The Education of the Filipino People under Religious Direction
Before attacking or defending the lay education of the public schools it would seem useful to know what the education of the Filipino people was under religious direction, and then know what results were obtained; that is to say, how a man subjected to such a system was transformed after more than three centuries of such a practice.
I must secure the data which I here present from ecclesiastical sources because, altho they contain a certain exaggeration, in speaking of its own work which, as it is natural, they defend, magnify, and praise, they are after all the most useful in knowing the defects themselves which, under the circumstances, constitute real confessions.
Father Santiago Paya, Rector of the University of Santo Tomas, said among other things the following to the Philippine Commission on July 1, 1899:
All secondary instruction in the Philippine Islands was under the University of Santo Tomas. Besides the private schools in Manila there were also some in the provinces, but all the colleges of secondary instruction were subject to Santo Tomas.
There were primary schools in almost all the towns supported by the Government in which a very elementary instruction was given * * * reading, writing, catechism, and a little arithmetic.
The Filipinos, as a general rule, have good memory but without great talent; they have no good talent.
Almost all education in the Philippines was given by the religious orders, that is to say, the secondary and university instruction was maintained by the religious orders, and primary instruction by the curates of the towns.
Among the Filipinos all is imitation. They lack originality. They were taught how to read and write Spanish but the majority of them learned it in a purely mechanical manner.
The Indios were very averse to the Castilian language; those who knew how to speak it did not like to speak it. This was true in Manila as well as in its suburbs. Those who know Spanish prefer to speak their own language in their homes.
From Fray José M. Ruiz in his Memoria presented to the Philippine Exposition in Madrid in 1887, we take the following:
The curate is a local inspector of public instruction, adviser of the gobernadorcillos, and president of the various local boards. The Indios see in them a father, a pastor, and a protector, and as such they have always been recognized by the Government of these Islands (p. 239).
A great part of the Philippine inhabitants, that is to say, that which lives in the barrios and places more or less isolated and inaccessible, is about to be civilized (está casi por civilizar) (p. 247).
Referring to the mass of the people the same father says:
The masters devoted as they are, save in a few honorable exceptions, to their proper interests, have ignored completely the instruction of these unhappy ones in their religious duties * * * and their children, given over to the pasture of work animals, are reared in the midst of the most stupid ignorance (p. 254).
Later the author adds:
To give the Indio means of instruction and to place him in condition to benefit from it, and while this is not done, and until now this has not been done as we shall later show, is to concede rights to him who does not know how to appreciate what he deserves to the disgrace of the Spanish name and to the shame of the Spaniards in these Islands (p. 288).
Says the same Friar Ruiz:
And altho they are inimical to going to schools (the Indios) and to sending their children, it is because it is nothing but for wasting time since they learn nothing * * *. Furthermore, the towns are so crowded with ignorant teachers that without consulting anybody they establish private schools paid for by the parents of the children. Thus they learn what little good and a great deal of bad which they possess, to whom they teach Cartilla, and something of reading and writing, utilizing as texts for both the books called Corridos, which are full of anachronisms, errors, and absurdities of all kinds * * *. They also learn something of the Catechism (p. 337).
The places for the schools besides being bad are completely abandoned, and many are in ruins (p. 339).
There is no order in the school, and each one goes in and out without permission whenever he pleases (p. 440).