JOSE RIZAL’S

EDUCATIONAL
BACKGROUND
 Early Education in
Calamba and Binan
 At the age of 3, Rizal learned the
alphabet from his mother.
 At the age of 5, while learning to
read and write, Rizal already
showed inclination s to be an artist.
He astoundedhis family and
relatively by his pencil drawings and
sketches and by his moldings of
clay.
 At the age of 8, Rizal wrote a
Tagalog poem, “Sa Aking Mga
Kabata,” the theme of which
revolves on the love of one’s
language.
 Rizal’s 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
his tutor. This teacher lived at the Rizal
home and instructed Rizal in Spanish and
Latin. Unfortunately, he did not live long.
He died five months later

 After Monroy’s death, Rizal’s parents

decided to send their gifted son to private
school in Binan. Early Education
in Calamba and
Binan
 Paciano enrolled to the school of
Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.
 Rizal met the bully, Pedro. Rizal,
who was the angry at this bully for
making fun of him during his
conversation with the teacher,
challenged Pedro to fight. Rizal
having learned the art of wrestling
from his athletic Tio Manuel,
defeated the bigger boy.
 After class, a classmate named
Andres Salandanan challenged him First Day in
Binan School
to an arm-wrestling match. Rizal
having the weaker arm, lost and
early cracked his head on the
sidewalk.
 In academic studies, Rizal beat all
Binan boys. He surpassed them all in
Spanish, Latin, and other subjects.
 They were all jealous of his
intellectual superiority that they
wickedly squeled to the teacher
whenever Rizal had a fight outside th
school, and even told lies to discredit
him before the teacher’s eyes.
Consequently the teacher had to
punish Rizal.
 He received many whippings and
strokes from the ferule. Rare wa the
day when he was not stretched on
Best Student
the bench for a whipping or
punished with five or six blows on in School
the open palm.
 Education in Manila
 Ateneo Municipal de Manila
 Bachelor of Arts degree in
1877 at the age of 16
 Graduated as one of the nine
students declared
sobresaliente
 Continued his education to
obtain a degree in land
surveying and assessor
 Rizal was a member of the academy of
Spanish Literature and the Academy
of Natural Sciences.

 Wrote his first poem Mi Primera

Inspiration (My First Inspiration) which
was dedicated to his mother on her
birthday.

 He also wrote Trough Education Our

Motherland Receives Light and The
Intimate Alliance Between Religion and
Good Education which showed the
importance of religion in education.
Ateneo Municipal
de Manila
7
 Education in Manila
 University of Santo Tomas

 Studied Philosophy and

Letters during his first year

 Shifted to Medicine
specializing in Ophthamology
when he found out that his
mother was going blind.
 Rizal was unhappy at this Dominican
Institution of higher learning because:
1. The Dominican professors was hostile
to him
2. The Filipino students were racially
discriminated against by the
Spaniards.
3. The method of instruction was
obsolete and repressive
 After finishing the fourth year of his
medical course, Rizal decided to study
in Spain. He could no longer endure
the rampant bigotry, discrimination,
and the hostility in the University of
Santo Tomas. University of
Santo Tomas
9
 Education in Europe
 travelled alone to Europe
 Madrid in May 1882
 Continued his studies in
Medicine at the Universidad
Central de Madrid
 Degree of Licentiate in
Medicine in 1884
 Degree of Philosophy and
Letters in 1885
 It was a venue of realizing Rizal’s dreams.
 He finished his studies in Madrid and this
to him was the realization of the bigger
part of his ambition.
 His vision broadened to the point of
awakening him an understanding of
human nature, sparking in him the
realization that his people needed him.
 It must have been this sentiment that
promted him to pursue, during the re-

Spain as a
organizational meaning of the Circulo-
Hispano-Filipino, to be one of its
activities, the publication of a book to
which all the members would contribute
papers on the various aspects and
conditions of the Philippines life.
realization
 The proposal for the book was
unanimously approved.
 But afterwards, difficulties and
objections were raised, and a number
of gentlemen stood up and refused to
discuss the matter any further in
1884.
 Rizal decided not to press the issue any
longer.
 Although the book was never written,
the next year, Pedro Paterno pblished
his Ninay, a novel sub-titled
Costumbres Filipinas (Philippines
Customs), thus partly fulfilling the Spain as a
original purpose of Rizal’s plan.
realization
  The idea of writing a novel
grew on him, and later he
decided to write and worked
hard for Noli Me Tangere

 He never told anyone about it

until it was finished, though
some of his companions knew
what he was doing

 He wrote half of the novel in

Madrid, a quarter of it in
Paris and the rest in Germany

Noli Me Tangere
 Education in Europe
 University of Paris (France)

 University of Heildelberg (Germany)

 Earned a second doctorate

 Inducted as a member of the Berlin

Ethnological Society and the Berlin
Anthropological Society under the
patronage of the famous pathologist
Rudolf Virchow
 25-years-old Rizal completed in
1887 his eye specialization
under the renowned Prof. Otto
Becker in Heildelberg

 Left Heildelberg a poem, “A las

flores de Heidelberg”; both an
evocation and a prayer for the
welfare of his native land and
the unification of common
values between East and West
University of
Heildelberg
 Jose Rizal lived in Europe for 1o years.

 He could converse in more than 10

different tongues.

 Excelled at martial arts, fencing,

sculpture, painting, teaching,
anthropology, and journalism, among
other things.

 During his European sojourn, he also Rizal’s Life in

Europe
began to write novels. Rizal finished his
first book, Noli Me Tangere, while living
in Wilhemsfeld with the Reverend Karl
Ullmer.