ENDEAVOR
In early August, we were called to a meeting at The Bridge School (TBS) in Parañaque City where my grandson Rafa, who was a month short of his sixth birthday, was enrolled for Kindergarten. “We” included all of us in the family and household who support Rafa.
Teacher Katrina presided over the meeting. She said it was important that all of us — who are part of Rafa’s everyday life — are on the same page so that there is consistency in the way he is taught at school with how we bring him up at home.
We shared with her and her co-teachers Rafa’s current situation. Even before the Covid quarantine was imposed in mid-March 2020, he already faced challenges in terms of his limited attention span and difficulty in building social skills.
It was The Bridge School that showed full support to enable him to overcome these challenges.
Rafa invited all his classmates to his sixth birthday party held at an indoor playground at Bonifacio Global City. The last time he had a “normal” birthday was on his second birthday four years ago and it was held at a popular fast food venue — and he barely socialized with his guests. His next three birthdays were held during the Covid quarantine era.
We observed that he seemed to have bonded reasonably well with his classmates. He was also friendly with his other kiddie guests who enjoyed running, playing, and jumping in the expansive play area.
We noticed, too, that he had become more eager to go to school, unlike before when he dilly-dallied, made excuses, and bargained for more play time. He also enrolled in once-a-week football classes that meant an extra hour of play time. On one occasion, we were concerned that he might get upset because there was some delay in fetching him from school. To our pleasant surprise, he patiently waited — while playing with one of his classmates.
In early November, we were informed that Rafa and his classmates were going to participate in a Christmas production and that they would be performing at the RCBC auditorium.
As an instant flashback, Rafa’s mom was similarly involved in a production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream when she was in grade six at St. Scholastica’s College, Manila. While his mom practiced her lines at home, Rafa did not talk about what he and his classmates were going to perform. He simply shared that they were preparing for it while going about their usual reading, writing and arithmetic lessons.
Finally, D-day came. Call time at the venue for Rafa and his classmates was an hour before the scheduled start of the show. We were delighted to meet friends who are parents of our daughter’s classmates; Rotarian colleagues who are evidently our fellow grandparents, too; and other friends from previous work or socio-civic engagements.
Only then did we realize the breadth and depth of The Bridge School’s social network spawned by its students and graduates.
There was no formal printed program; only a one-page handout headlined An Unexpected Christmas that listed all the performers from Younger Pre-School, Older Pre-School, Kindergarten, and Grades One to Six. The students’ nicknames were listed in a box; in our Rafa’s case, he was in Kinder B. Those in the A sections performed during the morning show that started at 10:30 a.m.; it was the turn of those in the B sections to perform starting at 3:30 p.m. Some of the older students from the upper grades were tapped to be anchors for both the morning and afternoon shows.
After the singing of the Philippine National Anthem, Teacher Tere Tabuena del Rosario, school principal, delivered brief opening remarks. She expressed gladness that after a three-year pause due to the pandemic, The Bridge School’s annual Christmas show was being staged anew.
Excitement grew as the program unfolded. Starting from Younger Prep, every class performed an assigned segment that projected the theme through a pair of song and dance numbers. They depicted various scenarios, some real some imagined, that depicted the spirit of Christmas.
As the procession of performers went on for over an hour, we were getting fidgety, as we wondered when Rafa and his classmates from Kinder B would appear onstage. Before we knew it, he was performing right before our eyes. He and his classmates wore bright red gym attire as they joyfully projected being cheerleaders and players. Mirroring the prompts provided by their teachers, they performed with uncanny stage presence, keeping up with the upbeat tempo from start to finish.
We were close enough to the stage to cheer Rafa on; he made eye contact with us and the rest of the audience like a seasoned performer.
It was truly an afternoon to remember. In barely five months, we had witnessed the transformation and continuing development of Rafa as a member of a tightly knit learning community. Ahead of the Christmas show, the periodic feedback given by his teachers in terms of his work in school, was heartwarming.
We are truly grateful to Rafa’s teachers and classmates at The Bridge School for enabling him to level up and realize his potentials as a member of a supportive and caring learning community.
In a very real sense, this has truly been an unexpected Christmas for our family. Our prayers to the Lord Jesus, through the intercession of Mama Mary and St. Joseph, are being answered every day in a classroom and within the campus of The Bridge School.