Charming Filipino Schools



 All along the fence facing away from the school were the 10 commandments of good citizenship. I thought I'd share a few with you in this post.

The 5th and 6th commandment. I wish all children were taught these values! The world would truly be a better place. Note that the signs are all in English. Many schools emphasize English altough President Aquino (a woman president) mandated that schools place more emphasis on the native languages and so English is not pushed quite as it was in past times. Still most signs around the country are in English.

This sign greeted the children on the front gate.



Sometimes the world looks down on a poor country--thinking if they just educated those people then they could eliminate most of the poverty. Well, the Philippines proves that's not right. The filipino people truly value education--they are one of the most literate countries in the world and most people speak several languages besides their native dialect. The children all wear uniforms to school whether it's a private or public school. They go to school from early morning to late afternoon and many school systems also have school on Saturday. The work and study very hard. Most kids go to college. Education is not the problem--the tragedy is a lack of opportunity. Here you will find college educated people doing the most menial jobs.

Recently we were down in Nueva Vizcaya (the mountain region of our mission) for Solano's District Conference. The night before the conference began we did our first Christmas Devotional in Bambang. The Shaners came to assist us for the weekend and we stayed in Bambang that first night. Early in the morning Sister Shaner and I decided to take a long walk and explore the cute little town of Bambang. There we found a school that had the gate unlocked. We decided to go in and look around and we felt like we were in an enchanted garden of learning. Beautifully painted signs and rocks were all over the place with inspirational messages on them. About the time we were done taking pictures uniformed children started arriving. We were surprised because it was a Saturday morning. But the parents told us that they go to school six days a week there.

These were some of the first students to arrive at school on that Saturday. Notice their darling school uniforms.




There were parks within the school grounds, for history, science, geography and here is the math's park.

Inside the math park were darling stone tables and chairs. Each table had a math game painted on it.

All around the school grounds were these beautiful, inspiring words painted on colorful signs.

Inside the gate was the school's vision and mission.