A Silver Jubilarian Reflects on the High School Batch 80’s Times Through Boyhood Days and Manhood Years

Some 29 years ago, in June 1976, the Ateneo de Naga High School Batch 1980, this year's Silver Jubilarians, marched up the Four Pillars in a ritual that would be repeated almost everyday over the next four of their formative years. It was initially composed of some 240 young men, a number that eventually would pare down to 180 due to academic, disciplinary and perhaps, economic and health, attrition.

Coming from all around the region --- from “Isarog through Bicol land” as the school march they would presently learn says it, the young men had nothing more in common than their pubescence and their uniform; yes, up to the prescribed haircuts. It was kayumanggi cut, for everyone, shaved-white side wall. Military style, it was a cut that made them look much younger than their years even as they were raring to prove to themselves and everyone that they have become adults. But four years of shared routine, consisting of hard study, harder play and shared prayers would bond them as brothers, immersed in noble Jesuit and Catholic values and traditions and committed to praising the Lord God by supporting one another and serving members of the larger community. The campus became home to them; in fact, where one or more of the batch met, it became home to them.

Today, 25 years later, the members of Batch 80, now styling themselves as the Mighty 80s, trek home from various corners of the globe, lugging with them the experiences and accomplishments, gained over virtually a generation, from various vocations and professions. They return to the campus of their youth, eager to renew the brotherly ties they forged, reminisce the idyllic days spent together and strengthen their commitment to the values they gained at the premier school in the Bicolandia.

For sure, a good part of the remembrances will be of the popular culture the members immersed themselves in. It is afterall amusing and de-stressing to remember that members of Batch 80 used to dress up in two-inch clogs and 14-inch flares, held up by three-inch belts. They swept off the dust and the dirt as they walked up the Ateneo Avenue through the campus driveway, up the Four Pillars, through the wooden corridors of the Administration building toward Burns Hall. Thank God, the Hall's corridors were shiny clean. When it rained, the water mark on their pants was as high as our shin, because the rainwater seeped up the longer-than-our-leg pant length. They then discovered Bang-Bang fashion, maong with braids at the pant seat and slide pockets and held up again by braided leather belts, matched with body-hugging shirts with braids across the chest. Who won't cringe and smile, for instance, on remembering wearing the sabrina-style shirt, first, and then, the muscle shirt. Before the graduation though, fashion evolved to more sedate style of the straight cut pants and more proper shirts.

And then there was the music. Who would not have fun remembering that High School was the time when Commodores bumped the bump, Donna Summer seduced everyone with her husky voice and sexy tunes, when the Manila Sound of the Hotdogs was giving way to Pinoy Rock – as in Mike Hanopol's Jeproks and Hagibis' Lingon agad, pag may babaing dumaan – even as the Pinoy Pop that eventually would be Pinoy standards were gaining ground. Remember Rico Puno, Hajji Alejandro, Leah Navarro. Who would not dance the pointed shoes and fingers on remembering the iconic sound of the times: the Bee Gees with their Saturday Night Fever, night fever, night fever, night feeveeer….. Or for that matter, who would forget the Saturday Night Fever Dance? Everyone, as in everyone, would have something to say about that. For a while, we dabbled with the Beatles sound, with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Who would not remember Mama's? The after-class and after-drill tambayan, where seven pesos got one a six-inch plate of spaghetti and a bottle of softdrinks? Where one met up with the girls of CSI and other schools? Where glances with the dreaded SRB and padinos led to a number of melees?

Of course, there were those who preferred the ever reliable and filling pan de coco of the Assembly Hall Canteen.

Who would forget that once Ateneans were turned back from watching a free movie in relation to the PJAA drive because of a coordination snafu? Although now, we think, that that was a calculated move on the part of theater management, kasi lugi na sila from all those free movies.

And finally, who would forget the perennial futile attempts of the entire Ateneo regiment to wrest the championship in the Penafrancia parade competitions from perennial champion CSI? Truly, we fought...and died everytime.

On a more serious note, though, they may remember as part of the rite of renewal that a number of significant path-breaking changes marked the Batch 80's stint in the campus.

For instance, it was with the Batch that the students, for the first time in the school, were classified not according to the elitist honors system, but in egalitarian Learning Groups or LGs. It was the first batch also whose lessons were structured in so-called learning modules, an approach that allowed each student a great leeway in pacing their learning.

Then, too, Batch 80 was the first to have sung the Alma Mater song, having had the privilege of sharing time and learning with then Jesuit brother, Nemesio Que, who composed it in its senior year. Fr. Nemy was also religion teacher and guidance counselor for the Batch in its last year, a stint that was memorable for the peer-like closeness and openness between counselor and counseled never before seen in the campus.

Finally, and perhaps, most importantly, it was during the Batch's senior year that the school seal was re-designed, declaring the school's greater alignment and oneness with the traditions and thrusts of Jesuit education. The pages of the Batch 80's Annual, Triumph , explains this, thus: "As she turns forty this year (1980), Ateneo de Naga adds something to her seal which is found on the seal of the other Ateneos in Manila, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and Zamboanga: the escutcheon of the family of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, with the stripes symbolizing nobility, and the wolves and kettle symbolizing generosity. It is an expression of her intention to move out of any isolation and to take her place beside her sister schools in the forefront of the struggle for justice and service of the faith through quality Christian education. Nobly and generously, she will seek God's kingdom through the integral development of her members into men and women fully alive and at the service of their country, for God's greater glory."

For all intents and purposes, the change made in the school seal was merely and purely symbolic. Certain practices and initiatives that tended to operationalize the desired changes have already foreshadowed and translated the intentions of the symbolic change in the school seal. The LG approach for instance provided opportunity for the students to learn and practice noblesse oblige. One who learned ahead in the self-learning system can advance to the next module while assisting those in one's or the other LGs that are pacing him. Here, sharing and caring among the learners were given as much importance as the learning gained. Likewise, the welfare of the group was stressed as much as that of the individual's.

There is no better proof of this than what the members of the Batch 80 have been doing as part of their observance of their silver jubilee. In a tribute to the Ateneo de Naga and the values it stands for, the batch members, wherever they are, have touched base once again and planned about how to pay back the alma mater they owe so much. The plans were mostly for outreach projects, but in fact, these were plans to reach out to their inner persons, reflecting a longing to express their core selves formed at the Ateneo over 25 years ago, of being men molded for the service of others.

Some of these plans have been implemented (see next pages). These range from intimate gestures, like comforting the family of departed batchmates, to considerable community mobilizations involving medical missions focused on various medical needs of specific communities.

Fittingly, Batch 80, with support from the Ateneo de Naga University Alumni Association, has adopted for this year's Alumni Homecoming the theme: Puli, Sulbod, Gibsaw. Loosely translated, it means Return Home, Meet Up, and Act with and for Others. It is an apt translation, in these times, of the intent of the retrofitting the Ateneo seal underwent some 25 years ago.

Animo Ateneo, Mabuhay!

Sem H. Cordial