative Beginners
For Lulu, basic foundation to which she her and professional staff subscribe is the recognition of each child as unique and special.
“No two children have the same handprints, they learn differently and at varying speeds. Thus we are dedicated to provide a curriculum that revolves around a rich and fun learning environment that identifies the children’s strengths and directs them to reach their fullest potential – physically, emotionally, socially, morally and intellectually.”
“In our school we strive to teach our children to love learning, “ emphasis Lulu when asked about the best life’s values that her school can give the kids. “Learning is for life, and it doesn’t end. We create a happy environment where the child can enjoy the process of learning so that he may not tire of seeking more new knowledge in and out of school.”
Based, too, on the Multiple Intelligences Theory of Howard Gardner, Lulu, together with her teaching staff, present their lessons to integrate all the intelligences.
They make sure the child feels good about himself knowing that he is greatly encouraged and appreciated to become any of the following: reading smart, math smart, art smart, music smart, body smart, people smart, self smart, or environment smart.
“When our students are in school, the children are treated equally. No one is better than the other. It is when they go to the big school that they shine in their own developed intelligence. Some excel in academics and some excel in visual arts, performing arts and public speaking. We even have graduates who excel in both. Our challenge is to look into the most dominant intelligence of the child and as teachers, create opportunities where the strength can be fostered in other skills or subjects.”
She also strives to make the environment (within the school and through the school’s monitored experiences such as field trips) give the children the set of skills that make it possible for them to solve problems in life. After all, “education is acquired not only by listening to words and memorizing, but by the child’s exploration and discovery of his environment.”
When her little students “graduate” from her school to the big school, Lulu makes sure that they are equipped in their minds with confidence in what they can achieve, and in their hearts with a love and holy fear of God who is all-loving and all-merciful.
A Child’s Place
Like the Lopez couple, Trish Jacinto Golez, her child also was a primary reason for setting up her school. Nikki, her 
eldest, “sat in” in a Nursery Class in a Bacolod school when they were home for a vacation from the USA (where her Dad Francis was taking his MBA at the University of Cincinnati) when she was two years old. She lasted only a day because she found school too “restrictive.”
“Mom, you told me school was fun. I can’t even play or talk when I want to. Why do I have to raise my hand to talk?” Nikki, who eventually became a Palanca Awardee for Short Story Writing before she finished High School, of course was used to the fun, approach that the children in the USA were exposed to at that time.
Trish volunteered as a teaching aid at Nikki’s campus. There the school took notice of her and eventually offered her a scholarship. After 18 months, Trish got her Master’s Degree in Early Education with straight A’s, while bearing and giving birth to her second child.
Coming home year later (17 years ago), and armed with her firm resolve (developed while she was working towards the completion of her M.Ed), Trish came home and A Child’s Place was born.
“The business side of the preschool was never in my main agenda. My main concern was, is, and always will be the positive impact I can make in the lives of children who through my preschool program,” said Trish, adding that “I wanted my students to enjoy their preschool experience, not to take tests and feel stressed at age 3.”
The schools 3-year program (Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Kinder levels) only has one goal: to develop children’s self-esteem. “With a healthy self-esteem, there can be no boundaries to living and learning. Setting children up for success is basic in the school curriculum, but critical thinking is emphasized, thus role learning and memorization are not part of the program.” Trish believes that when children are equipped with a positive sense of self, academic knowledge will naturally come. A critical thinker with an inquisitive mind will seek knowledge on his own and will have that sense of wonder in him which nobody can take away. A Child’s Place, instead, focuses on providing the young children with an environment that will support their thirst for “hands-on” learning and lots of stimulating experiences.
The philosophy A Child’s Place subscribes to is based on the works of Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson Referring to them, Trish affirms that “it is our responsibility to be sensitive to children’s individual growth stages while giving them active learning experiences that challenge them to make sense of the world around them. As teachers we are facilitators of learning. And we see parents as partners who help create in children a positive self-image and appositive attitude toward learning.”
She sums up what they “teach” their students into four things: to praise and thank God for everything, to respect the feelings of others, to “use my words” all the time and resolve conflict situations verbally instead of physical aggression, and to “believe in myself because I can be the best that I can be.”
Contact details: Lamblight Catholic School,Villa Valderrama Subd, Bacolod City Tel (034) 7090303, Text 0920-9518232, Website: www.lamblight.org. School for Creative Beginners, La Salle Avenue Extension, Eroreco, Bacolod City Tel (034) 433-9391, Website: www.creative-beginners.com., A Child’s Place, Atis Street, Capital Subdivision, Bacolod City (034) 433-6440.