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For some Fil-Am kids, summer break is an opportunity to learn more especially about themselves.
At the Filipino Cultural School (FCS) in Bellflower, California, children from ages 5 to 18 years old learn as much of the Philippines as they could.
“They are trying to find out what it means to be Filipino. They’re trying to connect back home,” said Paolo Roca, co-president of the FCS.
The lesson plans include history as well as current Philippine issues. There is also visual and performing arts and language.
The program was founded by retired Filipino teachers from the local Sampaguita Club in 1965.
They had several campuses throughout the Los Angeles area, but now, only the Bellflower campus remains strong with nearly a hundred students.
Tuition is minimal at USD$70 dollars for the whole two-month day camp, two days a week.
Former students now run the program.
“Young children should know where they come from, being a Filipino not just in words, not just in deeds, not just in the face but everything else,” said pioneer teacher, Lita Clamor.
For the students who come from all over Southern California, Filipino Cultural School allows them to learn lessons that not all traditional schools can provide.
“In my district, they don’t really teach about the Filipino history. We’re not really included. But once this year, they mentioned the Delano movement and how the Filipinos are involved but that’s the only thing I ever heard about it,” said student Inah Mangahas.
In the past half century, the program has even produced many Filipino-American community leaders such as Cerritos Mayor Mark Pulido. Pulido’s kids are now students carrying on the FCS tradition. (Read more on Balitang America.)
Text: Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
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