Wednesday, February 12, 2014

An Open Letter To Jubilee (A Repost)

Interrupting my travel post with this one, sorry!  Will get back to regular programming in a few days.

The following is a screenshot of an already removed post about Jubilee Christian Academy in Quezon City.  My alma mater.  While I do not support the use of countless swear words, I can somehow empathize with the author.  This post was put up by a certain chipsahoy on February 10, but was immediately removed a day after.  Maybe the higher ups in the school had something to do with it.  Lucky for you, and unlucky for the school, I was able to save it.  So... enjoy :)





Shocked?  While I may not vouch for every single thing written on the post, I do know for a fact that some of them are true.  I posted the link on my Facebook wall yesterday, and other batchmates chimed in.  Here are some of their comments:



And here's my own two cents:


Do I still have plans to enroll my future children in Jubilee?  No.  Though I know that each school has their own flaws, this is just too much.  I reposted this not because I have some wicked way of planning to take down the school.  Heck no, I'm too busy for that.  What I want  is awareness.  And I want change.  It seems that the school has had their wayward ways for far too long.  And this is not how a Christian school, or any school for that matter, should go about.  So... you be the judge :)

9 comments:

  1. The link below is another open letter to Jubilee.

    http://oreoos.thoughts.com/posts/a-note-to-jubilee

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  2. Hi notafanofjca! Thanks for sharing the link! It's nice to see the insights of other alumni, and I really hope that Jubilee can look into this matter and change for the better.

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  3. It's sad to know that there are JCA students like this open letter author who exist. His crass language, disorganized delivery and superficial points not only indicate his bad character and immense level of immaturity, but also show that he unfortunately does not imbibe the Christian morals, values and education that Jubilee students are very much known for. It even makes me question if the author is from Jubilee. Doesn't sound like it in my honest opinion!

    Personally, I'm proud of being a Jubilee alumni. I'm glad to see how many top achievers have came out from my alma mater. I'm happy to observe the many improvements the school had invested in through the years. If the best thing that Chipsahoy can complain about is the large LED board installed on campus, then he should have seen the facilities we used to have when we were still students! Now those were the good ol' low-tech days!

    Truth be told though, I've always believed that Jubilee was never about having the best high-tech facilities. It's never about winning every sport championship. Instead, Jubilee is known for churning out relatively smart, respectful, diligent, and well mannered students who try to live Christ-like lives in whatever they do. And the school has been quite successful in doing so. Consequently, thanks to the discipline and good Christian morals we've learned at Jubilee, many of us Jubilee alumni have became accomplished men and women who are decently successful at work be it in climbing the corporate ladder or in managing their own family businesses. Many of us have become relatively good businessmen, good sons/daughters, good husbands/wives, and/or good parents. Proudly, many of us still harbor good Christian values. I think all of the above reasons are why parents still send their kids to Jubilee. And why Jubilee has been steadily growing all throughout these years.

    Sure, the author is right. JCA is not perfect. Many a times, we wished that the Chinese education should be better, sports would be more highlighted, and there would be better facilities for its students. it's difficult to operate a good school. There's a gazillion small decisions on how it should be run, and most of them are correct. But haphazardly cursing about these issues in a blog to get some notoriety is not the solution to the problem. Taking action is.

    Now, unless Chipsahoy would like to kick the present school administration out and run Jubilee himself instead (and Lord, help us if that happens!), I think he should instead calm down, look at the problem more holistically, and get involved in initiating change in an organized and civilized manner. Instead of working alone and crowing his frustrations via an anonymous blog, I would strongly encourage him to sincerely starting working closely with the alumni, the PTA, and the school administrators and come up with concrete plans to further improve the school. I'm sure the school would listen so long as Chipsahoy keeps his words clean, and his thoughts correct. Otherwise, all I see is an exceptionally unhappy student who's all talk but no action, who tries to shame his school but embarrasses himself instead.

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps your batch was properly taken care of by the school, but certainly not ours, not the current ones, and most probably not the future batches. Lucky you I guess.

      "Truth be told though, I've always believed that Jubilee was never about having the best high-tech facilities. It's never about winning every sport championship."

      Yes, it's not about the facilities, but I'm sure that you're aware that the school's tuition is just as expensive as other private schools, and those private schools have better facilities than Jubilee. If anything, this is a sign of corruption.

      "Consequently, thanks to the discipline and good Christian morals we've learned at Jubilee...."

      No. As a Christian myself, I learned most of my Christian values in Church and Sunday school. CE in Jubilee is merely just a subject we had to pass, and nothing more to most of us. I learned a lot of facts from the Bible, but not much of the values were taught or were emphasized.

      "Many of us have become relatively good businessmen, good sons/daughters, good husbands/wives, and/or good parents."

      I absolutely disagree. Everything I learned about handling a business was through experience and some, from college subjects. Jubilee has no contribution to this whatsoever. And for being good sons/daughters, husbands/wives, parents, I would rather give credit to the parents and the family, NOT to the school. If the school is going to be credited for the behavior and the success of the student after he/she graduates, the school should also be credited for the many who were unsuccessful in the real world.

      "And why Jubilee has been steadily growing all throughout these years."

      I think you mean steadily declining.

      "There's a gazillion small decisions on how it should be run, and most of them are correct."

      What hole have you been living under? Clearly you haven't understood the rant post. I would testify, that according to my sources, all of Chipsahoy's claims were true. You should get your facts straight before declaring such an audacious and presumptuous claim.

      "But haphazardly cursing about these issues in a blog to get some notoriety is not the solution to the problem. Taking action is."

      I agree about the cursing, but, have you ever thought that nobody's taking action because some of us have utterly lost hope on the school? As I mentioned previously, it's unfair for you to generalize everyone's experience based on your experience alone. You were just lucky that you've probably been taken good care of the school but, how about the rest of us?

      "Otherwise, all I see is an exceptionally unhappy student who's all talk but no action, who tries to shame his school but embarrasses himself instead."

      My final point of contention. All the cursing is crass, I agree, but, I can honestly relate with him/her. I am pretty sure, that you represent the minority of all the JCA graduates, and by choosing to defend a clearly flawed system, you are making yourself look like bigger fool than he/she did.

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  4. i remember JCA very well! i was framed for cheating, just coz a teacher was not present during exams, which she couldn't admit right? so she just sided with the popular kid. ganyan ang JCA. I will never enroll my kids in JCA

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  5. very weird, collect school id before school year ends.

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  6. Back in the day i used to be a notorious cheater, whenever there was an exam both my palms are filled with ink written answers hence i was called "the handyman" and if i dont have a pen i have to painstakingly carve the the answers using my mongol no. 2 pencil unto my palms like a monkey scratching its butt . I cringe and shake my head whenever i reminisce the days of desperation.. And yes i agree with yall! JCA is overrated; terrible school

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  7. I wish I read your blog before I enrolled my daughter in that school! So disappointed in that whole school. Pulling out my daughter soon even if school year is not finish. They can keep the tuition fee I paid for all I care. Exasperated already!

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  8. I would like to ask, have you ever encountered classmates before who have adhd problems and the school is not well trained enough to handle those situations but rather put the child in a provocative situation and then later on issuing incident reports? Have you also encountered a situation wherein the principal, program director and advisor not being on the same page? Test papers that have misleading questions/ errors?

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