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K-12: Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

The K-12 Program is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education and covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education. One of the features of the program is Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBME). From the government site:

Students are able to learn best through their first language, their Mother Tongue (MT). Twelve (12) MT languages have been introduced for SY 2012-2013: Bahasa Sug, Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko, Kapampangan, Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and Waray. Other local languages will be added in succeeding school years.

Aside from the Mother Tongue, English and Filipino are taught as subjects starting Grade 1, with a focus on oral fluency. From Grades 4 to 6, English and Filipino are gradually introduced as languages of instruction. Both will become primary languages of instruction in Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS).

Supposedly the mother tongue of the particular school district will be used as the medium of teaching. As previously there has been effort to use Tagalog Filipino as the medium of teaching, the idea is good as it benefits children whose mother tongue is not Tagalog (though these children usually speak three languages, unlike Tagalog-speakers who usually speak only two languages). But what if the child’s first language and mother tongue is English?

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Gymboree Learning Lab

In preparation for school, we enrolled Jeanne to Gymboree’s Learning Lab:

Learning Lab combines multi-sensory learning products from LeapFrog School™ and Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) with Gymboree’s interactive approach for a well-rounded learning experience for reading, writing and math.  Leapfrog activities are designed to help children build essential skills including letter and color recognition, counting, and shape identification, while HWT provides hands-on sensory-focused activities for fine motor skill development and beginning letter skills.

I woke up Jeanne and we quickly prepared. We took a cab to Gymboree. We were early so we were able to play and get some exercise at the play area while waiting for class to start.

Class is an hour long and is composed of the following activities:

  1. Greeting song
  2. Counting activity – count the letters of your name
  3. Necklace making activity – shapes, writing, and eye-hand coordination
  4. Alphabet flash cards – culminating with the selection of the letter of the day
  5. Object flash cards – objects starting with the letter of the day
  6. Project activity – painting and gluing together a paper animal
  7. Coloring activity – coloring using odd sun-shaped coloring tools
  8. Goodbye song

Overall, it’s a good school environment experience for Jeanne. Even if she knows most of the  stuff already, being in a classroom gives her opportunities to further improve her knowledge and engaging in social interaction. And developing competitiveness >:)

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Memory

Yesterday, I had dinner with Paul and Ann. When I got home, I told Jeanne and Michelle about what transpired during dinner. Jeanne asked who I was with and I said Uncle Paul and Auntie Ann. Michelle added, like Auntie Anne’s pretzels. Jeanne exclaimed: Like the one I had when you had a haircut? I was puzzled at first but then I realized what she meant.

A month or two ago and about a haircut or two before, I had visited the barber shop. I was with Jeanne. And to keep her busy while I was getting my haircut, I gave her, you guessed it, an Auntie Anne’s pretzel and lemonade. And she remembered. I pride myself with my good memory (though many would beg to differ :P) and it seems Jeanne has it, too.

That’s good because memory is a driver of intelligence. I guess it’s that neural network in your head setting up a huge lookup table of previous facts and experiences the pathways through which lead to optimal or at least somewhat good decisions and thus a measure of intelligence. Just not sure what happened to mine :P

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Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is several stories interleaved together as consequences of actions and events ripple through time and space. It seems to be a mess but like a symphony, everything somehow fell into place imperfectly perfect. And beautiful. Two thumbs up! :P

Rating: 4/5