THE VIEW FROM RIZAL
Dr. Jun Ynares
We congratulate the Department of Education (DepEd) and its leadership, as well as the administrators and faculty of both public and private schools. Congratulations are in order because, finally, in most of the country, our schools are back to in-person, face-to-face classes.
According to a report by a United Nations agency, the Philippines is among the three countries which have kept their schools closed longest. The national leadership cannot be faulted for foregoing an early return to face-to-face classes. The government opted to be more prudent, more cautious. In so doing, the government may have avoided a widespread infection of the Covid-19 virus among our children.
We went around Antipolo City on the day of the resumption of face-to-face classes. Once again, we witnessed the creativity and the dedication of our school administrators and teachers to their mission. A lot of effort has been put into ensuring that social distancing is made possible within our classrooms despite the limitation of size. Despite the initial chaos, they have succeeded in establishing order in the procedures for entering school premises in accordance with safety and health protocols.
We spoke to the parents who brought their children to school on the opening of classes. It appears parents were among the happiest with this development. We asked them why.
Here is what we found out from them.
The shift to online classes during the pandemic may have forced many parents to play a role they were not prepared for: Homeschool teachers.
Online classes limited the interaction of their children to the time when their teachers were present virtually on the computer or table screen. The method used by our teachers was mostly “downloading” information: Online lectures and presentations. The children did their part in the learning process by working on their homework and the module given to them.
The challenge to the parents was that their children did not have anyone to turn to when they needed help with the homework and module – other than them.
Compounding the challenge, they said, is the fact that many of the items that their children are being taught in school today are new and “modern.” In addition, it has been decades since they had been in school and had forgotten what they were taught. They had focused on the role and tasks of parenting and these did not include being homeschool teachers.
One parent brought up a major challenge to the “homeschooling” experience. The parent said what bothered her most was “the absence of social interaction.”
“Sa school natututong makisalamuha at makisama ang mga anak namin sa mga kapwa bata nila (It is in school that our children learn how to mingle and interact with their peers),” she pointed out.
That particular parent raised an important point. One of the biggest we value derived from our experience of attending school is learning how to live with and interact with others.
Meaningful and productive human interaction requires us to learn certain patterns and skills.
Among these are the skills of observation and listening. We learned that to understand why other people act in a certain way, we need to observe them and listen to them. Here, we discovered the meaning of “motive” – the things in life that influence the actions and the decisions that our peers make.
We also learned how to “express” ourselves. “Expressing” means more than just the ability to talk. “Expressing” requires that we know exactly what is on our mind and to muster the courage to tell others about it. Our interaction with our peers helped us learn how to do just that – share with others our perspective or how we see things; and, our position or where we stand on an issue or a topic.
Our interaction with our peers in school helped us learn how to agree and to express our disagreement. We also discovered the pain of discovering that not everyone would agree with us, as well as the pain of being rejected and being told that we are wrong.
Our interaction with our peers in school taught us that the world is a space we do not own exclusively. It is a space we share with others. It is the space where each one of us do our best to fulfill our dreams and realize our fullest potentials. It is limited space. The ability to share it with others and allow others to flourish in that space requires us to learn the valuable concepts of “cooperation” and “respect.” All these can be taught at home. It is in school where we learn them best.
Lev Vygotsky, the late Russian specialist on the psychological development of children, underscored an important truth – social interaction is essential for the development of our children’s brain. “They learn through playing, smiling, talking and listening,” he wrote. “In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior, it is as though he were a head taller than himself.”
We are glad our children may once again learn in a space they can share with their peers.
For feedback, please email it to [email protected] or send it to Block 6 Lot 10 Sta. Barbara 1 cor. Bradley St., Mission Hills Subd., Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo City, Rizal.