Many Faces of Rizal

The Contributions of Rizal in the following field:

Rizal as Educator/ Teacher

Rizal was never just a hero for the Filipino masses but rather a pioneer in terms of promoting
education towards the youth. Rizal through his works and writings educated the Filipinos.
Although it is an indirect way of teaching or mentoring, this was of great help to the Filipino
men and women in elevating their understanding of the present circumstances then. But a clearer
and direct evidence of Rizal being an educator was his dedication in teaching the youth in
Dapitan when he was exiled. He opened a school which was attended by boys from the
prominent families of Dapitan. However, instead of asking for tuition fees, his 16 students only
worked on his projects in exchange of the time he dedicated to teaching them. Rizal made the
boys work on his fields, constructions and even community projects. He taught them to gather
plants and animals in order for him to preserve them and send his samples to his European
scientist friends. In return, he taught them reading, writing, languages both Spanish and English,
geography, history, mathematics, geometry, industrial work, study of nature, morals and even
sports like gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, stone throwing, swimming, arnis and boating for them
to strengthen their bodies. His curriculum was more European rather than Spanish. Rizal firmly
believed of the youth being the hope of the land thus he used his intellectual prowess and great
skills to bring this dream to life.

Rizal as Engineer
On 15 January 1895, Rizal wrote to Blumentritt that he was “going to build a water-tank on my
land. I have 14 boys whom I teach languages, mathematics, and how to work, and as we have no
work I have decided to construct a dike of stone, brick, and mortar so that they may learn.” On
20 November of the same year, he wrote that he “made a wooden machine for making bricks”
and that he could “make at least 6,000 a day”. He eventually built an oven for the bricks.

Outside his land, Rizal helped the town by developing its first park, with street lamps and a
garden/flower relief map of the whole island of Mindanao. With support of the local authorities
and the residents, he constructed Dapitan’s aqueduct with a length of several kilometers using
clay tiles and lime. He also initiated plaza beautification and clean-up to improve health and
sanitation.

Rizal as Farmer

Rizal’s farm had fruit trees (mangoes, lanzone, guayabanos, baluno, nanka, etc.), rabbits, dogs,
cats, chickens, rice, corn, ferns and flowers like roses and sampaguita.
 Rizal as Doctor

Rizal practiced ophthalmology, mainly in Calamba (August 1887-February

1888), Hong Kong (November 1891-June 1892), and while in exile in the town
of Dapitan (July 1892-July 1896). His specialized skills brought him fame, and
patients often traveled long distances to seek his care. In Calamba in 1887,
Rizal finally began to fulfill his lifelong dream of caring for his mother's
eyesight. He may have operated on his mother there, possibly performing an
iridectomy as a preliminary to cataract extraction (Figure 1). In Hong Kong in
1892, he successfully removed the cataract from his mother's left eye.
Several months later, he sent her glasses with instructions to cover the right
lens until he could operate on that eye. Two years later, at Dapitan, he
extracted the right cataract. He was dismayed by her postoperative course,
however, as she disobeyed his instructions and removed the bandages
prematurely. He learned a lesson on the difficulty of taking care of family
members:
 Rizal as a Feminist

In his time, was known for being a patriotic writer. But unknown to most people, Rizal was
afeminist who supported women in their fight for equality. During his time, women was deprived
of theirrights, their dignity and worth was not being respected by many, especially by the
Spanish authority.Rizal showed his support by writing a letter addressed to the women in
Malolos (see, “Letter to theYoung Women of Malolos”, 1889). In this letter, Rizal paid homage
to the twenty (20) courageous womenof the said town for their desire to educate themselves,
which in that time, was considered a liberatingaction. Rizal saw this women as a ray of hope in
restoring the Filipino women’s denigrated dignity.Though the appeal of having a night school
was abolished, these women coursed on, and was later givenan approval.