The next step was to form sentences. The teacher again held up the book, saying slowly and distinctly, “This is a book”; and the children carefully repeated “De͞es e͞es a book.” Filipinos have some trouble in making the sound of short “I” and of “th” in this, these, and those, usually saying “De͞es,” “De͞es̝,” and “Dōs̝e.” Other articles whose names the children knew were used in the sentences, “This is a pen,” “This is a pencil.”
School Orchestra
After these were learned, their teacher made sentences such as “I give you the book,” at the same time giving it to some child; then, “You give the book to Francisco,”—“Francisco, give the book to me,” until in a few days the children knew accurately a long list of English words which they were able to use in simple sentences. These sentences were written on the blackboard for them to read and copy, and thus they began to speak, read, and write the English language. They worked at copying these sentences while the teacher taught the other classes. Sometimes they sat and listened while the older children recited, and in this way they learned new words. English was the only language used in the schoolroom, and often the boys and girls spoke it among themselves for practice.
After Francisco had worked several weeks in this way and could recognize many words as soon as he saw them, he was given a primary reader,—an honor of which he was very proud. He asked his father to show him how to weave a grass cover for his precious book so that he would not soil it. He made rapid progress, enjoyed his school life greatly, and in course of time he completed the work of the barrio school and went to the school in town.
Here he found two new interests which he had not known in the barrio school. Mrs. Bond, the wife of the American supervising teacher, had charge of the town school. She was an excellent musician and taught the pupils many songs. Filipinos love music, learn songs readily, and sing with great enthusiasm. The older pupils were becoming able to read music and sing their different parts correctly, and Francisco entered into this new subject with all his energy. The padre (pä′-drā), or priest, was much interested in the children’s musical training, and he made frequent use of it in his church services.
The other interest that Francisco found when he entered the town school was manual training, which was begun in the upper grades. The boys began making simple things out of bamboo and coconut wood, such as paper cutters, ladles, dippers, spoons, cups, and ash trays. Later, however, the work was extended to larger and more useful articles, such as tables, bookcases, benches, and desks for their own and barrio schools.
Provincial Schoolboys
Of course music and manual training took only a part of Francisco’s time; he was busy reading in more advanced books, and studying elementary English grammar, arithmetic, and geography. He was growing rapidly in body as well as in mind, and was learning some of the simple rules of health that he had been violating before this time because he knew no better. He was taking better care of his eyes, was more careful about the kind of water he drank and about eating overripe bananas. He knew now that it was better for him to keep the window of his sleeping room open at night instead of tightly closed as formerly, and he took some money that he had earned, by carrying a basket of fish to the market, to buy a mosquito netting for his bed.