Jose Abad Santos Memorial School Quezon City

Jose Abad Santos Memorial School - Quezon City
Location
Quezon City
Philippines
Information
Type Private, Progressive Nonsectarian, Coeducational
Motto Learning To Be Free
Principal Diana Gutierrez
Grades K to 12
Campus EDSA, Quezon City
Color(s) Maroon, and White          
Athletics Badminton, Basketball, Volleyball
Hymns JASMS Song
Website www.pwu.edu.ph/jasms-qc.html

The Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) is the basic education institution (K to 12) of the Philippine Women's University (PWU). JASMS offers preschool, elementary, and secondary education. The school is an acknowledged pioneer in progressive education developed from and for the Philippine democratic experience based on a unique approach described as ''education for democracy'' or ''learning to be free"[1] by its founding director, the late Doreen Barber Gamboa.

JASMS QC opened along what is now known as EDSA to serve the needs of the growing community of Philamlife Homes in 1956. In 1961, the JASMS High School at Quezon City opened.

Presently, the JASMS system occupies three campuses: the nursery (3-year-olds) to grade 6 levels of PWU JASMS Manila (formerly JASMS Indiana) on Pilar Hidalgo-Lim Street in Malate, Manila; the PWU JASMS Manila High School (grades 7 to 12) in the PWU main campus on Taft Avenue in Malate, Manila; and the nursery to grade 12 campus of JASMS Quezon City (QC) in 51 Congressional Ave. cor. Villa Soccoro St., Brgy. Bahay Toro, Quezon City.

History

Birth of JASMS

JASMS evolved from the preschool (est. 1933) of the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) under the leadership of President Francisca Tirona Benitez. President Benitez hired Doreen Barber Gamboa and Priscilla Abaya to first set up and run the preschool in the fenced-in area which was the PWU gymnasium. Gamboa was of Irish descent and had trained in psychology.

Gamboa and Abaya noticed that most of the children in the new PWU preschool were being held back from fully exploring the books, art materials, blocks, and play facilities provided them in school. They wouldn’t participate in the singing, art, and story-telling activities led by the two young teachers — except for three boys who raced through the materials and eagerly participated in activities. The teachers noticed that these boys were the only ones who were dropped off at school without yayas (nannies), parents, or relatives.

First, the teachers sought the cooperation of over-protective parents to free the children from their yayas and other "watchers." Next, they expanded the physical set-up of the classroom to include the outdoors. The children were encouraged to play vigorously, explore their environment, and experiment widely with the materials that the environment had to offer. Movement was encouraged and employed, rather than restricted. As the population of the school grew, so did the popularity of the school with the parents. The parents petitioned for the preschool’s expansion into a bona fide grade school.

In 1949, the PWU elementary department was renamed the Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) in honor of the late Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, a World War II hero who was chairman of the PWU board of trustees before his execution by the enemy in 1944.

Around this time, a reorganization of the elementary school (on Taft Avenue) took place in response to the clamor of parents that the approach is carried over into the high school. The growth of the work has been rapid since then. Two schools developed out of this initial effort: JASMS (now PWU JASMS) in Manila and later (1956) in Quezon City, both coeducational from nursery to grade 12.

History highlights

The Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) is the outcome of the many years of work that Doreen Barber Gamboa had with children. She was greatly inspired by Francisca Tirona Benitez who was a co-founder and president of the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), the first college for women in Asia (est. 1919).

Mission and vision

Mission

The development of a wholesome person, participating member of the home, the community and the world through: experience in group living, finding a variety of opportunities for creative expression, confidence to explore and valuing the thinking-questing process, acquiring skills to move ahead in life, sense of fulfillment in accomplishment, respect for the individual's worth, consideration for others and the beauty in cooperative effort with reverence and appreciation for all manifestations of life and the realization that a child grows up only once and the need to let his childhood be a happy one.

Vision

The children are our future, the builders of our nation: belonging, contributing with initiative and responsibility; with sense of personal and social worthiness, working with others cooperatively; God-fearing and imbued with reverence for life.

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. Gamboa, Doreen (1977). Learning to Be Free. Manila, Philippines: Doreen B. Gamboa Foundation for Childhood Education Inc.
  2. Section, Quezon City Public Library Local History. "Quezon City Public Library Local History Section: 2010 Quezon City Gawad Parangal, October 12, 2010". Quezon City Public Library Local History Section. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  3. "Over 6,000 join first batch of Grade 11 students". Rappler. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  4. "List of Senior High Schools | Department of Education". www.deped.gov.ph. Retrieved 2015-12-27.

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