Liceo De San Pablol had a long history. It was built after World War II by the Jesuits. At that time until 2 years before my graduation the name of the school was Ateneo de San Pablo. It was managed by the Jesuits. It has an American colonial architecture. Huge pillars sprawling corridors, wide windows, doors made of acacia wood. Ateneo was an exclusive school for boys during my time. Today however, the Diocesan priests which owned the land got back their property and renamed the school to Liceo. After more than 2 decades I get to visit my old school this time as a Technology Teacher training Liceo Teachers.
1. The façade of Liceo De San Pablo. It used to be Ateneo. The balcony belongs to my former classroom while I was in Fourth year high school. It overlooked the plaza where we gazed and waved at passersby especially cute girls when the teacher is not around. The Dome of the cathedral across the school symbolizes the power of the Bishop and his clergy. At that time, they were the villains for us in the tug of war property dispute between the Jesuits and the Diocesans. In the end the Bishop takes horse, check mate!
2. During our time, the steel gate leading to the main corridor was the most watched gate by the students waiting for it to open for dismissal. If you arrive late in class in the morning be ready to receive 5 paddles from the Dean of Discipline The main corridor of the old building still looked exactly the same since my high school graduation in 1980 except for that satellite dish This building was built in 1947
3. The bishop now lives inside the campus. He has a huge mansion on the spot where it used to be our football field and a boxing arena to quickly settle disputes among boys and be friends again.
4. These century old narra trees stood as mute witnesses of the past. I’m glad these tress are still standing.
5. The only thing constant in life is change. What used to be an elite all boys school is now coed and made more affordable to the masses. What used to be only a high school, there’s now elementary and pre-school. These kids don’t even know that. Look’s like things turned out for the best.
6. Bringing back something to the community. Last June 27, 2009. I conducted a technology seminar for teachers from 20 Liceo schools in the province of Laguna. Each school have about 300 to 1000 students. Liceo de San Pablo, the biggest have about 1,400 students. The teachers were introduced to Skype, Robotics and Discovere Virtual classroom with the instant participation of international guest speakers it made things a lot more fun. Lorraine Leo from Boston, Yao-dong from China and Geoff from Australia, the man behind Discovere contributed in the discussion. Thank you so much guys. The trip was made possible by Mr. Joey Sitjar, my publisher.
7. A teacher sharing her Powerpoint lesson on Discovere while Ms. Leo in Boston guide’s her how to load it through the web.
9. The very amiable school Principal of Liceo de San Pablo, Dr. Zenaida M. Buenaseda and her teachers.
10. For dessert, we were serve “minanihan” . It was made from cassava with roasted peanuts. The whole thing tasted more like peanuts even the cassava. It was yummy. Which reminds me, I forgot to visit my favorite street vendor outside the school who sells home made peanut butter sandwich, “gulaman”(a sweet drink) and “mami” (noodles) with a sticky soup.
12. An on-going class. Amazingly, there’s no reported H1N1 case in San Pablo.
13. The chapel looks exactly the same the last time I set my feet on this holy ground.
14. The gym which is an exact duplicate of the Ateneo gym now have a bigger stage and huge concrete walls. However the roof is rusted. They say it is due for renovation soon.
15. The problem about the textbooks were brought up. The book is about Microsoft Office 2003, they bought Microsoft Office 2007 software which is of course different in appearance. They have books on C+, Macromedia and Visual Basic but no budget to buy the software. Suggestions were made such as coming up with modules and the publisher to donate a few software. The teacher should also be more creative and make the best with what she has. Your lucky guys, during my time here there were no computers to speak of.
16. Time to go back home. Thanks Mr. Joey Sitjar (in long sleeves) for this opportunity to go back here and to be of service to my fellow teachers.
