Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers: Getting to Know My International Contacts

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

To my Fellow Early Childhood Bloggers,

Welcome to my blog site. Let me say: Aloha to my Ohana, which means "Welcome to my Family".

I am an Asian American who migrated in the US in 1997. I came from the Philippines and Filipino/ Tagalog is my first language. I migrated here in the US to start a family. I am now living here in Hawaii with my husband and three children. I am currently working as an Assistant Director at Ford Island Child Development Center in Pearl Harbor.

This is going to be an interesting journey for all of us and I am looking forward to blog with all of you.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Getting to Know My International Contacts

Aloha to all my colleagues!

During the first week of our course, I mentioned about getting in touch with my friends and school mate in college in the Philippines. I was very fortunate to have found them in facebook and accidentally, through my friend who visited me here in Hawaii last month (after so many years we did not see each other). Both of them teaches preschoolers in a private school in the Philippines but one of them started doing home school because her son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder so she decided to stop working and care for her son. They were very helpful in gathering information about the issues and trend in early childhood education in the Philippines.

During the first week that I exchanged messages with them, I do not have any idea what to ask or what information I need to gather from them. I wrote messages to them using our own language and they were surprise to hear it from me. I used Tagalog (language from the Philippines) to ask questions with the impression that they are more comfortable to answer. They told me that they prefer to give updates and information about early childhood using the English language. In response I told them that I am very glad because they will make my work easier by translating it for me.

I asked them about the government and private sectors programs for early childhood education in the Philippines . I would like to share with you the information I gathered from them. They said that the Philippine government has started implementing the universal kindergarten program in public schools this school year. The purpose of this program is to improve the quality of education for young children which will help them in the future. They also believed that education is the key to solve the problems of poverty in the country. Kindergarten programs have become a prerequisite before entering elementary education. They said that this program is facing big problems due to lack of classrooms and lack of teachers. This has been an existing problem in the education system before this program has been implemented. Now, the people are asking the Philippine Government if they are ready for the implementation of this Universal Kindergarten Programs. In spite of these concerns; the government has imposed this program on its people.

Another update on the education system is the proposal of an additional two-year program in elementary which is equivalent to middle school in the U.S. The proposal was created to meet the standards or requirements of the U.S. and other countries in the field of education. They expect to implement this program by the year 2014.

These proposals aim to improve the quality of education in the Philippine. It aims to improve the quality of life of the people, be known to the world and compete in the global market. On the other hand, families are facing difficult situation especially those who are already living under poverty level. They can no longer afford to send their children to school for another two years. The implications of this proposal will affect the number of children finishing elementary, high school and college. It will probably benefit the 1/3 population who can afford it and the 2/3 of population (who are in poverty situation) fate are not yet determined.

5 comments:

PEningowukSeptember 25, 2011 at 10:35 AM
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PEningowukSeptember 25, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Anabel,
It is hard to understand how the Philippine Government can mandate children to attend kindergarten if they do not have the infrastructure to support the educational services. I do understand the value in setting a solid educational foundation as our desire is for all children is to reap educational dividends throughout their academic career.
If 2/3 of the population cannot afford a quality education, the chances of this new educational structure having a major impact on addressing the poverty issues in the Philippines may be fruitless.
Thank you for sharing your conversation with your fellow early childhood professionals across our nation's borders. The power of the social networks continues to amaze me.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM
I think that is great that they are mandating kindergarten yet sad that they are having such trouble finding classrooms and teachers. I teach kindergarten and it is by far my heart. I love the age of the children I work with! It excites me to see that more are seeing the value in kindergarten. I do agree that education can help stop poverty! Thank you for sharing.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2011 at 3:23 PM
Honestly, I never dreamed that other countries did not have Kindergarten programs! How naive I am! I thought that Kindergarten was a natural beginning to a child's education. At any rate, I am pleased that Kindergarten will be brought to the Phillippines. However, it is disheartening that there is a shortage of teachers and classrooms. Equally disappointing is that educational opportunities are limited to those who can afford them. It is a vicious cycle in that education is a measure to end poverty, but those in poverty cannot afford to be educated.
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Cymantha Channey WhiteSeptember 25, 2011 at 5:43 PM
Anabel,
Im so glad to hear that kindergarten is now a part of the building regimen for young childrem in the Philippines. I am prayerful that they will speedily find the resources needed to accommodate such a task. Teachers and classrooms are the most valuable resources of any country or community--government should treat them as such :)

Great post!
CCWhite
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My Nanay (means ‘Mother’ in Tagalog) Clarita is the heart and soul of our home. She is a positive thinker and a good motivator. She always look at the good things in life and understands also the challenges that comes with it. The only face you see is her smile which brighten the day of so many people. She lives everyday making sure that she has done everything she could and treated each day as if it was her last day. You will never see her complain about things and finds solutions rather than blame people.

My mother raised seven children and she treated each one of us uniquely because she believes that each one of us have our own strength and weaknesses. She treated us differently in a good way because she believes that we are unique in our own special way. She also respects us and allow us to grow independently knowing our unique qualities. She also make sure that we discover our own identity and passion and supports us in any endeavor that we want to pursue.

I remember when I was little that my father an mother were so proud of my siblings because they excelled academically in school. I remember my brothers and sister compete in spelling bee or represent our school in science, math or debate contests. Every recognition day, my parents stayed on the stage to accept awards or medals for my siblings achievements. My mom never said anything to me but I know she tried her best to motivate, inspire and give incentives or recognition to inspire me to do well in school. She continued to support me in any activities that I am interested and always believe in me. She reminded me all the time not to feel or think that I am different but believed in me all time. I may be different from my siblings but I am no less than them. She said that each one of us has our own unique way of doing things and should not be compared with each other. She never compared us with each other. She accepted us as unique individuals with unique qualities and abilities.

Now that I am a parent of three wonderful children I would like to do the same with my children. Respect their differences, support them with their choices and guide them to become a better person.

Tatay Benito

My father is the foundation of our home. He is a good provider and has dedicated his life working to send us all to a good school. “Good provider to us” is giving all he got and most of the time “more than what he got”. My father works as a supervisor in Central Bank of the Philippines. Though he does not have enough to take home for pay, he still managed to send us all to college and to a good school too.

I remembered my father telling us the importance of education. He said his wish for us is to study hard and finish college. I remembered him saying that he regrets not going to school, he often said: “If only I studied harder and finish college, our situation will be better than this.”

During enrollment time my father will bring the title of our land and our house to the bank and serve as “collateral” for our educational loan. One time, my little brother wanted to buy something and he asks my father if he could have five pesos (our currency), my father gave his pay envelop to him. The coins fell off the envelope, my father only have about five pesos and about sixty cents. My little brother gave it back to him and never asks money from him anymore.

Another experience my eldest brother shared with me was when my father brought him to the cemetery, the jail and the museum, where they display the pictures of the President of the Philippines and their accomplishments. My father told him: “Son I brought you here to show you that these are your choices in life - either you die, go to jail or make the most out of your life and become a successful person; it is up to you to make that decision”.

With these inspiring stories and experiences that I learned and wanted to pass it on to my children. I would like them to make their own choices and whatever decisions they made, whether it is right or wrong, they need to take responsibility, find resolution and face the consequences of their actions.

These are my brothers and sister. Believe it or not, we never ever fight. We have so much respect for each other. When our parents ask us who is going to wash the dishes or clean something, all of us are in a hurry to do it first. When somebody gets to do it first, we still help each other out to finish the tasks. I am the fifth out of seven and I treat my elder brother and eldest sister with much respect as we have for our father or mother. In our culture, when your big brother asks you to do something, we just do it without asking questions. We just obey. If we have one candy, we will cut it into small pieces and get our shares, the weirdest thing is: the biggest portion of the candy will be left and nobody will take it or we give it to our youngest brother. We complement each other and respect each other’s privacy.

Our house has five rooms on the second floor. Our rooms do not have doors on it because my parents believed that an open room means open communication. Anyone can go in and out of any rooms. When I was little, we all sleep together on the floor with mat on it; except for my eldest sister and eldest brother they have their own bed as well as my parents. Nobody says: ‘it’s not fair!”

Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Getting to Know My International Contacts

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