My earliest school memory involves me in kindergarten with my pretty outer space pencil being stolen by my classmate. Well, not stolen per se. I was studying then in St. Mary's Academy of Caloocan City (it was known as Our Lady of Grace Academy when I was in kinder), and this classmate sure was cunning. She convinced me to trade my pencil for her generic Mongol one. I was a pretty stupid kid. PROS: They pride themselves as the cleanest and greenest school in Caloocan City, and they sure deserve it. The place is immaculately clean, down to the last restroom cubicle. Plus they have this huge lush green field (which people are not allowed to step on); We lived a few steps away from the place so I didn't have to wake up as early as most kids. And I have this lunch pass where I could go home and eat lunch at home, maybe even watch Eat Bulaga for a bit. This was great 'til I had to switch schools when I got to high school. CONS: It's a private Catholic school for girls (then, I heard it's a co-ed school now), so what do you expect? Rules are stringently, enforced especially the dress code. Because we know how distracting to the learning environment could be if your hair ties are brown instead of the mandated black, white, or blue *sarcasm font*; The only teacher I remember from this school would be my first one, Teacher Nena. I see this as an indication that my 7-year stay at SMACC wasn't that memorable. Or maybe I just have faulty memory. TL;DR: SMACC is a school run by stern nuns. It provides more of the values that a parent may want from a Catholic education, but nothing really noteworthy in its academic program. read more

If you want to pressure your child to grow up to be a good Catholic, this is the place to be. However, if you want your child to have a holistic education and have an open-mind about theology and other religions, do not send your children to this school. He/she will get picked on and pressured to attend Catholic rituals. I remember having Catholic parents but even from a young age, I prefer to learn about different faiths, not just Catholicism. I got damaged by this school and got picked on by religion teachers. Also, not a good place to study if you want your children to excel in the sciences and mathematics. I remember 4 of us joining an inter-school math competition against various high schools in Kalookan City and we got beat real bad (Philippine Cultural HS won) - that's when I knew their math/science teaching standards were pretty mediocre. The next year, we just held an intra-school competition (freshmen competes with sophomores, juniors with seniors - all from OLGA, now St. Mary's). How pathetic was that. When I attended the University of the Philippines, I appreciated the freedom to think for myself. The church definitely does not and should have a role in elementary and high schools, especially when the under-age students cannot pick the schools and get dictated upon by parents. Elementary and high schools should be secular. Universities and colleges may go ahead and get managed by religious organizations because by then, students are already in the age of majority and can decide for themselves, unless they have dictatorial and narrow-minded parents/guardians who do not listen to another person's aspirations and dreams but would withhold tuition fee monies unless the dependent child follow what the parents/guardians want. read more