How has SJA fared since we left? October 1, 2007
Posted by mind doodler in Forum, San Juan, San Juan City MM, San Juan MM, St. John's Academy.trackback
WHEN DANTE INTRODUCED THE IDEA of an anniversary-reunion back in June, I started doing some search on things St. John’s in the hope of coming upon a lead, if not a direct link, to batchmates’ websites, or any reference to our classmates, teachers and school staff. That’s when I saw the updated official SJA school site, by the way (see Blogroll on the right column).
One of my searches led me to this site, a Forum on Education under the official Philippine Government site.
The thread started as an inquiry in May 2005 by a mother, using the alias mikikay, whose son was “turned down” by SJA on account of what she says was her being a single parent: “they noticed that there was no entry on the “father’s name” on my son’s birth certificate which means that I am a single mom”, in spite of the fact, she says, her son having above-average grades than what was required by the school. Anyway, her post ended with: “Where’s the logic in that? I thought that this problem was resolved a long time ago. Well… guess I’m wrong. It’s a good thing that there are other schools who don’t care about the parents’ marital status since it’s the children that they are going to educate anyway.”
The replies to mikikay’s post are excerpted below (copied directly from the forum):
By: Kamatis Posted: 5/14/2005 Ireklamo mo iyan, bawal kasi yung ganyan na hindi tinatanggap kapag single parent yung parent. Ke kasal o hindi ang mga magulang, dapat tinatanggap – batas yan! Discrimination yung ginagaw ng paaralan na iyan
Ok, point taken and I fully agree with this one. However, I haven’t come across a double parent parent.
By: jefroxx Posted: 5/16/2005 You know! Agree ako sau..
Kakainis talaga yang mga catholic schools na nangdi-discriminate ng mga estudyanteng gustong mag-aral sa kanila na single parent ang magulang…
Uhm, a catholic school…
By: mikikay Posted: 5/18/2005 salamat sa reply nyong dalawa. Yun nga din ang sinasabi ko kaya ako nagpost dito. Hindi ko alam kung saan ako pwedeng magreklamo. Sa pagkakaalam ko, matagal nang ipinagbawal ang discrimination, di ba? Quality of education ang habol ng magulang pero, kung lahat ng ini-expect mong maganda ang quality ay ganito naman na namimili ng tatanggapin, balewala rin kahit maganda ang standard nila…
(I have to dodge this statement.)
By: Momskie Posted: 1/23/2006 I want to post also the reaction I had when I watch and witness the declamation contest in this school held last Dec 2005 particularly for the GHrade V and VI category. I think the result of the contest should be re evaluated, because it was very obvious that the results were not convinsing. Students and parents who were there and watched the contest were not happy about the results…
I suppose one does not watch and witness enough, or can watch and not witness…Whatever. Lucky me, I started St. John’s AcaHdeHmy in High SchooHl.
By: friendz Posted: 1/24/2006 hi mikikay, in the school application form that you filled out for your child, did you put the Father’s Name on the space provided? or should it be blank (to be the same with the birth certificate)? im just curious, coz why can’t we just put the name of the father on the application, even if they are not acknowledged or unknown (based on the birth certificate)?…
My friendz, please read original post.
By: gingersnaps Posted: 4/7/2006 hi, im a student of st. johns academy and i would like to say that before, they accept single parent…but as time passes by, they become strict and strict kaya ung mga students nagrerebelde na rin minsan. Im honestly admitting that i dont want this school, this school is very unusual and very strict..they’re torturing the students…
Really. Unusual in what sense? I suppose using torture is kind of an unusual teaching technique, true.
By: openminded Posted: 4/12/2006 gingersnaps,
i have been a graduate of st john’s academy and my only problem with it is none. I think that st johns academy is a great school, well in fact it has trained many of its students for more strenuous world. I know this for a fact that st john’s means of teaching is different from other schools but isn’t it effective?…
…
why dont you know that it has produced many of todays “who’s whos”. did you know that president GMA has studied here, so as with former president erap??.the Palanca brothers were all of st. john’s pride and joy. Winnie Munsod,Tanya Garcia,Chino Trinidad and a lot more….
…
think about what you’re saying for you might just regret it!!
respectfully yours
Reading the rest of this post is strenuous enough already.
By: openminded Posted: 4/12/2006 To those posting their angst to St. John’s…PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST!
1.SJA is non-sectarian.
2.The principal would never utter such profanity.
*****To gingersnaps*****
If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen.
Stop complaining…instead of parading your so-called hardships about the school, why don’t you lock youself up and study so that you’ll have a chance to graduate.
If I were to send my kids to SJA now, I’d have wanted another advise besides them being locked up…
By: goldendragon Posted: 4/13/2006 gingersnaps,
just like to react to what you said fellow johnite. Yeah, i was a student of sja. with your comments on children being offsprings of broken families should not be an issue with regards to their school entry. All are equal. I would like to comment on your “miserable” life as a student. When i had my time there i thought the same too. Kainis silang mga titser(tama ba ang baybay?). You had to speak in english even when your breathing inside the school except of course in Filipino…
Means one stops breathing when speaking in Filipino, I guess?
By: Sophialoren Posted: 3/16/2007 Hi there I’m planning to transfer my daughter to St. John. Is this really good school?.
Knock, knock…take two:
By: Sophialoren Posted: 3/16/200 Hi there, I’m planning to transfer my daughter to St. John because I heard a lot of good stuff about this school. You are a johnite and I believe you can answer my questions. I just want to know if the students from the graduating class pass the entrance exams in prestigous universites such as Ateneo, U.P. etc. or were they able to enroll in the said universities. What univerity do they usually go to after high School?
Thanks
…and UST, La Salle and other schools as well, I believe…
By: mareOh Posted: 5/15/200 My 2 kids are studying in St John’s since nursery.They are now in first year high skul and grade 5 levels. I enrolled my kids in St John’s even my family lives in Makati. why? All i can say is that the skul really produces high IQ students.. The skul make sure that there parents are guiding their kids’ studies/behavior which reflected in students performance in day-to-day basis…
Not sure if I, on behalf of my batchmates, should be flattered with this statement. Oh, anyway, none of us made it to MENSA.
By: mareOh Posted: 5/15/2007 transfer mo na sya. hindi ka magsisi. but it will take a lot of hardship as a parent in guiding your kid’s lesson.
I hate to think sending our children to SJA causes one a life of hardship.
By: mareOh Posted: 5/22/2007 most of my johnite friends in (san sebastian)college are very articulate in english… erap came from St john. one of the monetary board member of central bank came from st johns. some of i knew studied in UST, UP, Ateneo, san Beda others.. my kids are studying in st john’s…
With due respect to Pres. Erap, but he may not be the best example to give if you’d like to really prove how good St. John’s is in teaching English to its students, simply because he’s most comfortable with and prefers speaking in Tagalog.
By: Matotina Posted: 6/13/2007 Mood: Pensive
Hi everyone. I’m a fellow Johnite almuni. Just some points on the several discussions even though I know this will be a little too late.
1. St. John’s Academy is non-sectarian, not a Catholic…
2. To those who are bad-mouthing the school regarding mental tortures, you should see the other side of the coin…
3. Students of SJA have a tendency to have big head when it comes to English (haha). Yes we are not allowed to speak Filipino except during our Filipino class…
Come highschool, new English teachers are bullied by the students, because of their incapability in teaching the subject…
4. I am not sure if the standards of the school are still the same. Based from what I heard, all the pioneer and exemplary teachers have passed away, retired or moved to greener pastures. And, I feel lucky to be one of the students to have undergone their teaching. So I’m not sure if I can still recommend SJA.
Good luck to you all:)
And so the dicussion ends with Matotinah’s entry, dated 6/13/2007. Now, is it just me or is it a generation thing?
I’d be interested to know when “St. Johnite” was shortened to “Johnite” for one. Anyway, just please allow me to raise this mundane issue instead, as I believe, if the statements above were not amusing enough — not just in wording but in content — then I don’t know what is, because, again, I believe that if Lola, Mrs. Arin or Mrs. Zorilla were to read this discussion, then there is more than enough reason for teachers to go ballistic. By the way I didn’t know that PGMA belongs to SJA’s “who’s whos” no matter how often I tried to flip the coin over to look for something that says so. 
hi. i am a resident of san juan and i’ve been searching the Net for valuable information re SJA as i’m considering this school (apart from two other institutions) for my preschooler. SJA was introduced to me by two parents whose children were also studying there. I got convinced that it is a very good school because one, it’s tuition fee is affordable for us and second, i learned that the curriculum is stringent. i don’t think i am a heartless mother who wants her only child to be “tortured” but i look at it positively, that it’s better she gets trained that way early in life, so she could handle everything else after with ease. fortunately, the hubby shares the same view.
i also came across this same forum at gov.ph that you cited before i bumped into your blog and now, i’m confused whether to even consider SJA or not anymore.
i know the batch of faculty then and now makes the difference to most schools. would you have an idea how the SJA teaching is now or is it comparable to your batch’s? i just needed some reliable information… hope you’d care enough to drop me a note thru my email addy…thanks!
Hello Farrah Gutierrez,
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
I hope you took the comments above in the spirit of fun as was intended. I hope, too, that the contents of this site do not become major factors in striking out St. John’s in the list of institutions you’re considering entrusting your daughter’s education to. That you read beyond the literal sense of the posted comments lifted from the gov.ph site is really healthy, I believe.
Unfortunately, I personally don’t have the faintest idea of the school’s current faculty and curriculum as I’ve not been anywhere near SJA in the last 25 years — save perhaps the times when I needed an alternate route to Makati via Valenzuela St. — nor have I gotten in touch with anyone with children enrolled there, including those from my batch. (I may be the exception, though).
While I strongly agree with how the quality of faculty affects the quality of education an institution provides, I have to point out also that much can be attributed to two other important things: environment and a strong support system.
St. John’s is located in what may strictly be classified a residential area of San Juan. As I said, I still pass Valenzuela when necessary, and I see that not much has changed and I’m happy with that. There’s an element of safety to the fact that the SJA compound is far from the madding crowd and I believe that this kind of environment is healthy for the students.
SJA has kept a low profile all these years. I do know that it tends to be somewhat choosy in accepting students and one’s financial capacity has never been the primary reason for admission to the school. (I have to admit at being surprised by the case of mikikay, the mother, however; it both amused and saddened me and wished that the reasons she cited for the rejection of her son were not true). My sister and I studied in St. John’s; we were reared single-handedly by our mother, herself a single parent.
Anyhow, it still appears that SJA is not as much as concerned with quantity as it is with quality in terms of student population. It has remained a small school in that aspect, one, which I think, makes it more manageable for its faculty and system to handle.
Another point I wish to make is the child’s background and family. As you know, SJA is non-sectarian. If you think it matters little that a school does not necessarily have to be faith-based to be considered ‘good’, then by all means let it remain in your top 3. I believe that the system SJA put in place still makes up for what makes its alumni responsible parents and citizens who are God-fearing, contribute positively to their communities, exercise tolerance and embrace diversity.
The school, at least, has not been thrown into the limelight as a result of wrongdoing or anything negative since its founding. SJA and its students still enjoy a good record and are fortunate to not have acquired a negative reputation, nor have they been objects of ridicule by others. For us, this is comforting thought.
I am speaking, of course, as an alumna and can only infer from my own experience and from what I have been made aware of. My batchmates may have something more to say.
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