Civic Duty

The following anecdote would be my Independence Day contribution.

It happened in the late seventies, more than a decade before it was my turn to play and learn in grade school, which in turn was more than a decade ago today. Back then there was this principal whom they call as Mister Badong. It must had been a strange name for a principal even during my grade school days, but maybe not during the seventies. Or maybe kids really didn't find it strange, and it was just me and my supposedly adult pseudo-sophistication. In fact, in this story the kids would be the one teaching a lesson they had learned from Mister Badong.

The seventies, as the oldies allege, seemed to be the time when this grade school deserved to be called the premiere elementary school of the city. The educators were very serious in their duty and teaching as a noble professions was the reality and not just as an utterance of the ideal. The present local political and business leaders, whom some have gone national or international, trooped to this grade school for their basic education. (Okay, some of them had gone corrupt, so the school was not that much of a premiere school eh. Then again, there had been other influences in the community, so...)

Mister Badong is one of those serious educators of long ago. He was into the observance of civic duties and other Boy Scout basics. He trained the little men on tying knots, starting fires and other fun survival techniques. In flag-raising ceremonies, he would be very particular about a certain line in the Lupang Hinirang, "it's sa langit mong bughaw, not mo'y!" he would repeatedly point out to the student body (I imagine him grabbing the microphone immediately after the National Anthem and speaking in a stern voice).

Mister Badong died in the seventies, but his influence lived on for quite a time. This was made evident one gray morning a few years later. The kids were lined up in the open field for the daily flag-raising ceremony. In the middle of singing the National Anthem, there was a sudden downpour. But, having been taught respect for the Flag by the departed principal, the children remained standing with their right hand over the left chest. They sang until the last note, then and only then did they run for cover.

Mabuhay!