“Mama, I don’t want to go to grade 1”. This were the words that my son told to my wife one evening while they were about to sleep. My wife asked him, “Why?” “Because I don’t know the answer”, replied my son. My wife sweetly smiled and replied, “Of course you don’t know the answer because there is no question yet.” “But I already know how to write my name and I know how to read and count, that’s enough already”, defended my son.
My wife shared to me this conversation when we are chatting. This happened sometime in February this year, a month before the school break in the Philippines. My son is in kinder 2 and after that he is already eligible to enter the primary school as grade 1. As I am chatting with my wife discussing about our son, we contemplated our options. We can let him out of school for a year because he is still young. The admission age for grade 1 is at least 6 years old but preferably 7 years old and our son is 5 years old. Besides we are not sure if he will be accepted as grade 1 because of his age. Or we can send him back to kinder 2.
While weighing our options, I remember an event that happened to me when I am 7 years old. During my time, when a child turns 7 years old, he/she can be admitted into grade 1 even if the child had not gone into kindergarten; unlike today that it is a requirement to finish kinder 1 and 2 first before a child can be admitted to grade 1. Since I didn’t go to kindergarten, I found it so difficult to catch up with our daily lessons. However even though I encountered so much difficulty I still did pass grade 1. During the summer vacation the older kids are teasing me while we are playing under the light of the full moon. They told me that once I am in grade 2, we will no longer be allowed to speak in Tagalog, because the module of teaching for grade 2 is English. I am so afraid at that time that I even knelt down and I prayed to the moon. I prayed to the moon that I don’t want to continue my studies anymore because I don’t know how to speak English. That was the very first prayer that I made. However, going into grade 2 is inevitable, and it turned out that only two pupils from our class was able to read and speak in English. They are the president and the vice president of our class.
Going back to my son, I can fully relate to the pressure that he is feeling. It is because I also felt the same thing before. During my vacation to the Philippines last May, I spent a lot of time talking to my son about the excitement of going to school. I tell him stories of wonderful time that I had spent in school when I was a kid. I wish that somehow it can be of help to him to ease his fear of going to a higher grade. But to my dismay, he always says he don’t want to continue studying anymore. My disappointment went to the fullest when my son was refused by the school registrar during enrollment, because of his age. I am left with the option of having my son to stay at home for a year. However we decided that we will send him again to kindergarten. After all, his sister spent three years in kindergarten because, like her brother, she was also too young at that time to be admitted in grade 1.
There was a sudden turn of event that happened during the opening of the school year. My wife went to the school principals’ office because she wants to enroll her niece to kindergarten. Our son was with her at that time. The principal asked my wife why she is not enrolling our son. She told the principal that our son was refused by the other school because he is still young. However the principal insisted that she enroll our son to their school since he can read and he knows how to write already. But the problem is our son didn’t want to. When the school principal told him that they are giving free notebooks and pencil for grade 1 pupils, my son suddenly said yes. And to my wife’s surprise, she immediately enrolled our son. While they were on the line to get his free notebooks and pencil my wife is repeatedly asking our son if he is really sure that he wants to go to grade 1. Our son gave only one consistent answer to her. And that is, “Yes, I want to”.
I cannot control my laughter when my wife told me that story. It’s the freebies that changed the mind of our son. That was good. Because of the free notebooks and pencil he changed his mind. Today whenever I have a chance to chat with my son, I always ask him if he already know the answer. He would simply smile back to me and he will impress me of his ability in reading. With that I know that my son had found the answer. He is enjoying his days in school now as grade 1, just like I enjoyed my days in school especially when I was elected as the vice president of our grade 2 class.
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