I just encountered a battle today. The kind of battle that makes you stop - pause whatever you are doing and recalibrate. I even asked dek if dagupan really is not ready for quality and real learning. Then I remembered how local private school do teaching and learning. Last month, I was invited to observe one of the biggest private school in dagupan city. People have always labeled them as the 'it' school - doing everything right...they have oral exams, they have monthly awards, they have killer exams and they hired my rejected teachers (seriously!) . And so, I entered and observed their class. Their "great" teacher entered, brought out Manila paper and started making kids copy crap from the board. I was actually so clueless what they he'll they were doing. And I kinda realized it's their lessons. Of course having 5 Manila paper posts in front and making the kids copy everything on the board consumed the rest of the hour. And by the way, their classes are in 30 minute interval.
So, to make my story short that was their lesson - their class. Teachers make kids copy bunch of stuff, kids don't learn anything and thus go to tutors. Tutors are non- education graduate and makes kids memoriz bunch on irrelevant facts and parents are so happy their kids are so busy. Is that education? Is that learning? Is that quality?
Sometimes I scratch my head when they question everything we do at Oakridge, when all I see is real and genuine learning and teaching happening everyday. But if oh ask me , I still believe Oakridge is the best school.