FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY

Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology

Institute of Arts and Sciences
City of Manila

The influence of education on Rizal’s

intellectual growth and his viewpoints
on colonialism

Submitted to:
Mr. Angelo Nery
Rizal Teacher

Submitted by:
Asprec, Weingel
Canonizado, Ma. Patricia
Fernandez, Rogie
Gaoat, Jurel John G.
Quingquing, Yzabel Denver E.
Verdejo, Kim Sofia
Researchers
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The process of colonization involves one nation or territory taking control of another

nation or territory either through the use of force or by acquisition. As a byproduct of

colonization, the colonizing nation implements its own form of schooling within their colonies.

Two scholars on colonial education, Gail P. Kelly and Philip G. Altbach, define the process as an

attempt “to assist in the consolidation of foreign rule”

The idea of assimilation is important to colonial education. Assimilation involves the

colonized being forced to conform to the cultures and traditions of the colonizers. Gauri

Viswanathan points out that “cultural assimilation [is] … the most effective form of political

action” because “cultural domination works by consent and often precedes conquest by force”

(85). Colonizing governments realize that they gain strength not necessarily through physical

control, but through mental control. This mental control is implemented through a central

intellectual location, the school system, or what Louis Althusser would call an “ideological state

apparatus.” Kelly and Altbach argue that “colonial schools…sought to extend foreign

domination and economic exploitation of the colony” (2) because colonial education is “directed

at absorption into the metropole and not separate and dependent development of the colonized in

their own society and culture” (4). Colonial education strips the colonized people away from

their indigenous learning structures and draws them toward the structures of the colonizers.

However, the concept of “colonial education” was far from what the Spaniards instigated

in the Philippines. The friars controlled the educational system during the Spanish times, they

owned different schools, ranging from the primary level to the tertiary levels of education. The
missionaries took charge in teaching, controlling and maintaining the rules and regulations

imposed to the students.

These missionaries emphasized the teachings of the Catholic religion starting from the

primary level to the tertiary level of education. The students in the primary level were taught the

Christian Doctrines, the reading of Spanish books and a little of the natives' language. Science

and Mathematics were not very much taught to the students even in the universities. Aside from

the Christian Doctrines taught, Latin was also taught to the students instead of Spanish.

The schools before were exclusive for the Spaniards. The Filipinos were only able to

enter the school in the late 19th century. The schools also limited their accommodations to the

sons of wealthy Filipino families in 1863.

Although the schools were already open for Filipinos, the friars still believed that the

Filipinos would not be able to match their skills and that the only way for the Filipinos to learn

fast was to impose upon them strict discipline which means applying corporal punishment.

One of the most notable hero who indicted on the use of education as a tool was Jose

Rizal. Rizal was an excellent student, both in physical activity and academic activity. He was

able to draw, paint, and sketch at the tender age of seven and landed a spot in one of the top

university in the Philippines when he was in college. He even had more than two degrees, one of

which is being a doctor and later on having the specialty of being an ophthalmologist for the sake

of his mother.

Rizal’s concept on the importance of education is clearly enunciated in his work entitled

“Instruction” wherein he sought improvements in the schools and in the methods of teaching. He

maintained that the backwardness of his country during the Spanish ear was not due to the

Filipinos’ indifference, apathy or indolence as claimed by the rulers, but to the neglect of the
Spanish authorities in the islands. For Rizal, the mission of education is to elevate the country to

the highest seat of glory and to develop the people’s mentality. Since education is the foundation

of society and a prerequisite for social progress, Rizal claimed that only through education could

the country be saved from domination.

Rizal’s philosophy of education, therefore, centers on the provision of proper motivation

in order to bolster the great social forces that make education a success, to create in the youth an

innate desire to cultivate his intelligence and give him life eternal.

For many of these revolutionaries, education was key to self-determination. For Rizal,

education was the means to freedom. Important to Rizal, as expressed in “Education Give Lustre

to Motherland,” education was not just about the classroom; it was more holistic, and

importantly, it included having an artistic mind. In his poem, Rizal writes that from the lips of

education

“the waters crystalline

Gush forth without end, of divine virtue,
And prudent doctrines of her faith
The forces weak of evil subdue,
That break apart like the whitish waves
That lash upon the motionless shoreline:
And to climb the heavenly ways the people
Do learn with her noble example.

In the wretched human beings’ breast

The living flame of good she lights
The hands of criminal fierce she ties,
And fill the faithful hearts with delights,
Which seeks her secrets beneficent
And in the love for the good her breast she incites,
And it’s the education noble and pure
Of human life the balsam sure.”

Rizal saw education not just as learning facts or practical skills, but also as an

enlightenment of human strength and spirit, a realization of our potential:

 “And like a rock that rises with pride
In the middle of the turbulent waves
When hurricane and fierce Notus roar
She disregards their fury and raves,
That weary of the horror great
So frightened calmly off they stave;
Such is one by wise education steered
He holds the Country’s reins unconquered.”

It merits emphasis that Rizal had a special place in his heart for the Philippine youth.

Indeed, when he wrote Education Gives Luster to Motherland, Rizal was 15. But what education

was he talking about? Certainly, Rizal spoke of education in terms of the sciences and arts; but

education was not just a matter of becoming “smart” or of gaining a livelihood. Even at a young

age, as a youth himself, Rizal saw that an education was key to creating a class of Filipinos that

could lead the country to freedom and self-determination.

Education was thus key to knowing oneself. Shakespeare’s famous adage from Hamlet,

“To thyself be true,” rings true. Rizal was part of a larger anti-colonial movement that was

beginning to sweep across Asia at the turn of the 20th century as colonized peoples discovered

their own selves and histories from the ashes and sediment of imperialism. This was not a re-

discovery of a pre-Hispanic past. Rizal felt that there was much that could be learned from the

Spanish, and Western education more generally, but also that it must be adopted and adapted by

Filipinos. Around the same time, Chinese and Japanese intellectuals were coining phrases such

as borrowing “Western tricks to save China from the Westerners,” reflecting the idea of taking

Western learning and applying it to Asian struggles. Rizal was part of such a re-interpretation

that was occurring in the Philippines about what it meant to be Filipino in the modern world.
Background of the Study

The works and several events on Jose Rizal’s life are primarily occupied with ideas

regarding education. He recognized the significance of education in the growth of a nation and

its individuals. Crisostomo Ibarra, the main character of his novel Noli Me Tangere holds the

desire to form an appropriate institute. Ibarra stated in the novel what he pondered to be a

modern school. According to him, the area should be expansive and clean, the place should be

huge and provided with play area and garden. Rizal himself dreamed of founding a school in

accordance with the demands of contemporary times and conditions.

Rizal always considered education as a medicine or something that could cure the

difficulties of colonial Philippines. He lobbied on the idea of education that is free and

unrestricted from political and religious power. He proclaimed that transformation cannot be

attained if there is no proper education, a liberal one accessible to majority of Filipinos. Rizal

was not pleased at the University of Sto. Tomas as compared with his student days at the Ateneo

Municipal. At least, he relished the slight liberty students were given in voicing out their

opinions. This, he could not find at the Dominican university.

He then left the UST to continue his studies at the Madrid Central University that was in

conformity with the thoughts of Fr. Jose Burgos, one of the three martyred priests of 1872. Fr.

Burgos sturdily supported the idea that Filipinos should study overseas because education in

abroad was regarded as a vital phase to reaching reform. And this rational thought to which he

shared to his only brother, Paciano Rizal.

 As time passes by, Rizal’s concept of education as a tool for change has not lessened in a

while. In one of his letters to Alfredo Hidalgo, a nephew, Rizal stated: “Life is very serious thing

and only those with intelligence and heart go through it worthily.” In the same letter, he also told

his nephew that “to live is to be among men and to be among men is to struggle.” He concluded

that on the battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence.

His work on The Indolence of the Filipinos, defined the education of the people under the

colonial ruling. Rizal believed that education of the Filipinos from confinement up until death is

coarsening, discouraging, and inhumane. This disorder, he continued, was instilled in the

mindset of the Filipinos that they were an inferior race and this contention has been reiterated to

a child and was developed in his mind that will eventually seal and shape all his future actions.

It is within this setting that an understanding could be provided on why Rizal was

demanding for a different education, a newfangled concept of opening the minds of the Filipino

youth. Rizal understood that even on a diffident set-up of education, no matter how rudimentary

it might be, if it is the right education, the outcome would be sufficient enough to stimulate their

thoughts of progress and ultimately, change would go along.

Scope and Delimitation

The general intent of this study is to determine the role of education in shaping Rizal’s

perspective on colonialism and the radical shift in education in Europe as compared to Spain.

This study will mainly analyze and assess Filipino education in the advent of colonialism and put

henceforth the importance of education in the suppression of imperialism. Also, this study yearns

to identify on how can the researchers develop and assist students to be self-reliant and

governance in identifying, dealing and intervening with different concepts related to life and
works of Rizal. This study will be conducted with limited amount of financial resources and time

framework.

Objectives of the Study

The following are the key objectives of this study:

 To analytically determine the difference between Spanish colonial education and the

education in Europe.

 To justify Rizal’s perspective on education that contributed to the suppression of the

Spaniard ruling.

 To determine Rizal’s views on education to his fellow countrymen and the problems it

faced through the hands of the colonizers.

Significance of the Study:

This section will provide a brief description on the various significance of the study to the

subsequent categories and will redound to the benefit of the society considering that education

played an important role in shaping not only Rizal’s mentality, but to the people as well. Thus, it

is within the findings of this research

• Students. The chosen study will help the students give a more concise narrative on the

effects of education to Rizal’s life and how he viewed it on a nationalistic perspective.

• Faculty. This study will also be helpful in serving as a guide for teachers to provide a

basic understanding of Rizal’s life to their students and can be a source of valuable up-to-date

information which could be needed on the long run.

• Future Researchers. The chosen study will serve as a good foundation for future studies

and it may be taken to new heights if incorporated with fresh elements and variables that may

surface in the future researchers’ time.

CHAPTER II

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna, before he was sent to

Manila. As to his father's request, he took the entrance examination in Colegio de San Juan de

Letran but he then enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila and graduated as one of the nine

students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at the

Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor's degree, and at the same

time at the University of Santo Tomas where he did take up a preparatory course in law. Upon

learning that his mother was going blind, he decided to switch to medicine at the medical school

of Santo Tomas specializing later in ophthalmology.

Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother

Paciano, he traveled alone to Madrid, Spain in May 1882 and studied medicine at the

Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. He also

attended medical lectures at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg. In Berlin,

he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological

Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he

delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the Anthropological Society on the

orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He left Heidelberg a poem, "A las flores del
Heidelberg", which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and the

unification of common values between East and West.

At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal, completed in 1887 his eye specialization under the

renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used the newly invented ophthalmoscope (invented

by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his own mother's eye. From Heidelberg, Rizal

wrote his parents: "I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, in the

diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my

student friends." He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he

met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhelmsfeld, where he wrote the last few

chapters of Noli Me Tángere.

Rizal was a polymath, skilled in both science and the arts. He painted, sketched, and

made sculptures and woodcarving. He was a prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose most

famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tángere and its sequel, El Filibusterismo. These

social commentaries during the Spanish colonization of the country formed the nucleus of

literature that inspired peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries alike. Rizal was also a

polyglot, conversant in twenty-two languages.

Rizal's multi-facetedness was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Bernhard

Meyer, as "stupendous." Documented studies show him to be a polymath with the ability to

master various skills and subjects. He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator,

farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled,

with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology,

anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He was also a
Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9 during his time in Spain and becoming a Master Mason

in 1884.

CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS ON FILIPINO EDUCATION AND COLONIALISM

Filipino educational behavior with respect to both the colonial schools and the private

schools can be divided roughly into three phases. The first phase covers the initial response of

Filipinos to Spanish education. During this phase, which spans the years between 1590 and about

1640, Filipinos became teachers in the mission schools and established private schools imitating

them. The second phase was one of educational continuity covering roughly the two hundred

years

between 1640 and 1840. Although during this phase education expanded throughout the Islands,

the Filipino variants of mission schools and Filipino patterns of attendance remained basically

unchanged. The final phase of Filipino educational behavior covers the years immediately

preceding the Revolution of 1896. This phase saw Filipinos substituting attendance at private

elementary and secondary schools for attendance at equivalent Spanish schools while at the same

time doubling their enrollments at the University of Santo Tomas.

It is significant that these phases of Filipino educational behavior only marginally

coincide with the periods of Philippine educational history generally marked off by a colonial
perspective: e.g., The Founding of Schools, 1565-1768; Progress of Education, 1768-1863; and

The Educational Decree and after, 1863- 1898. Juxtaposing these two alternate periodizations it

is possible to conclude that shifts in Spanish educational policy and practices do not adequately

explain changes in Filipino educational behavior. If they did then these two periodizations would

match much better than they do. It is necessary, therefore, to look for supplementary

explanations.

Despite its several phases there is a general pattern to Filipino educational initiative.

Rather than offering anything radically different, it simply imitated the educational

models set by the Spaniards. The first private schools duplicated as best they could the mission

schools while the nineteenth century private schools duplicated the schools designed for Spanish

youth. But there is an important difference within these two periods. Whereas the early school

founders imitated the Spanish model of "native" education, later school founders emulated the

model of the "elite" one. Early Filipino initiative obviously reflected a readiness to accept and

work within the framework of Spanish colonialism. This readiness is easily understood when it is

realized that during the seventeenth century Catholicism became almost literally the Filipino life

style. As an extension of the Church, the catechism school, private or mission, was central to the

lives of Filipinos. Nineteenth century educational initiative, however, reflected a clear

dissatisfaction with the role assigned Filipinos in the colonial system and a desire to use

education to improve their lot. Both the dissatisfaction and the desire for change, we suggest,

were the result of Spanish racism.

 CHAPTER IV

RADICAL SHIFT IN RIZAL’S PERSPECTIVE ON COLONIALISM

Education has been the number one tool of Rizal in shaping his thinking regarding

colonialism in the Philippines. He shared two main principles in mind for it; (1) to reveal the

evils of colonial rule, (2) to reveal inhabitants of Philippines gasping under the oppression of

colonialism. Rizal rejected the historical backdrop of the Philippines as depicted by colonialists.

He wants to produce another perspective of Philippine history. Rizal joined the propaganda

movement. He left Spain and went to France and Germany to retain culture of different part of

Europe. Rizal took an arousing enthusiasm for Philippine culture in history when he was in

Germany. With the assistance of Blumentritt, he supported Rizal’s linguistic, ethnological and

historical knowledge on the Filipino. While Rizal is in Europe he wound up familiar to

conspicuous European ethnologists and progressed toward becoming in contact with scholarly

based works. In view of that works, Rizal became mindful that the history of Filipino individuals

and indigenous culture of the Philippines has been hated by the Spaniards. Rizal felt the need of

revising the Philippine history that the inclination of the colonialists had left unmentioned. But,
rizal had lacking scholarly information, nor have adequate time. While expanding the

information in Filipino history, he published Noli me Tangere while he was studying in

Universidad Central de Madrid. Even though it isn't plainly referenced he put there the

conditions of the organization of the Philippines to stir Spanish expert and Filipinos about the

genuine things about imperialism. He proposed to, (1) enlighten the Filipino masses, and (2) all

would join hands. Morga’s work likewise uncover the falseness of the provincial belief system

that wrapped the Philippines. Rizal having lost confidence in Spain. Position of the Filipinos as

an oppressed people. Preceding Spanish victory there is a typical culture on the Philippines that

the Philippines could take pride to. Rizal propagate the love for the father. As his education

progresses in Europe, Rizal easily adopted the liberal point of view and developed his own

national sentiment and consciousness. What actually made him a progressive and a radical of his

own time was his ultimate recognition that the liberties of the individual could be realized only if

the nation as a whole, particularly the masses whom he spontaneously observed, would be

uplifted and enjoy more freedom from an overwhelming system of clerical authoritarians and

antiliberals who represented what had long been considered backward in the northern parts of

Europe. He saw in the European development that the nation-states arose with the concept of

popular sovereignty and republicanism. He pointed out that if no better colonial policies were to

serve the Philippines there would be the increased likelihood of a movement for separation from

Spain. For this suggestion of Filipino nationhood, he was called a filibuster or a subversive in the

same manner that the advocates of national democracy today are being witch-hunted for

asserting the sovereignty of their people land.

Rizal lived in Europe at a time when sociology, the scientific study of society, was just

beginning to be formalized. It is interesting that he did not seem to have made the acquaintance
of this new discipline. His rich insights into the mechanisms and consequences of colonial

society could have been framed better with the aid of sociological concepts. But, more

importantly, they would have added a vital area to the new science of society. That field would

have focused on the circumstances and self-understanding of subjugated peoples.

Rizal was a methodical observer of his own society. This capacity for observation was

sharpened even more by his experience as an expatriate Filipino. Not only did living in Europe

equip him with a modern liberal sensibility, it also gave him the necessary distance from which

he could ponder the problems of his country. The life of an exile distilled his sense of nation.

In his two great novels, the “Noli” and the “Fili,” Rizal diagnosed the effects of Spanish

colonial rule on the psyche of his people. Two years after the publication of these novels, he

wrote a long essay dissecting the same colonial tumor, in a more conceptual but no less

polemical tone. The starting point of this strident and sardonic attack on Spanish colonial society

was the reputation for indolence of the native Filipinos. The essay, “La Indolencia de los

Filipinos,” appeared in the Madrid-based fortnightly publication La Solidaridad in five

installments, beginning with the July 15, 1890 issue. While replete with medical metaphors, this

essay is easily the most sociological of Rizal’s writings.

The Filipino’s supposed indolence, said Rizal, is largely unexamined. Its claim to validity

rests entirely on its mindless repetition as a catch-all derogatory explanation. Its premise is that

indolence—this “little love for work and lack of energy”—is a genetic quality of inferior races.

Being a scientist, Rizal was quick to point out that “it is not to be inferred from the

misuse of a thing that it does not exist.” “There must be something behind all this outcry,” he

said, that it should continue to be expressed by so many. Thus, instead of denying its existence,

he proceeds to deconstruct it in a performative display of erudition and linguistic command. And

he does so with an ironic and biting wit that is so clearly restrained in Charles Derbyshire’s

English translation.

First, Rizal argues, there is the matter of the tropical heat, which forces anyone who toils

the land in these parts to regularly pause for “quiet and rest,” in contrast to cold weather which

“incites labor and action.” Add to this the reality that the “poor colonist” is typically “badly

nourished, has no hope, toils for others, and works under force and compulsion.” The native has

no choice, he says, but to adjust to his milieu. But doing so does not thereby make him

unproductive. Nature has made the soil in his farms fertile. He therefore need not work all day to

make the earth yield its bounty.

But the inclination to indolence, which is real, is being reinforced by other factors,

notably by “misgovernment and backwardness.” When the native sees that the fruit of his labor

can be taken away from him anytime, he realizes that a productive farm is a virtual invitation to

victimization. So, in self-defense, he chooses a path that will not attract the attention of

predators. He becomes a minimalist, preferring to be seen as a lazy peasant who cannot

adequately provide for himself than to be treated as aman who slaves “to satisfy the passions of

another man.”

The Spanish rulers cannot see this. Blinded by their own prejudices and arrogance, they

try to correct the malady of native indolence by “attacking the symptoms.” To extract more labor

from the “lazy” native, they impose new taxes, round up people for forced labor, and coax them

into working harder by alternating programs of “bloodletting” and “trifling reform.” The result of

this is a passive resistance that is misrecognized as indolence.

First, flourishing trade was lost after the Spaniards took possession of our islands. The

colonial government replaced it with a galleon trade that contributed nothing to the country’s
economy because this was basically a trade between Mexico and China. The exactions brought

about by Spain’s expeditions against its imperial rivals decimated the native population, and

sapped their strength. This, and the confiscation of their weapons in turn made them vulnerable

to pirate raids from the South. On top of all this, the constraints to economic activity created by

all kinds of administrative restrictions killed the entrepreneurial spirit. Finally, there is the

penchant to imitate the manners of the Spanish aristocracy (which fosters a life of luxury without

hard work).

The picture would not be complete unless we looked at ourselves, Rizal says. The servile

colonial consciousness has worked. Two things are needed to reverse this situation, he

concludes: first, education in freedom; second, inculcation of national sentiment. Without these,

no reform is possible. Yesterday, the problem was called indolence, today its name is corruption.

But Rizal’s analysis holds.

 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Conclusion:

The researchers concluded that through the educational attainment of Rizal in

Europe and Spain, he was able to widen his perspective on colonialism in the Philippines.

Through his education in Europe his insight about what is happening in the Philippines

has been clear. He comes to his realization that Europe was more superior than Spain

when it comes to education. Spain education only depends on the friars, they let

missionaries to spread religious aspects. Unlike in Europe education, it is more

philosophical, science and mathematics, so in that Rizal was able to write his novels.

Rizal used his novels to alert the Filipino people on what is happening during the Spanish

colonialism. Upon closer look at the ideas, one will find that majority of his thoughts on

society were basically heavily revolutionary thoughts but at the same time adjusted to fit

into a reformist frame.

Recommendation:

The researchers recommend the future researchers to use this as a guide to deeply

understand and to widen their information about Rizal’s life and education. It will also

give opportunity to the future researchers to research more about the ideas that developed

while Rizal is in the progress of his educational attainment. The paper will also

recommend to widen the understanding in the development of ideas of Rizal. Future

researches might be able to improve the ideas presented in this paper towards Rizal’s

perspective in colonialism that influenced by his educational attainment.

Recommendation