CHAPTER XXXV
EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO
In Chapter XXIII of this history we gave an extract from his Excellency Alexander O'Reilly's report to King Charles IV, wherein, referring to the intellectual status of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico in 1765, he informs his Majesty that there were only two schools in the whole island and that, outside of the capital and San German, few knew how to read.
In the mother country, at that period, even primary instruction was very deficient. It remained so for a long time. As late as 1838 reading, writing, and arithmetic only were taught in the best public schools of Spain. The other branches of knowledge, such as geography, history, physics, chemistry, natural history, could be studied in a few ecclesiastical educational establishments.[77] The illiteracy of the inhabitants of this, the least important of Spain's conquered provinces, was therefore but natural, seeing that the conquerors who had settled in it belonged to the most ignorant classes of an illiterate country in an illiterate age. Something was done in Puerto Rico by the Dominican and Franciscan friars in the way of preparatory training for ecclesiastical callings. They taught Latin and philosophy to a limited number of youths; the bishop himself gave regular instruction in Latin.
A few youths, whose parents could afford it, were sent to the universities of Carácas and Santo Domingo, where some of them distinguished themselves by their aptitude for study. One of these, afterward known as Father Bonilla, obtained the highest academic honors in Santo Domingo.
From 1820 to 1823, under the auspices of a constitutional government, intellectual life in Puerto Rico really began. A Mr. Louis Santiago called public attention to the necessity of attending to primary education. "The greatest evil," he said, "that which demands the speediest remedy, is the general ignorance of the art of reading and writing. It is painful to see the signatures of the alcaldes to public documents." He wrote a pamphlet of instructions in the art of teaching in primary schools, which was printed and distributed through the interior of the island. The governor, Gonzalo Arostegui, addressed an official note to the Provincial Deputation charging that body to propose to him "without rest or interruption, and as soon as possible," the means to establish primary schools in the capital and in the towns of the interior; to the municipalities he sent a circular, dated September 28, 1821, recommending them to facilitate the coming to the capital of the teachers in their respective districts who wished to attend, for a period of two months, a class in the Lancasterian method of primary teaching, to be held in the Normal School by Ramon Carpegna, the political secretary. A certain amount of instruction, talent, and disposition for magisterial work was required of the pupils, and those who already had positions as teachers could assist at the two months' course without detriment to their salaries.
The fall of the constitutional government in Spain, brought about by French intervention and the reaction that followed, extinguished the light that had just begun to shine, and this unfortunate island was again plunged into the intellectual darkness of the middle ages. Persecution became fiercer than ever, and the citizens most distinguished for their learning and liberal ideas had to seek safety in emigration.
For the next twenty years the education of the youth of Puerto Rico was entirely in the hands of the clergy. With the legacies left to the Church by Bishop Arizmendi and other pious defuncts, Bishop Pedro Gutierrez de Cos founded the Conciliar Seminary in 1831, and appointed as Rector Friar Angel de la Concepción Vazquez, a Puerto Rican by birth, educated in the Franciscan Convent of Carácas.
In the same year there came to Puerto Rico, as prebendary of the cathedral, an ex-professor of experimental physics in the University of Galicia, whose name was Rufo Fernandez. He founded a cabinet of physics and a chemical laboratory, and invited the youth of the capital to attend the lectures on these two sciences which he gave gratis.
Fray Angel, as he was familiarly called, the rector of the seminary, at Dr. Rufo's suggestion, asked permission of the superior ecclesiastical authorities to transfer the latter's cabinet and laboratory to the seminary for the purpose of adding the courses of physics and chemistry to the curriculum, but failed to obtain it, the reasons given for the adverse decision being, "that the science of chemistry was unnecessary for the students, who, in accordance with the dispositions of the Council of Trent, were to dedicate themselves to ecclesiastical sciences only." The rector, while expressing his regret at the decision, adds: "I can not help telling you what I have always felt—namely, that there is some malediction resting on the education of youth in this island, which evokes formidable obstacles from every side, though there are not wanting generous spirits ready to make sacrifices in its favor." [78]
Some of these generous spirits had organized, as early as 1813, under the auspices of Intendant Ramirez, the Economic Society of Friends of the Country. Puerto Rico owes almost all its intellectual progress to this society. Its aim was the island's moral and material advancement, and, in spite of obstacles, it has nobly labored with that object in view to the end of Spanish domination. From its very inception it established a primary school for 12 poor girls, and classes in mathematics, geography, French, English, and drawing, to which a class of practical or applied mechanics was added later. In 1844 the society asked and obtained permission from the governor, the Count of Mirasol, to solicit subscriptions for the establishment and endowment of a central college. The people responded with enthusiasm, and in less than a month 30,000 pesos were collected.
The college was opened. In 1846 four youths, under the guidance of Dr. Rufo, were sent to Spain to complete their studies to enable them to worthily fill professorships in the central school. Two of them died shortly after their arrival in Madrid. When the other two returned to Puerto Rico in 1849 they found the college closed and the subscriptions for its maintenance returned to the donors by order of Juan de la Pezuela, Count Mirasol's successor in the governorship.
If the unfavorable opinion of the character of the Puerto Ricans to which this personage gave expression in one of his official communications was the motive for his proceeding in this case, it would seem that he changed it toward the end of his administration, for he founded a Royal Academy of Belles-Lettres, and a library which was provided with books by occasional gifts from the public. He introduced some useful reforms in the system of primary instruction, and inaugurated the first prize competitions for poetical compositions by native authors.
From the returns of the census of 1860 it appears that at that time only 17-12 per cent of the male population of the island knew how to read, and only 12-12 per cent of the female population. Four years later, at the end of 1864 there were, according to official data, 98,817 families in Puerto Rico whose intellectual wants were supplied by 74 public schools for boys and 48 for girls, besides 16 and 9 private schools for boys and girls respectively.
In 1854 General Norzagery, then governor, assisted by Andres Viña, the secretary of the Royal Board of Commerce and Industry, had founded a school of Commerce, Agriculture, and Navigation. After sixteen years of existence, this establishment was unfavorably reported upon by Governor Sanz, who wished to suppress it on account of the liberal ideas and autonomist tendencies of its two principal professors, José Julian Acosta (Abbad's commentator) and Ramon B. Castro. In the preamble to a secret report sent by this governor to Madrid he says: "This supreme civil government has always secured professors who, in addition to the required ability for their position, possess the moral and political character and qualities to form citizens, lovers of their country, i.e., lovers of Puerto Rico as a Spanish province, not of Puerto Rico as an independent state annexed to North America."
Female education had all along received even less attention than the education of boys. Alexander Infiesta, in an article on the subject published in the Revista in February, 1888, states, that according to the latest census there were 399,674 females in the island, of whom 293,247 could neither read nor write, 158,528 of them being white women and girls. The number of schools for boys was 408, with an attendance of 18,194, and that for girls 127, with 7,183 pupils.
From the memorial published by the Director of the Provincial Institute for Secondary Education, regarding the courses of study in that establishment during the year 1888-'89, we learn that the number of primary schools in the island had increased to 600, but, according to Mr. Coll y Toste's Reseña, published in 1899, there were, among a total population of 894,302 souls, only 497 primary schools in the island at the time of the American occupation. The total attendance was 22,265 pupils, 15,108 boys and 7,157 girls.