Skip to main content

Looking forward to my after school program

When my mom finally decided to take that plum posting as a Divisional
Head, I knew I was in trouble. Her office hours stretched way beyond my 
school hours. And anyway, I was privy to the many discussions my parents 
had about 'Honey, what do we do with the kids?' Well, finally they struck 
gold - an educational after school program. Won't that be just grand? Kids 
are learning new things while parents are happily minting greenbacks!

And so, we went directly to another class after our school. The brochure 
said that they would be 'using fun activities and innovative teaching 
methods to fill the gap in your child's understanding'. I suppose they 
meant that the teacher would write down the homework and we were to copy 
it. At least, this is what happened most of the time. Of course, we didn't 
tell our parents. How would that help? They'd simply get smart and shift us to a class that would actually make us solve our homework.

I hated the classes. Mostly, I was bored to tears or falling asleep.  
After so many hours at school who'd want to spend the entire afternoon 
with the same books? But, as a child, one had little choice in these 
matters. Especially when one's parents were cleverly telling one that 
mommy's salary will help get us that spanking new TV or that video game. 
Lose some, win some!

Then, one day, my sister decided to rock the proverbial boat. She decided 
she had enough of studying and refused to go to the after school program. 
That's when my parents began to smell something stale. Shortly after that, 
they put us in a better program (o, yes, another educational one). This 
was bigger, brighter and somehow more fun. We had some  interesting games, 
and a COMPUTER too. Each of us got a chance to do something on the PC 
(this, when PCs were just beginning to make their presence felt). We 
somehow managed to blaze through our homework, most of which had to be 
done by us. Then it was time to have fun. We had a little bit of 
everything. Acting classes, speech, games and of course painting. Those 
hours we spent splashing color on pages and laughing at silly jokes were 
really the highlight of an otherwise boring day. Ironically, I began 
looking forward to my after school program. 

Now, so many years afterward, when I need to take up a job and leave my 
own child alone till I get back, I know how important these after school 
programs have become. Talk about history repeating itself! I just hope I'd 
get her into a good one, and yes, it's going to be educational too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buried Treasures in Bohol Philippines

Written by Joe Espiritu       Four persons died in a treasure hunting accident last week. They died for nothing. Many had lost their shirts in the venture, the propensity for Filipinos to get rich quick attribute to the treasure hunting mania. The sad part is that only the ignorant venture on the search, those in the know, being sure that nothing will come out of the effort would not think of investing money, time and effort – this time lives – in a fruitless enterprise.        There had been stories of people getting rich uncovering treasure troves in unlikely places. Most stories are false. Ancient graves of archeological and anthropological value had been desecrated by treasure hunters. They had found nothing. Those people may have struck it rich but not from some hidden riches. Contrary to what other people say, there are no buried treasures in Bohol . If there had been, they were unearthed years ago.         If one ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Detonators in Hebei, China

The death toll has risen to eight after Saturday's explosion triggered by detonators illegally manufactured and stored at a residential building in north China's Hebei Province, local authorities said Monday. Five more bodies were retrieved while rescuers were clearing the debris in the city of Baoding, the city government said in a statement late Monday. Another 27 people are still under treatment in hospital, it added. Two suspects, a 38-year-old man surnamed Ge and his 42-year-old girlfriend, turned themselves in to police Monday noon in the eastern province of Anhui. Ge and two relatives started producing detonators in 2009. Due to poor sales, the three stored unsold detonators at a house of the six-storey building in Dongwuyao Village. The explosion that occurred Saturday afternoon toppled part of the building and also shattered the glass windows of buildings 200 meters away.
Post a Comment
Read more

U.S. economic data reacts to crude oil price

Crude prices rose on Thursday as U.S. economic data came in positive and continuing unrest in the Middle East caused supplies fears. Market sentiment was boosted after the Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.7 percent annual rate, much faster than 2.0 percent it estimated last month. It was the quickest quarterly growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2011, helped by faster inventory accumulation and export growth, which offset weak consumer spending and a drop in business investment. Meanwhile, a report from the Labor Department added to the upbeat tone. The report showed U.S. initial jobless claims declined 23,000 in the week ended Nov. 24 to 393,000, as effect of Hurricane Sandy faded. Pending home sales climbed 5.2 percent in October, surging to its highest level in more than five years, according to the National Association of Realtors. Traders were closely watching the situation in the Middle East, in particular the viole...
Post a Comment
Read more