OUR CLASSROOMS ARE WORSE THAN COWS’ STABLE

By: Norberto Betita

We started our high school life six months after Super Typhoon Louise (Ining) devastated Surigao City and the Province of Surigao del Norte, and the rest of the country from November 15 to 20 of 1964. It had a wind speed of 310 kilometers per hour (190 mph) at its peak, almost as strong as typhoon Yolanda. The destructions caused by its fury were truly enormous. Our entire house collapsed leaving us no room to sleep. So many dwellings, schools and other buildings were destroyed. Surigao High School (the original name of Surigao del Norte National High School) was not spared. Many of its old classrooms were flattened and only the front building was able to sustain the strongest winds.

Perhaps with no immediate government funds available provisional classrooms were constructed from salvaged materials. Outside walls were open with only three or four used lumbers as fences and only the inner partitions were enclosed and walled with used plywood retrieved from destroyed buildings to avoid confusion and limit disruptions from the activity of each class. These temporary classrooms stood on the original floors of destroyed buildings. Roofing was also salvaged from the old GI sheet roofs. The environment was truly not conducive to learning. Yet many among the prominent still enrolled for their learning experiences. In our first year class there is the son of the Provincial Treasurer of Surigao; the daughter of the Provincial Treasurer under the Office of the Treasurer of the Philippines; the son of the Provincial Auditor; the son of a judge and Division Supervisor of the Department of Education; the daughter of another Division Supervisor; not to mention those in other classes. This was probably because of the parents’ trust on the teaching capabilities of the faculty. But the greatest majority of students are those from poor families it being the only cheapest high school in the City.

In our school were two American Peace Corps---Mr. and Mrs. Bachman. In one of our Science class where the assigned teacher was Mrs. Bachman, she found only a very small table enough to accommodate her bag, books and other things. She had with her a flip chart which perhaps was one best teaching tool during that time. Since it could no longer be positioned on the table, she just sat on the chair and put the flip chart on her lap. While flipping and discussing each page she forgot about her sitting position and just allowed her mini-skirt covered thigh to open every now and then exposing body parts which were left to the imaginations of the young boys’ minds. Perhaps realizing the unwanted display of her treasured virtue of chastity she immediately stood and ostensibly shifted our discussions. Then she said these words which I had never forgotten: “Your classrooms are worse than our cows’ stables in America.” After which she expressed that she’d been inspired by our willingness to be educated in such a very pitiable and lowly learning atmosphere. She kind of said that “You’re too good to be schooled in this worst kind of learning environment.” There had been several other inspired motivations that she impressed upon us which perhaps prompted many to move on.

Originally Surigao High School was under the budgetary obligations of the Provincial government of Surigao del Norte. It was later converted to become the Surigao del Norte National High School (SNNHS) to give place for more funds to be poured out for its immediate rehabilitation. During our four years stretch at SNNHS the classroom atmosphere remained and we are only given a taste of a new two-storey school building funded by the National government shortly before our graduation.

As I generate the recollections and memories of our youthful and friendly past and pondered on the rich experiences gained from the undesirable circumstances of high school life there emerged imprints and inscriptions on the mirrors of days gone by the footsteps which many had left along the steep and rugged path of their uphill journey to success. Then the words of Mrs. Bachman ring back into my ears “your classrooms are worse than the cows’ stables in America.” I wish she lives to see and rejoice for the achievements of her “too good” little students as they moved away from the “worst kind of learning environment” with courage strong and faith undaunted to the hopeful shores of triumph and victory. To paraphrase the words of the Emperor of China in the movie Mulan, they became “The flower[s] that blooms in adversity…the most rare and beautiful of all.”

Gone are the worst classrooms; perhaps forgotten and ignored are the worst kind of learning environment, yet the memories of those harsh conditions will live on in each of our lifetimes and renewed during reunions and reflections of the happy and youthful long ago.