THE NIGHT CARE CENTER

Ever heard of the government’s rural project that provide for a day-care center for these young tots not yet of schooling age? Not yet?? Well, it is a program that was instituted by the government on barangay level and teaches kids with basic learning skills under the tutelage of a teacher who usually is paid for by barangay funds.

But this article is not about that government-instituted program, it is about what the missus has started doing at our backyard as part of her own outreach to improve the studying skills of children in our neighborhood. Let me tell you this story.

Immediately after the light bulb was relocated near the nipa shack, the missus conceived the idea of reviewing the daily progress of our neighbors’ schoolchildren’s and discussed the matter to me about it. By doing this, she envisions those kids will find additional interest in their studies and thus improve their learning prowess because the difficulty in learning that is caused by the overcrowding of classes in the public schools where they are enrolled can somehow be assuaged by a supplemental review of lessons that she intends to do later in the day.

Of course I was skeptic. I reckon we do not have the skills and experience as schoolteachers and more importantly, the kids are enrolled in different grades, with the eldest in first year high school while the youngest is but in first grade. How does one allot his or her time over a variety of subjects on these kids.?? A prospective tower of Babel that can confuse these kids, I thought. But if you knew the missus, you will admit that when she has something on her mind, it is not often that she is discouraged. And so she started gathering the young kids at the nipa shack in our backyard and told them about her plans with me skeptically watching with eyebrows raised.

And so one Saturday while I was attending the lodge stated meeting of Dagohoy Lodge No. 84 at Tagbilaran City, she purchased a 24” x 36” blackboard, chalks, Mongol pencils and candies. When I teasingly asked her later in the night what the candies are for since I am a diabetic, she simply looked at me with piercing eyes without saying anything. It turned out it was for the kids to be given as incentives for those who can answer her questions right!

On our way home the next day, she noticed she forgot buying the eraser. I replied she can use one of my old briefs as substitute but she immediately glared at me. And I thought it is the lion who roars and glares when angry, not the lion tamer!! With this, the lion can only meekly say: “Buy it then, on your next trip to the city on Thursday when you accompany the two new harelip boys to the hospital!”

The first day of her class was a wonder. The missus found the first session which lasted more than two hours that night fun. She saw herself teaching about fifteen children with those in the lower grades lessons on subjects and predicates, simple arithmetic, and those in the higher level, fractions, divisions, decimals and even the proper use and referrals to the standard dictionary with the upper grade students assisting her on the lower grade pupils. She even cajoled them to sing nursery rhymes to the delight even of the elders who amusedly watched nearby. At the session’s end she saw herself fully exhausted but definitely with a smile on her dainty lips.

But the lion did not fare as well. I got my awkward baptism of fire when the first year high school student asked me how to solve square roots, for at age sixty two, how the heck can I be expected to remember a subject that I supposedly learned fifty years ago?! I could not even recall whether or not I skipped my classes during the time square roots are being taught in class. And so I said: “let me borrow your textbook and I’ll give you the answer tomorrow”. And I did!!

But let me tell you something has got to give. The missus unwittingly deprived herself of her favorite TV program that she faithfully views early in the night which is titled “Kay Tagal ng Umaga” that is portrayed in the lead role by her favorite actress named “Lorna Tolentino”.