How did the DECS Work Education work out? The Secretarial course lacked typewriters. Dressmaking did not provide fabrics, instead paper dress patterns were cut out. Cosmetology was also frustrating since even for shampooing, wash basins and water were often missing. Food Technology barely made use of a well-equipped kitchen.
A second apartment suite was temporarily rented by Operation Brotherhood International (OBI) for our first OB Montessori preschool adjacent to its headquarters at the Syquia apartments in M.H. del Pilar Street, Manila. With the increase in enrollment, we joined the OBI as it relocated its headquarters at the Lichauco compound in Pedro Gil, Sta. Ana.
Montessori education requires a fully-equipped "Prepared Environment" to condition students to work and get things done. All tools must be complete, presentable, and functional. However, in 1975, when OB Montessori Center then complete with both preschool and grade school, transferred and made its permanent headquarters at the Arellano compound in Greenhills, our "Prepared Environment" was somewhat crude. We could not afford then a school building with complete equipment, so we made do with the residential house and four-door apartments of the late PAF Chief of Staff General Arellano.
This will make children engage in livelihood enterprises violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Articles, which state that elementary school children must not be exploited by adults. The CRC Articles recognizing and respecting the true nature of grade school children with their strong intelligence and moral plenty believed that this stage of growth should focus on "learning how to learn". Thus, poor families should be redirected so that they do not turn their children into sidewalk/street vendors at odd hours of the day and night when they should be at home or in school. It should be the parents working, but the fathers are usually drunkards and the mothers just sit around while bossing the small children and letting them look for customers.
By the time we started Grade IV, I introduced a special curriculum called Home Arts. It was much more than the DECS Home Economics curriculum, which was usually a bit of cooking and a bit of sewing or embroidery. Home Arts for Grades IV to VII is not aimed at making money, but to prepare the children for a comprehensive program for the home and the family: Filipino cooking, Housekeeping, Grooming and Hygiene, Family Care from infancy, adolescence to adulthood.
The home-style kitchen (with one oven with four burners, a sink with cabinets, a 10 cubic feet refrigerator, and a rectangular work table) at the Arellano compound was shared by both the grade school and high school students. It had an adjacent sala (living room) and bedroom, which was used by the Home Arts grade school students.
To introduce them to professional culinary service, I arranged field trips to the Philippine Airline kitchen and tours at five-star hotel food outlets. The high school students also started the Rainbow Catering Service for preschoolers. For three years, they were only able to contract a few parties serving ice cream and cakes. Marketing strategy was missing. They were more successful with the annual food fair in December with Hawaiian, Japanese or American themes. They also prepared P25 lunches for an average of 50 students and teachers who made regular orders.
When I lived in Italy for two years, I got used to my padrona serving three course meals for lunch with wine: brood (soup); carne, pollo o pesce con insalata (meat, chicken or fish dish with fresh salad) and fruits of the season – This is the typical European food service in the trattoria or in the university mensa (mess hall). Thus, I added the unique experience of the European way of eating by letting my junior high school students prepare a sit-down dinner of three courses complete with wine in my own house. This was a free treat for their parents.
The class was divided into four groups to prepare the environment: the purchaser or marketer; the cooks; the waiters; and the housekeepers who washed the dishes and made sure my house would be restored to order. For three years, I let them use my collection of Wedgewood, Limoges or Italian chinaware, silverware and crystals.
The Food Service curriculum was perfected: Freshmen focused on Science in the Kitchen. Sophomores combined Nutrition and Catering with more preschool students as customers. Junior students prepared banquet dinner in the school lobby. Senior students specialized in Food Technology learning to process meat, and prepare bottled or canned food such as tocino, chorizo, ham, jams and marmalades. Months before December, they increase the volume of production for the Food Fair and Minimart.
The Food Fair and Minimart in December involves the whole high school department. By year 2000, it included the OBMC College Culinary students whose practice is in our Ristorante La Dolce Fontana and, therefore, provided a variety of packed pastas and pizzas. Christmas cakes and cookies in their pretty boxes were very saleable. They took charge of al fresco dining with grilled steak and Gindara fish. Every year, this has attracted the attendance of guests from several private and public schools, including officials from the Department of Education, TESDA, and CHED. Now, the other OBMC branches in Sta. Ana, Las Piñas and Angeles hold their own Food Fair.
Today, the Rainbow Catering Club has involved students from first to fourth year high school students catering to both preschool and primary grade school students. Since the full package includes invitation, unique menu, caterers and emcee dressed in clown costumes, parlor games and giveaways, parents prefer them to McDonalds or Jollibee party packages. Costing P4,300 for a class of 30 students, this includes a costume for the birthday child whether it is a Clown, Indian, Disney or Fiesta sa Nayon theme.
The European-style dinner no longer uses my house. It is an annual formal dinner-show, usually held in February at the 8th floor Maria Montessori Theater-Hall by the third year high school students. Tagged today as "Corporate Event", they charge P350 per guest. In the past few years, the students’ guests have increased to 400. Parents, relatives, friends and alumni eagerly make reservations to watch the student chefs, waiters, ushers and stage people perform. A student band would provide dinner music.
(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph or pssoliven@yahoo.com)