Enriching preschool education with creativity

St. Raphael Learning Center, a five year-old preschool in Greenmeadows Subdivision, QC, has been blazing a new trail: Instilling creativity, self-reliance and Christ-centeredness in children during their first five years of life. The mentors there believe that when children are helped to do something good and beautiful, their self-esteem is developed and they become self-reliant; and when Christian values are integrated into their day-by-day activities, their spiritual awareness is formed as well.

Under Prof. Mariano R. Singson Jr., former Ateneo de Manila Grade School assistant headmaster and Ateneo Children’s theater director, founder and president of the Center, an all-original and flexible curriculum – a combination of the traditional and the modern – is offered to meet the different aspects of a child’s development as well as the changing needs of the growing child. Adopting the progressive approach, the teachers stimulate, encourage and inspire the learners to explore their environment as a primary source of knowledge.

From the moment the enrollees arrive at the school to the time they are dismissed, they are shrouded in creativity. They walk on wall-to-wall multicolored rubber mats. In every room, they are surprised to see fruit-shaped tables and a variety of interesting objects inviting them to touch and play. Indeed, they find themselves in a place where learning and playing go together.

"Our school is also a second home," enthuses directress Anna Liza Ordinario. "We ask parents to bring to the school a toy or two from their house and we display them to make the kids feel at home as they sit on their little chairs. Each one has a chair of his own painted with his favorite color and marked with his name."

In the lobby stands the 60-year-old statue of St. Raphael, one of the seven archangels — the angel of love, peace and health after whom the school is named. A property of the founder and the school’s owner, Mark Nicolas "Mannix" Singson, it was borrowed by a politician in the province many years ago and never returned. It was all but lost and forgotten. As fate would have it, however, Mariano saw it by happenstance when he visited an art exhibit in his hometown, Vigan, during the traditional Ateneo Grade School summer tour.

The Singsons, led by Mariano, were unflinching in their efforts to reclaim the statue.

The statue is a "symbol of how God sends His angels to show how much He loves us," writes the mother of a graduate.