Success is never too late: THE STORY OF RODEL

By Flor Abel Vilog

Some children are ready to learn to read by age six or seven, and some take much longer, just like Rodel, a nineteen-year-old Grade 7 student at Ponciano Bernardo High School.

I am especially interested in how students spend their time outside of the school day. In interacting with Rodel, he shared many stories, revealing the importance of family in his daily experiences.

What does literacy look like in the home of Rodel? Here is what he shared.

It was about noon, and Rodel, who was a nine-year-old boy at the time, was tired of toiling on the soil in the rice field in Catbalogan, Samar, his hometown. For almost four years, this has been his way of life since his father died.

“Rodel, lunch is ready,” said his mother, who had just finished cooking.” “Come on, let’s eat.”

“Mother, you eat first. I will just serve myself later,” Rodel replied.

Thoughts began to cross his head while he worked on his farm activities. “What if I did not stop studying?”

Rodel was nine years old when he dropped out of school, and he was in the first grade. As soon as he entered school, it became immediately apparent to him that he had a serious problem, even at an early age. The easiest topics in first grade were the ones he had trouble with. He failed to complete most of his work. It was a combination of struggling with the material itself, particularly anything involving reading, and boredom. He tried everything to avoid going to school since he disliked every minute of it. From that time on, he assigned himself to substitute for his father in the farm activities. His mother disagreed, but he insisted because he knew his mother was already old and could hardly work on the farm. He promised to go back to school as soon as everything on the farm was fixed. But four years had already passed, and going to school was impossible, as he thinks now.

Then tears came out of his eyes. Rodel remembered that when he was twelve, his hometown was hit by a typhoon, with flash floods occurring. Their house was totally damaged. He did not expect such massive devastation in his hometown. His family was not prepared. The following day, his family took the free flights to Metro Manila offered by the military and took their chances. His family just needed to escape the devastation and hunger.

But life in Manila was not easy for Rodel and his family as well. He explained, “Isang beses lang kami kumain sa isang araw. Minsan ay nakikita ko ang sarili kong kumakatok sa kapitbahay, humihingi ng pagkain. Ang aking labing-isang mga kapatid at ang aking ina ay pinili na mamuhay ng kanilang sarili. Naghiwalay kami ng landas. (We only had one meal a day. I occasionally find myself knocking on the neighbor’s door to request food. My mother and my 11 siblings, and I all decided to live our own lives. After that, we parted ways)

That day, Rodel had come to realize something. “I do not want my future family to go through this kind of hardship. I don’t want my future wife to have trouble managing the monthly allowance because I have nothing more to provide; I don’t want my future kids to attend school without “baon.” (daily allowance). I don’t want my future children to endure the hardship of working the land on a farm and turning animals out to pasture only to provide for the family.” His dream of becoming a policeman once again lingers in his mind. He asked for God’s message, trying to feel the will of God for his life. He prayed hard and meditated before going to bed.

The next day, Rodel woke up with the decision to go back to school. He set out to find someone who would pay for his schooling in exchange for helping them out around the house. “Bahala na! (Come what may!) Maybe I can arrange things with my “amo” (boss). This is for my future. This is for my family’s future. I want to give the best for them. Besides, I know that God will never forsake me.” time keeping up and came nearly close to failing many classes. His classmates who were six or seven years younger than him continuously bullied him throughout elementary.

“Paano ako nakarating sa halos pagtatapos ng elementarya habang ako ay hindi marunong bumasa at sumulat? (How did I go from being functionally illiterate to almost graduating elementary?)

“Mahirap sabihin, anumang oras, na hindi ako marunong magbasa. Hindi ako marunong magbasa ng mga libro sa English, mahabang babasahin. Nangangahulugan ito na ang karamihan sa mga babasahin ay lampas sa aking makakaya, sa totoo lang, mayroon pa rin. (I could not read in the usual sense. I could not read English books or lengthy articles which meant that most of information written in English was out of my reach, and to be honest, some of it still is)

“Sa aking mga taon ng pag-aaral sa elementary, karamihan ay pinaniniwalaan ko ang aking mga guro na talagang tamad ako, o tanga. May mali talaga siguro sa akin.(During the most of my elementary, I mostly agreed with my teachers when they said that I must be stupid or lazy. I must have a problem).

Having found someone who could finance his schooling in exchange for him working as their house helper, Rodel finally returned to school as a first grader again. He was twelve years old when he walked into first grade. Entering first grade was the hardest time in his life.He divided his four hours of sleep each night between job and study.

“Wala akong friends, wala akong life. (I have no friends. I don’t enjoy life). Pero hindi ako makareklamo (But I could not complain),” he admitted. Afterward, it was clear he was not going to graduate elementary on time. He had failed two English subjects, so he would end up needing to take Grade 3 and Grade 4 English all at the same time in the fifth grade or repeat Grade 5.

Entering fifth and sixth grades were even more difficult for him because classrooms were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Rodel, instruction was delivered to him through offline modular distance learning. He described what it was like to learn under a new learning set up amid a raging pandemic. For him, attending offline modular classes wore him down.

“Kapag nasa bahay ako, ganap na malayo sa eskwelahan, parang mas katulad ito ng isang tamad na pakiramdam,” Rodel claimed.

“Karaniwan akong nakakaramdam ng stress at pagod at ayaw ko nang magkaroon pa ng anumang gawain sa paaralan,” he added.

But even before the school shut down, Rodel hardly remembers having any connections that lasted over a long period of time with anyone interested in knowing the real causes of his struggle especially in reading. Most of his elementary teachers either felt he was stupid or lazy, or they gave up on him. He had a difficult

Then came seventh grade. At present, Rodel, now 19 years old, is currently enrolled in Grade 7 at Ponciano Bernardo High School. According to his reading teacher, Mrs. Gloria, “Rodel still has a difficult time trying to read a text.

As Rodel stated so well, because he could never read during the formative years of his young life, he did not read any of the usual books that other students generally read. He was utterly unprepared for it and immediately recognized he was in serious trouble.

“Dahil hindi ako marunong magbasa sa mga taon na binubuo ang aking pagkabata, hindi ako nagbasa ng alinman sa mga karaniwang aklat na madalas binabasa ng ibang mga estudyante.”

Halfway through seventh grade, Rodel started to rely too much on the text’s words and less on the narrative’s meaning. It became obvious that he would need extra assistance after moving him back a few reading levels to improve on his reading fluency in English,” said Mrs. Gloria.

Mrs. Gloria further explained, “I came to the conclusion that Rodel would benefit from daily individual guided reading lessons with word work in the classroom and a 30-minute individual session after comparing his reading profile and observations.”

“I have casual discussions regarding Rodel’s development at least once a week and perhaps even more frequently. I congratulate him when he completes his tasks on his own, and I come up with solutions when the text presents difficulties. Rodel succeeds in reading when we are on the same page because we have the same expectations, as I have seen,” she added.

Like Rodel, I am aware that millions of Filipino children and young adult struggle in the absence of any form of help. What a reading adventure!