MODULE 4: RIZAL’S HIGHER EDUCATION

OBJECTIVES

-Explain the life of Jose Rizal in Ateneo and UST

- Point-out the important experiences of Jose Rizal as a student in Ateneo de Manila
-Make a timeline of Jose Rizal schooling at Ateneo de Manila.
Differentiate the system of education during Rizal’s time and the present educational
system in the country
-emulate Rizal’s diligence in studying towards excellence and his ideals of nationalism
-make a distinction on the inspiration of Rizal and the importance of his writings for a
cause
-trace the significance of Rizal’s higher education and his accomplishments to his desire
for freedom
-confer critically the significance of the literary works of Rizal

INTRODUCTION:

Four months after the martyrdom of father Gomez,Burgos, and Zamora and with
Dona Theodora still in the prison, Jose, who had not yet celebrated his eleventh
birthday, was sent to Manila. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal, a college under the
supervision of the Spanish Jesuits. This college was a bitter rival of the Dominican-
owned College of San Juan de Letran. It was formerly the Escuela Pia (Charity School)
(Zaide, S. 2008), a school for poor boys in Manila which was established by the city
government in 1817.

On June 10, 1872, Paciano accompanied Rizal to take the entrance examination at
College of San Juan de Letran and passed it. They returned to Calamba to stay for few
days with the family and to attend the town fiesta. Don Francisco changed his mind and
decided to send Rizal to Ateneo Municipal.

Paciano accompanied Rizal to Manila to enrol to Ateneo Municipal. Fr. Magin Fernando,
the school registar, refused to accept him for he was late for registration and he was
sickly and small for his age. With the intercession of Perez Burgos, a nephew for Fr.
Burgos he was admitted to Ateneo that was located in Intramuros within the walls of
Manila. Rizal was just quiet and observant of the different activities in class.
The Jesuitical system of instruction was considered more advanced than that of other
colleges in that epoch. Its discipline was rigid and its methods less mechanical. It
introduced physical culture as part of its program as well as the cultivation of the arts,
such as music, drawing, and painting. It also establishes vocational courses in
agriculture, commerce, and mechanics as a religious institute, its principal purpose was
to mold the character and the will of the boys to comply more easily with the percepts
of the Church. The students heard mass before the beginning of the class, which was
opened and closed with prayers.

The first professor Jose had was Fr. Jose Bech, whom he describes as a man of high
stature; lean body, bent forward; quick gait; ascetic physiognomy, severe and inspired;
small, sunken eyes; sharp Grecian nose; thin lips forming an arch with its sides directed
toward the chin." He was somewhat of a lunatic and of an uneven humor; sometimes
he was hard and little tolerant and at other times he was gay and playful as a child.

In the first two terms the classes were divided into groups of interns and externs: the
first constituted the Roman Empire and the second, the Carthaginian Empire. In each
empire there were five dignitaries: Emperor, Tribune, Decurion, Centurion, and
Standard-Bearer. These dignities were won by means of individual competitions in
which it was necessary to catch one’s adversary in error three times. The empires
considered themselves in perpetual warfare, and when an individual of one empire was
caught in error by one belonging to the enemy empire, a point was counted in favor of
the latter. At the end of each week or two, the points in favor of each were added and
the empire, which obtained more point, was declared winner.

Among Jose’s classmates were Peninsulares and sons of Peninsulares; Francisco G.

Oliva, very talented but not very studious; Joaquin Garrido, endowed with a poor
memory but with much talent and industry; and Gonzalo Marzano, who occupied the
throne of Emperor.

As a newcomer, Jose was at first put at the tail of the class, but he was soon promoted
and kept on being promoted so that at the end of one month he had attained to the
rank of Emperor and was considered the brightest pupil of the class and was awarded a
prize, a religious picture which he was so proud of because it was the first prize he ever
received at Ateneo.

He spent his leisure hours by taking private lessons to improve his Spanish at Sta Isabel
College and paid 3 pesos for his lessons.
At the end of the term he obtained marks of excellent in all the subjects and in the
examinations. He had reason to feel proud of his advancement; and so when he went
home on vacation that year, he ran alone to see his mother in the prison and tell her
the happy news.
He must have uttered this exclamation on learning from his mother that they had
played her a mean trick. The judge, who was a blind partisan of the friars having been
a domestic of theirs, told her that if she confessed her culpability he would release her
at once. With the desire to see her children again, she pleaded guilty; but the judge,
instead of releasing her, convicted her. In a few months the judge asked her
forgiveness for what he had done because according to him his conscience hurt him,
but the case had no remedy because it was already on appeal.

The second year, Jose had the same professor as in the previous year; but instead of
lodging outside the City, he resided at No. 6 Calle Magallanes. At the end of the term
he obtained a medal, and upon returning to his town, he again visited his mother in jail
alone. This was three months before her release.
The rejoicing that her release produced in his spirit had much influence on the result of
his studies in the third year, for he began to win prizes in the quarterly examinations.
About that time he devoted himself to reading novels, and one of those he enjoyed
most was Dumas’ (father) The Count of Monte Cristo. The sufferings of the hero of the
twelve years. He also read Travels in the Philippines by Dr. Feodor Jagor, a German
scientist-traveller. The book consisted of keen observations of the Philippines on the
defects of Spanish colonization and the prophecy that someday Spain would lose the
country and that America would succeed her as colonizer. He also asked his father to
buy him a copy of The Universal History by Cesar Cantanu, and according to himself he
profited much from its perusal.

In the fourth year of his course he had Fr. Francisco Sanchez as professor. Jose
describes him as a model of rectitude, a solicitude, and love for the student, and his
studied mathematics, rhetoric, and Greek, and he must have progressed much, for at
the end of the year he-obtained five medals, which pleased him immensely because
with them I could repay my father somewhat for his sacrifices.
An incident which demonstrates Jose’s independence of character took place at this
time. Fr. Leoncio Lopez, parish priest of the town, who was a great friend of his father,
also liked Jose as a little friend. He was cultured but at the same time timid and tender.
One day Jose’s mother showed Father Lopez a poem of his young friend and that the
latter must have copied it from a book. Jose, who heard this, answered the priest
violently, for which his mother reprehended him. Afterward Father Lopez came to know
from the Jesuits themselves that Jose was a pupil who excelled in poetry; and, in spite
of his age, made a trip to Manila expressly to apologize to Jose. That gesture of Father
Lopez’ won him Jose’s esteem and they became good friends again, lending each other
the books they had.
In the fifth years Jose had other professors: Frs. Vilaclara and Mineves. He studied
philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural history, but his devotion to poetry was such
that his professor in philosophy advised him once to leave it, which made him cry. But
in his rest hours he continued cultivating the Muses under the direction of his old
professor, Father Sanchez. Jose had then written a short story (leyenda), which was
only slightly corrected by his professor, and a dialogue, which was enacted at the end
of the course, alluding to the collegians’ farewell. However, philosophy, just and serve,
inquiring into the wherefores of things, interested him as much as poetry; physics,
drawing back the veil that divine drama of nature was enacted, natural history seemed
to him somewhat uninteresting although he much liked the shells and sometimes
imagined seeing a goddess in each shell he was on the shelf.
Jose was considered small of stature and he tried to correct this defect by applying
himself regularly to gymnastics in the college. He also engaged in other physical
exercises, such as fencing. After his baccalaureate, he surprised his family with his skill
in handling the sword when he gave an exhibition bout with the best swordsman of the
town.
He also devoted time to painting and sculpture. In drawing and painting he was under
the guidance and direction of the Ateneo professor, the Peninsula Don Augustin Saez,
who honored him with his affection and consideration because of his progress. In
sculpture his instructor was a Filipino, Romualdo de Jesus, who felt proud in the last
years of his life of having had such an excellent pupil.

SOURCES:

https://prezi.com/forxme56iuu6/dr-jose-rizal-in-ateneo-and-ust/