CHAPTER 5.

RIZAL AS A STUDENT

EARLY EDUCATION IN CALAMBA AND BIÑAN

 Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan.
 He received a typic education that a son of an ilustrado family received, characterized as reading,
writing, arithmetic and religion.
 Knowledge was forced into the mind of the pupils by means of tiring memory method aided by the
teachers.
 Despite the poor system of Spanish government on elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire
necessary instruction preparatory for college work in Manila and abroad.
 Rizal rose to become and intellectual giant.

THE HERO’S FIRST TEACHER

 The first teacher of Rizal was his mother.
 At the age of three, on her lap, he learned the alphabet and prayers.
 Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious and understanding.
 It was she who first discovered that Jose had a talent for poetry. She encouraged him to write
poems.
 For Rizal to memorize the alphabet, she stimulated her son’s imagination through relating many
stories.
 As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home.
 His private tutors were:
1. Maestro Celestino
2. Maestro Lucas Padua
3. Leon Monroy
 Leon Monroy is the former classmate of Jose’s father. He lived at the Rizal home and taught Jose
Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he died five months later.
 After Monroy’s death, Jose’s parents decided to send their son to a private school in Biñan.

JOSE GOES TO BIÑAN

 On a Sunday afternoon of June, 1869, Rizal left Calamba for Biñan.
 He was accompanied by Paciano, who acted as his second father. They rode in a carromata
(kalesa).
 Jose lodged at their aunt’s house.
 The night they arrived, Jose and his cousin Leandro went sightseeing in the town.
 Jose did not enjoy the sights because of homesickness

FIRST DAY IN BIÑAN SCHOOL

 The next morning, Paciano brought Jose to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.
 The school was in the house of the teacher which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters from the
home of Jose’s aunt.
 Paciano was a former student of Maestro Cruz.
 After introducing Jose to the teacher, Paciano went back to Calamba.
 His teacher asked him if he knows how to speak Spanish and Latin. He said, “a little”.

FIRST SCHOOL BRAWL

 In the afternoon of his first day, when the teacher was having siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro.
 He was angry to Pedro for making fun of him during his conversation with the teacher in the
morning.
 Jose challenged Pedro to a fight and the latter accepted it underestimating Jose because of his size.
 The two boys wrestled in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates.
 Jose learned wrestling through his Tio Manuel.
 Jose defeated Pedro and he became popular.
 After the class, his classmate Andres Salandanan challenged him to an arm-wrestling match.
 Jose lost and nearly cracked his head on the sidewalk.
 In the following days, he had fights with different boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by nature,
but he never ran away from fight.
PAINTING LESSON IN BIÑAN
 Near his aunt’s house was the old painter Juancho who was the father-in-law of the school teacher.
 Jose spent many hours at the painter’s studio.
 Old Juancho freely gave him lessons in drawing and painting
 Jose and his classmate Jose Guevarra loved painting and became the apprentices of the old painter.
DAILY LIFE IN BIÑAN
 He goes to a 4:00 mass if there was any.
 He always heads to the orchard to look for mabolo to eat after returning home.
 Every breakfast he eats a dish of rice and two dried small fish.
 Heads home after class habit.
 If there was some special dish, he and his cousin will take it to the house of children and eat with
them afterwards.
 Rizal comes out at school at ten in the morning, comes back at two in the afternoon and goes out at
five.

BEST STUDENT IN SCHOOL

 Jose surpassed all Biñan boys in Spanish, Latin and all other subjects.
 Some of his classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority.

END OF BIÑAN SCHOOLING

 Before Christmas season in 1870, Jose received a letter from Saturnina informing him of the arrival
of the streamer Talim that would take him from Biñan to Calamba.
 Upon reading the letter, he predicted that he would not return to Biñan.
 He left Biñan on Saturday afternoon, December 17, 1870, after one year and a half of schooling.
 It was the first time he rode a streamer.
 Arturo Camps also rode the streamer, a friend of his father. Camps took care of Jose during the trip.

MARTYRDOM OF GOMBURZA
 On the night of January 20, 1872, about 200 soldiers and workmen of Cavite arsenal under the
leadership of Lamadrid, a Filipino sergeant, rose in violent munity because of the abolition of their
usual privileges.
 Governor Rafael de Izquierdo abolished the privileges.
 The Spanish authorities, in order to liquidate Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto
Zamora, leaders of the secular movement to Filipinize the Philippine parishes magnified the failed
mutiny into a revolt for Philippine independence.
 GomBurZa were executed at sunrise of February 17, 1872 despite the plea of their archbishop for
clemency because of their innocence through the order of Gov. Gen. Izquierdo.
 Their martyrdom was deeply mourned by the Rizal family and many other patriotic families in the
Philippines.
 Paciano was mad about the execution of Burgos who was his friend, teacher and housemate. He
quitted on his studies at the College of San Jose and went home to Calamba, he told the heroic
story of Burgos to his brother Jose who was then nearly eleven years old.
 The martyrdom of GomBurZa inspired Jose to fight the Spaniards
 He dedicated his novel, El Filibusterismo to GomBurZa

INJUSTICE TO HERO’S MOTHER

 Before Jun of 1872, Doña Teodora was suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that she and her
brother, Jose Alberto, tried to poison the latter’s wife.
 Jose Alberto just came back from a trip in Europe.
 During the absence of Alberto, his wife abandoned their home and children and when he arrived
Biñan he discovered that his wife was living with another man.
 Alberto planned to divorce her but Doña Teodora tried to fix the family scandal and persuaded her
brother to forgive his wife.
 The trouble was settled, Jose Alberto lived again with his wife.
 The wife, however, filed still a case in the court accusing her husband and Doña Teodora on
attempting to poison her.
  Upon arresting, Doña Teodora was forced to walk from Calamba to Santa Cruz (Capital of Laguna
Province) with a distance of 50 kilometers.
 She was jailed in the provincial prison where she spent two and a half years before the Manila Royal
Audencia (Supreme Court) acquitted her of the alleged crime.
SCHOLASTIC TRIUMPHS AT ATENEO DE MANILA

 Jose, was sent to Manila even if he had not yet celebrated his eleventh birthday.
 He studied in the Ateneo de Municipal, a college under the supervision of Jesuits.
 It was formerly Escuela Pia, a school for poor boys in Manila which was established by the
government in 1817.
 When the Jesuits were expelled from the Philippines in 1768, they returned to Manila in 1859.
 Upon their return, they were given the management of Ateneo Muncipal.
 They changed the name to Ateneo de Manila.
 They were excellent educator that’s why Ateneo was known to be a prestige excellent college for
boys.

RIZAL ENTERS THE ATENEO

 On June 10, 1872, Jose went to Manila with Paciano.
 He took the entrance examination on Christian doctrine, arithmetic and reading at the Colegio de
San Juan de Letran and passed them.
 He returned to Calamba to celebrate fiesta with his family.
 His father wanted him to go to Letran but changed his mind and sent him to Ateneo instead.
 Jose enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal.
 Father Magin Ferrando, the college registrar, refused to admit him for two reasons:
1. He was late for registration; and
2. He was sickly and undersized for his age.
 Upon the intercession of Manuel Xerez Burgos, the nephew of Father Burgos, he was admitted to
Ateneo.
 Jose was the first to adopt the surname “Rizal”. He registered under this name at the Ateneo
because their family name “Mercado” had come under the suspicion of the Spanish authorities.
 At the time Jose studied in the Ateneo, the school was located in Intramuros, within the walls of
Manila.
 He first boarded in a house outside Intramuros, on Caraballo Street.
 The house was named by a spinster named Titany who owed the Rizal family ₱300. Jose boarded
with her in order to collect part of the debt.

JESUIT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

 The system of education of the Jesuits was more advanced than other colleges in that period.
 They trained the students with rigid discipline and religious instruction.
 It offers Bachelor of Arts and vocational courses in agriculture, commerce, mechanics and
surveying.
 The students attend Mass in the morning before the beginning of daily class.
 Classes in every subject were opened and closed with prayers.
 Students were divided into two groups:
1. Roman Empire
- composed of the internos (boarders)
2. Carthaginian Empire
- composed of the externos (non-boarders)
 Each of the empires had its ranks:
1. Emperor- the best student
2. Tribune- the second best student
3. Decurion- the third best student
4. Centurion- the fourth best student
5. Standard-bearer- the fifth best student
 Within the empire, the students fought for the positions. Any student could challenge any officer in
his empire to answer questions on the day’s lesson. A student may lose his position if he committed
three mistakes.
  The two empires were in constant competition for supremacy in the class.
 The banners were: red for Romans and blue for Carthaginians.
 The uniform they wore was hemp-fabric trousers and striped cotton coat.

RIZAL’S FIRST YEAR IN ATENEO (1872-1873)

 Rizal’s first professor was Fr. Jose Bech.
 Rizal was assigned at the bottom of the class and classified as Carthaginians.
 He progressed after the end of the month and became an emperor.
 He was the brightest pupil in the whole class
 To improve his Spanish, Rizal took private lessons in Santa Isabel College during the noon recess.
He had to pay three pesos for those extra Spanish lessons.
 In the second half, he did not try hard enough to retain his academic supremacy.
 He ended up as second at the end of the year, although his grades were all marked “Excellent”.

SUMMER VACATION (1873)

 Saturnina brought Rizal to Tanawan.
 Without telling his father, he went to Santa Cruz to visit his mother in prison.

SECOND YEAR IN ATENEO (1873-1874)

 This time he boarded to No. 6 Magallanes Street inside Intramuros
 He became emperor again.
 Some of his classmates were new but they were his former classmates in the school of Maestro
Justiniano.
 Rizal received excellent grades at the end of the school year.

PROPHECY OF MOTHER’S RELEASE

 Jose did visit his mother many times and tell a story about his scholastic triumphs in Ateneo.
 In the course of their conversation, Doña Teodora told her about her dream the previous night
which was interpreted by Jose that she will be released from prison in three months’ time.
 Jose’s interpretation became true, after three months, Doña Teodora was set free.

TEENAGE INTEREST IN READING

 In the summer of 1874 in Calamba, Jose began to take interest in reading romantic novels.
 He became interested in love stories and romantic tales.
 The first favorite novel of Rizal was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.

THIRD YEAR IN ATENEO (1874-1875)

 On June 1874, returned to Ateneo for Junior year.
 Shortly after his return to Ateneo, his mother visited him and gladly told him that she was released
from prison.
 Despite the happiness, Jose did not show excellently in his studies.
 He won only one medal which is a medal for excellency in Latin.

FOURTH YEAR IN ATENEO (1875-1876)

 On June 16, 1875, he became an interno in the Ateneo.
 One of his professors that time was Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez whom he considered his best
professor in Ateneo.
 He topped all his classmates in all his subjects and won five medals at the end of school term.

LAST YEAR IN ATENEO (1876-1877)

 Rizal returned to Ateneo in June 1876 for his last year.
 He excelled in all subjects and became the most brilliant Atenean of his time. He became the “pride
of Jesuits”.
 He finished his studies in Ateneo and obtained the highest grades in all subjects.

GRADUATION WITH HIGHEST HONORS

 Rizal graduated ate the head of his class.
  The Commencement Day was March 23, 1877 and at 16 years old, Rizal received the degree of
Bachelor of Arts with highest honors.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN ATENEO

 Besides being the emperor in the classroom, he was a campus leader outside.
 He was a member of the Marian Congregation because of his devotion to Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception.
 He was also a member of the Academy of Spanish Literature and Academy of Natural Sciences,
both exclusive societies in Ateneo, to which only Ateneans who were gifted in literature and
sciences could qualify to be a member.
 Aside from poetry, he used his free time to paint under the famous Spanish painter Agustin Saez
and sculpture under Romualdo de Jesus
 To develop his weak body, he also invested his time in gymnastics and fencing.

SCULPTURE WORKS IN ATENEO

 He carved the Virgin Mary on a piece of batikuling (Philippine hardwood) with his pocket-knife.
 The Jesuit fathers were amazed by his work.
 Father Lleonart asked Jose to make a sculpture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which he intends to
bring it to Spain. However, he forgot to bring it with him.
 The Sacred Heart of Jesus was placed on the door of the Ateneo dormitory and remained there for
many years to remind Ateneans of Dr. Rizal, the greatest alumnus of their Alma Mater.

POEMS WRITTEN IN ATENEO

 The first poem Rizal wrote during his days in Ateneo was Mi Primera Inspiracion (My First
Inspiration) which was dedicated to his mother on her birthday.

DRAMATIC WORK IN ATENEO

 Father Sanchez requested Jose to write a drama based on the prose story of St. Eustace the Martyr.
 On the first day of his last year in Ateneo, he submitted the final manuscript and entited it San
Eustacio, Martit (Saint Eustace, the Martyr).

FIRST ROMANCE OF RIZAL

 Shortly after his graduation from the Ateneo, Jose, who was then sixteen years old, experienced his
first romance.
 The girl was Segunda Katigbak, a pretty fourteen-year old from Lipa, Batangas.
 He first saw the girl when he visited his maternal grandmother in Trozo, Manila accompanied by
Mariano Katigbak.
 He was surprised that there are other guests in his grandmother’s house. One of whom was an
attractive girl who happened to be the sister of his friend, Mariano.
 Most of the guests urged Rizal to draw and he drew Segunda’s portrait.
 Rizal came to know Segunda on his weekly visit to La Concordia College where his Sister Olimpia
was a boarding student.
 Olimpia was a close friend of Segunda.
 Their love was “a love at first sight”.
 Their love was hopeless because Segunda was fixed to marry her townmate, Manuel Luz.
 The last time they talked to each other was in December, 1877 whenever the Christmas vacation
was about to begin. He visited Segunda in La Concordia College to say goodbye because he was set
to go home to Calamba the following day.
 It was his first and tragic romance.