HOMETOWN EDUCATION OF RIZAL

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was a typical schooling that a son of an illustrado family received during his time, characterized by the four R’s- reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the tedious memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the defects of the Spanish system of elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction preparatory for college work in Manila. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a physical weakling, rose to become an intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, the outmoded and backward system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last decades of Spanish regime.

• The Hero’s First Teacher

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers. "My mother," wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, "taught me how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God."

As tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she who first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s imagination, she related many stories.

As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home. The first was Maestro Celestino and the second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the boy’s tutor. This old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he did not lived long. He died five months later.

After a Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents decided to send their gifted son to a private school in Biñan.

• Jose Goes to Biñan

One Sunday afternoon in June , 1869, Jose, after kissing the hands of his parents and a tearful parting from his sister, left Calamba for Biñan. He was accompanied by Paciano , who acted as his second father. The two brothers rode in a carromata, reaching their destination after one and one-half hours’ drive. They proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was to lodge

That same night, Jose, with his cousin named Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead of enjoying the sights, Jose became depressed because of homesickness. 

• First Day in Biñan School
  

The next morning Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters from the home of Jose’s aunt.

Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return to Calamba.

Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the class. The teacher asked him:

"Do you know Spanish?"

"A little, sir," replied the Calamba lad.

"Do you know Latin?"

"A little, sir."

The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher’s son laughed at Jose’s answers.

The teacher sharply stopped all noises and begun the lessons of the day.

Jose described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by the heart the grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this severity that in my judgement was exaggerated and you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but I remember only this."

First School BrawlIn the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was having his siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of him during his conversation with the teacher in the morning.

Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could easily beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and younger.

The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates. Jose, having learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger boy. For this feat, he became popular among his classmates.

After the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged him to an arm-wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms. Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on the sidewalk.

In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by nature, but he never ran away from a fight.

• Best Student in School

In academic studies, Jose beat all Biñan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects.

Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and even told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes. Consequently the teacher had to punish Jose. 

EDUCATION at ATENEO 

The Jesuits were considered the best educators of Spain, and perhaps of Europe, and so, when they were permitted to return to the Philippines, although their power to administer parishes was restricted except in the remote regions of Mindanao, the privilege of founding colleges, they had to apply to the City of Manila for subsidies. That is why the college which began to function in the year 1865, was called the Ateneo Municipal. To enter the Ateneo a candidate was subjected to an entrance examination on Christian doctrine, reading, writing, grammar, and elementary arithmetic. Jose did not take his entrance examinations Jose did not remain in Manila but returned first to his town to celebrate the fiesta of its patron saint; it was then that his father changed his mind and decided to send him to the Ateneo instead. Since Mercado, the first surname of the family, had come under suspicion of the authorities because it was the name used by Paciano when he was studying and working with Father Burgos, in whose house he lived, Jose adopted the second surname, Rizal. Paciano who accompanied Jose, found him a house in Walled City, but Intramuros looked gloomy to Jose, and he later found lodging outside, in the house of a spinster situated on Calle Carballo, district of Santa Cruz. As if chance would furnish him data for his future campaigns, he became acquainted in that house with various mestizos, begotten by friars. The Jesuitical system of instruction was considered more advanced than that of other colleges in that epoch. Its discipline was rigid and its methods less mechanical. It introduced physical culture as part of its program as well as the cultivation of the arts, such as music, drawing, and painting. It also establishes vocational courses in agriculture, commerce, and mechanics as a religious institute, its principal purpose was to mold the character and the will of the boys to comply more easily with the percepts of the Church. The students heard mass before the beginning of the class, which was opened and closed with prayers. In the first two terms the classes were divided into groups of interns and externs: the first constituted the Roman Empire and the second, the Carthaginian Empire. In each empire there were five dignitaries: Emperor, Tribune, Decurion, Centurion, and Standard-Bearer. These dignities were won by means of individual competitions in which it was necessary to catch one’s adversary in error three times. The empires considered themselves in perpetual warfare, and when an individual of one empire was caught in error by one belonging to the enemy empire, a point was counted in favor of the latter. At the end of each week or two, the points in favor of each were added and the empire, which obtained more point, was declared winner. There was a fraternity of Mary and Saint Louis Gonzaga, to which only those who distinguished themselves in the class for their piety and diligence could belong. This fraternity met on Sundays and after mass held public programs in which poems were recited or debates were held. With all these inducements it was only natural that should be a spirit of emulation, a striving to surpass ones colleagues found in the Ateneo. The first professor Jose had was Fr. Jose Bech, whom he describes as a man of high stature; lean body, bent forward; quick gait; ascetic physiognomy, severe and inspired; small, sunken eyes; sharp Grecian nose; thin lips forming an arch with its sides directed toward the chin." He was somewhat of a lunatic and of an uneven humor; sometimes he was hard and little tolerant and at other times he was gay and playful as a child. Among Jose’s classmates were Peninsulares and sons of Peninsulares; Francisco G. Oliva, very talented but not very studious; Joaquin Garrido, endowed with a poor memory but with much talent and industry; and Gonzalo Marzano, who occupied the throne of Emperor. From the first days Jose learned to systematize his work; he fixed a program of what he had to do in the twenty-four hours of the day and did not in the least deviate from it. Thus he disciplined his will and subjected it to the commands of his reason. As a newcomer, Jose was at first put at the tail of the class, but he was soon promoted and kept on being promoted so that at the end of one month he had attained to the rank of Emperor. At the end of the term he obtained marks of excellent in all the subjects and in the examinations. He had reason to feel proud of his advancement; and so when he went home on vacation that year, he ran alone to see his mother in the prison and tell her the happy news. He must have uttered this exclamation on learning from his mother that they had played her a mean trick. The judge, who was a blind partisan of the friars having been a domestic of theirs, told her that if she confessed her culpability he would release her at once. With the desire to see her children again, she pleaded guilty; but the judge, instead of releasing her, convicted her. In a few months the judge asked her forgiveness for what he had done because according to him his conscience hurt him, but the case had no remedy because it was already on appeal. The second year, Jose had the same professor as in the previous year; but instead of lodging outside the City, he resided at No. 6 Calle Magallanes. At the end of the term he obtained a medal, and upon returning to his town, he again visited his mother in jail alone. This was three months before her release. The rejoicing that her release produced in his spirit had much influence on the result of his studies in the third year, for he began to win prizes in the quarterly examinations. About that time he devoted himself to reading novels, and one of those he enjoyed most was Dumas’ (father) The Count of Monte Cristo. The sufferings of the hero of the twelve years. He also asked his father to buy him a copy of The Universal History by Cesar Cantanu, and according to himself he profited much from its perusal. The family, who saw in Jose great aptitude for study, decided to place him as intern or boarding student in the college the following year. In the corner of the dormitory facing the sea and the pier Jose passed his two years of internship. In the fourth year of his course he had Fr. Francisco Sanchez as professor. Jose describes him as a model of rectitude, a solicitude, and love for the student, and his studied mathematics, rhetoric, and Greek, and he must have progressed much, for at the end of the year he-obtained five medals, which pleased him immensely because with them I could repay my father somewhat for his sacrifices. His aptitude for poetry revealed itself early, and from that time on he did not cease to cultivate it. An incident which demonstrates Jose’s independence of character took place at this time. Fr. Leoncio Lopez, parish priest of the town, who was a great friend of his father, also liked Jose as a little friend. He was cultured but at the same time timid and tender. One day Jose’s mother showed Father Lopez a poem of his young friend and that the latter must have copied it from a book. Jose, who heard this, answered the priest violently, for which his mother reprehended him. Afterward Father Lopez came to know from the Jesuits themselves that Jose was a pupil who excelled in poetry; and, in spite of his age, made a trip to Manila expressly to apologize to Jose. That gesture of Father Lopez’ won him Jose’s esteem and they became good friends again, lending each other the books they had. In the fifth years Jose had other professors: Frs. Vilaclara and Mineves. He studied philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural history, but his devotion to poetry was such that his professor in philosophy advised him once to leave it, which made him cry. But in his rest hours he continued cultivating the Muses under the direction of his old professor, Father Sanchez. Jose had then written a short story (leyenda), which was only slightly corrected by his professor, and a dialogue, which was enacted at the end of the course, alluding to the collegians’ farewell. However, philosophy, just and serve, inquiring into the wherefores of things, interested him as much as poetry; physics, drawing back the veil that divine drama of nature was enacted, natural history seemed to him somewhat uninteresting although he much liked the shells and sometimes imagined seeing a goddess in each shell he was on the shelf. Jose was considered small of stature and he tried to correct this defect by applying himself regularly to gymnastics in the college. He also engaged in other physical exercises, such as fencing. After his baccalaureate, he surprised his family with his skill in handling the sword when he gave an exhibition bout with the best swordsman of the town. He also devoted time to painting and sculpture. In drawing and painting he was under the guidance and direction of the Ateneo professor, the Peninsula Don Augustin Saez, who honored him with his affection and consideration because of his progress. In sculpture his instructor was a Filipino, Romualdo de Jesus, who felt proud in the last years of his life of having had such an excellent pupil.

EDUCATION AT THE UNVERSITY OF STO. TOMAS (UST)

Fortunately, Rizal’s first romance, with its bitter disillusionment did not adversely affect his studies in the University of Santo Tomas. His love for higher education proved to be greater than his love for a pretty girl. After finishing the first year of the course in Philosophy and Letters (1877-780), he transferred to a medical course. During the year of his studies in the university, which was under the Dominicans, rival education of the Jesuits, he remained loyal to Ateneo, where he continued to participate in extra curricular activities and where he completed the education course in surveying. As a Thomasian, he won more literary laurels, had more romances with girls, and fought against Spanish students.

• Mother’s opposition to higher education

After graduation with the highest position in Ateneo, Rizal had to go the University of Santo Tomas in order to prepare himself to a private career. The Bachelor of Arts degree during Spanish times was equivalent to a high school diploma today. It merely qualified its holder to enter a university. Both Don Francisco and Paciano suggested that Jose should pursue a higher learning. But Dona Teodora did not want him to study more. Evidently she had apremonition that to much knowledge would imperil his child life. In a family council in the Rizal’s home in Calamba, she vigorously objected to have her beloved Jose acquired a higher education. She was thinking of the safety of her son. She know the fate of Filipino intellectuals-Father Burgos, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor,Jose Ma. Basa, and others of 1872-who were either executed or exiled by the Spanish authorities, and blamed their sad fate to their learning

Fearful of the Spanish authorities who seem to frown on those Filipinos who learn to much, she warned her husband. “Do not send Jose again to Manila. If gets to know to much, they will cut off hishead!” Jose, who was present in their family council when his mother said this, was shocked. He know her mother was a woman o education and culture: she even taught him and inspired him to write poetry; she came from a family of high learning – her own brother and his uncle, Jose Alberto Alonso had been educated abroad and could speakmultiple Spanish, French, English and German.Rizal enters the university. In April 1877, Rizal, who was barely16 years old, matriculated in the University of Santo Tomas taking up Philosophy and Letters. He enrolled in this course for two reasons: (1)his father like it and (2) he was was “still uncertain it what career to follow”. He had written to father Pablo Ramon, Rector of the Ateneo, who had been good to him during his days in Ateneo, asking for advice in the choice of career. Unfortunately, Father Recto was in Mindanao and during those days it several months to travel a letter from Manilato Mindanao. Consequently during his first term (1877-78) in theUniversity of Santo Tomas he studied Cosmology, Metaphysics,Theodicy and History of Philosophy.It was during the school term (1978-79) that Rizal took upmedicine, enrolling simultaneously in preparatory medical course and the regular first year medical course.

• Finishes Surveying course in Ateneo (1878)

During his term in University of Santo Tomas (1877 – 78, Rizal also studied in Ateneo, he took the vocational course leading to a title of 

 perito agrimensor (expert surveyor)). In those days it should be remembered the college for boys in Manila offered vocational courses in agriculture,commerce, mechanics and surveying.

• Rizal’s unhappy days at UST

Rizal’s Ateneo boy wonder, found the atmosphere at the UST a suffocating to his sensitive spirit. He wasunhappy of this Dominican Institution of high learning because (1) the Dominican processors were hostile to him, (2) the filipino students were racially discriminated, and (3) the method of teachings wereobsolete and repressive.

 RIZAL'S EDUCATION IN EUROPE

- His departure for Spain was kept secret from Spanish Authorities, friars and even his parents especially his mother because she would not allow him to go.
- To avoid detection , he used the name Jose Mercado
- On May 3, 1882 he boarded on Salvadora bound for Singapore where he was the only Filipino passenger
- On November 3, 1882, he enrolled in Universidad Central de Madrid taking up two courses: Philosophy an Letters and Medicine
- On June 21, 1884 , he conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine
- The Following academic year , he studied and passed all subjects leading to the degree of doctor of medicine
- Unfortunately, he was not able to submit the thesis required for graduation nor paid the corresponding fees
- With that, he was not awarded his Doctor’s Diploma
- Jose Rizal also finished his studies in Philosophy and Letters with higher grades
- He was awarded the Degree of Licentiate in Philosophy and Letters by the Universidad Central de Madrid June 19, 1885 with the rating of excellent.
- Jose Rizal went to Paris and Germany in order to specialize in ophthalmology. Among all branches, he chose this specialization because he wanted to cure his mother’s failing eyesight.
- In 1885, after studying at the Universidad Central de Madrid, Rizal, who was then 24 years old, went to Paris to acquire more knowledge in ophthalmology

Rizal friends in Europe:
- Maximo Viola
- Senor Eusebio Corominas
- Don Miguel Morayta
- Dr. Louis de Weckert

- On February 3, 1886, after gathering some experience in ophthalmology, he left Paris and went to Heidelberg, Germany
- He worked at the University Eye Hospital under the direction of Dr. Otto Becker, a distinguished German ophthalmologist
- On April 22, 1886, Rizal wrote a poem entitled A Las Flores de Heidelberg (To the Flowers of Heidelberg) because he was fascinated by the blooming flowers along the Neckar River, which was the light blue flower called “forget-me-not”.
- On August 14, 1886, Rizal arrived in Leipzig. There, he attended some lectures at the University of Leipzig on history and psychology

Reasons Why Rizal choose to reside in germane longer:
- to gain further his studies in science and languages
- to observe the economic and political conditions of the German nation
- to associate with the famous scientists and scholars
- lastly to publish his novel Noli Me Tangere

Jose Rizal earned a Licentiate in Medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid, where he also took courses in philosophy and literature. It was in Madrid that he began writing Noli Me Tangere. He also attended classes in the University of Paris and, in 1887, he completed his eye specialization course at the University of Heidelberg. It was also in that year that Rizal’s first novel was published in Berlin.

EXTRA CURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT

- an emperor inside the classroom
- campus leader
- active member and became a secretary, the Marian Congregation Religious Society
- member of the Academy of Spanish Literature and the Academy of Natural Sciences
- poet
- studied painting under the famous Spanish Painter, Agustin Saez
- improved his sculpture talents under the supervision of Romualdo de Jesus
- engaged in gymnastics and fencing and continued the physical training under his sports-minded Tio Manuel.

QUIZ:

1. Who is the first teacher of Jose Rizal?

2. Where did Jose Rizal spent his elementary days?

3. They are considered the best educators of Spain during their time?

4.  The old name of Ateneo?

5. One of the reasons why Rizal took medicine, he is a professor at Ateneo.

6 . What course did Jose Rizal take at UST?

7. What school did Jose Rizal attended to in Europe, where he earned his Licentiate in Medicine and in Philosophy and Letters?

8. The title of Rizal which means expert surveyor.

9. The brother of Rizal who acted as his second father.

10. When did Rizal got his Licentiate in Medicine?