In the good old days of our beautiful little fishing village of San Pedro there was a school class period (or ‘subject’) called “singing”. Also in the GOOD OLE DAYS, and I mean in the really good old days, there was a feeding program in our elementary school. Here is how it went.
Singing in Class
Every Thursday afternoon during the last period at the San Pedro Roman Catholic School, students enjoyed Singing Period. The teacher would write the lyrics of a song on the blackboard and the students copied it in their song exercise books. The teacher then proceeded to teach the new song and the students gradually pitched in as they became familiar with it. Once it was mastered (this took two or three weeks), the students then sang it in unison, at times in two voices to learn harmony.
Once in a while, the singing class was used for individual presentation for grading purposes. Each student went to the front of the class and sang his/her heart out to delight the class, but most importantly, the teacher. There were tons of songs and each student sang his favorite. Here are some that I remember: My Bonnie, The Animal’s Farm, Charlie Started Laughing, Oh Susana, No Man is an Island, Twinkle Little Star, Island in the Sun ( a Jamaican song), plus all the patriotic songs and the Christmas ones. To be honest some children sang with much gusto while others hung their heads shyly but they made the effort to sing for fear of a lashing or fear of a poor grade. The singing period was certainly one activity all old timers remember of their good old days.
School Feeding Program
Now let us look at the feeding program in our primary school. This took place for the morning recess break. The Canadian agency called Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) used to supply our school with barrels of powdered milk and barrels of wheat flour. The flower was rationed to parents and they had the task and responsibility of making flour tortillas or Johnny cakes and take them to the school for distribution during recess. In similar fashion our teachers prepared several buckets of milk using the powdered milk and every recess each child received a cup of milk and one hot flour tortilla. Some parents would slice the tortilla and added some delicious butter to the delight of the children. Boy oh boy, I tell you, those were some real GOOD OLD DAYS in our tiny village school in San Pedro.
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