Done With Junior Year

THEY SAY JUNIOR YEAR is Stuyvesant High School's toughest, and Sara's third grading period attendance shows it. There were days when she had to bang out to do grueling homework, study for a test or just crash to catch up on sleep. But I guess attendance can't spoil overall performance. Here's to senior year and college applications!

Yowza!

An Unlocked Door

BUT RATHER HEAVY. Can she open it? Sara's first college invitation from the Ivy League after her SAT scores.

The Thing With History

SARA'S (BELLY DANCE) GROUP in this year's SING! and her fall semester report card. Kinda low in history and computer science, but Spanish and American Lit rock. So does the diversity of these Stuyvesant girls.

From The Skylands

HUMOR FOR THE HOLIDAYS as I mark my tenth year of service in the agency. And Sara's SAT score, out of a perfect 1600, on her first attempt a couple of weeks ago. Happy holidays to all!

Maspeth couch

Through The Years

I USED TO WORRY sick about Sara tackling the subway by herself some years ago, but I guess changes just happen, like the rapid growth of the oak and plane trees I planted in front of the house in Maspeth when we first moved in, and those sure to come (good or bad) when big resident Amazon  moves into the Queens neighborhood beginning early next year.

THE LOCATION OF AMAZON’S NEW HEADQUARTERS IN NYC. COURTESY OF AMAZON

A President's Message

MI HIJA, MI PATRIA. In one of his "fireside chats", periodic public affairs radio broadcasts from Malacañang through which he updated Filipinos on the activities of the republic, former Philippine President Elpidio Quirino spoke about fatherly pride and the country's affection for Spain, a powerful message for the Día de la Hispanidad, its purity unblemished by the annoying background noise. Still a grieving widower when he ascended to presidency in 1948 (his wife Alicia and three children Armando, Norma and Fe Angela were killed by the Japanese during the Battle of Manila), Quirino also faced the challenges of postwar reconstruction and the Hukbalahap insurrectos. His only surviving daughter Victoria became the youngest official hostess of Malacañang at 16, performing the functions traditionally ascribed to a First Lady, this time having returned with a medal from an official trip to Spain. 

Suitcase Delights

TESS GOT FOR ME on her recent trip to Mindoro (through a nephew studying in Calapan) this rare copy of Antoon Postma's monumental book Annotated Mangyan Bibliography, 1570-1988 for less than the price of a bagful of Pinamalayan banana chips as reading companion. And a score of other Pinoy expatriate collector's books, mostly from New Day Publishers, for less than $40. Thanks for these awesome pasalubongs, Mom!

A thriving Pinamalayan enterprise

Missing The Point

REMEMBER THE SEVENTIES when aspiring Pinoy high school seniors had to tackle the NCEE to apply for college admission? As Sara prepares for the SAT, I exhumed this score report sent from the archives of the registrar of Ateneo de Manila University, where I spent my first two years of college before transferring to UP College Manila and eventually Diliman. I am sure that the test score helped me get that "for-needy-but-deserving-students" Ateneo Scholarship Foundation free tuition and residence at Cervini Hall (answering phone calls on some nights and weekends and relaying messages to dorm residents via intercom), until I had to leave the university as I suffered my promdi soul-searching in my junior year (See "One Hundred Years of Universitihood"). The NCEE was abolished in 1994 by, surprisingly, former president Fidel Ramos, who signed Republic Act 7731 to repeal an earlier presidential order that created it, prohibiting colleges and universities from denying admission to high school graduates who failed the nationwide test. Recently (and I think sensibly) however, there have been discussions to re-administer the NCEE, "to control the influx of undeserving students who flock to state-subsidized universities and colleges". Mona Valisno, who had rendered respectable service as Department of Education secretary in previous administrations, noted that re-implementing the NCEE would allow higher education institutions to accommodate more poor but deserving students, and observed that during her term, students who came from the "poorest of the poor” obtained 98 percent and above in the NCEE. I agree. And I think needy and gifted Pinoy students are inherently and independently studious, requiring no classes (unlike in the US) to prepare for these tests. Maybe the NCEE's return will have busy, hard-working Pinoy parents of talented children worrying less about college applications, as this credential will help their kids fend for themselves as they tackle academic frontiers beyond high school. Bringing the NCEE back, however, will require approval of the Congress as it has already been abolished by law.

SAT Progress Report

WE SPENT $3.6K of hard-earned bucks on SAT Summer Camp at Kweller Prep to help Sara prepare for college applications, and the investment is paying off very well. Her last practice test score is 90 points short of the 2018 perfect score of 1600, and she is determined to hit the mark when she takes her first actual test this fall, after a short trip with her cousins and Mom to Mindoro and Taiwan. Can't go; all summer vacations had been snapped up by coworkers with higher seniority.

Done With Sophomore Year

STRUGGLED WITH Algebra Honors, but still ended up in the '90s and won a gold in the NY Math Fair. Great job in Composition and European Lit. Here's to Junior Year in September!

Math Fair

SARA'S ZIPF'S LAW PAPER got a gold in the Greater New York Math Fair. Linguistics and statistics. What a mix. Maybe my writing can learn something from it. Way to go, babe!

More Heads Up

ANOTHER COLLEGE INVITATION for Sara, and her spring term report card. Stuyvesant doesn't give numerical grades in the first marking period; check codes at the bottom of the card for meaning of letter grades. Lab is either pass or unsatisfactory. Good job, babe!

SING!

BECAUSE BRAINIACS also need to chill out. Stuyvesant's annual musical production SING! is on tonight, Friday and Saturday. 100% written, produced, directed and performed by students, the event is always as spectacular as a Broadway show, for $20. Sara's group will be doing a belly dance routine which she also directed, and we are going despite the winter storm. UPDATE: Due to the winter storm, tonight's performance has been postponed for tomorrow, same time, same tickets.

A Heads Up

ONE OF THE VERY EARLY invitations Sara received last week.

Here Comes Trouble

ENCOUNTERED THIS poem by Dorianne Laux among Sara's English reading this winter break.

Break

We put the puzzle together piece
by piece, loving how one curved
notch fits so sweetly with another.
A yellow smudge becomes
the brush of a broom, and two blue arms
fill in the last of the sky.
We patch together porch swings and autumn
trees, matching gold to gold. We hold
the eyes of deer in our palms, a pair
of brown shoes. We do this as the child
circles her room, impatient
with her blossoming, tired
of the neat house, the made bed,
the good food. We let her brood
as we shuffle through the pieces,
setting each one into place with a satisfied
tap, our backs turned for a few hours
to a world that is crumbling, a sky
that is falling, the pieces
we are required to return to.

Winter Reading

JUST DISCOVERED Alec Klein's book which I hope will help me better understand life in my kid's school.

Fall Term Grades (Sophomore Year)

KINDA LOW IN Algebra Honors and Chemistry, but still in the 90s. Great in European Lit and English Composition. Why am I not surprised? A final grade average of 91.67% in Stuyvesant is awesome enough, but let's see what happens in the spring term. Good job, babe!

1 Kynor Avenue

MY RAMSHACKLE CABIN in Stanhope/Hopatcong, NJ in summertime. Google Maps will show you that it is the saddest house in the neighborhood if you click full screen to enlarge and the arrows to move/rotate the view. But for me it is King of the Hill, Top of the Heap, A Number 1--my paid-off, half-acre, one-hour drive refuge from the city. I hope by posting this I will be inspired to get out of Maspeth and do some work there when it gets warm.

Tale From The Trip

TRYING NEW THINGS in a new poem.