Yu, Regine C.

AB-EL 3B
The Beginning
Jose Rizal's youth start in Calamba, Laguna his own old neighborhood. He had numerous upbeat
and wonderful memories. He grew up with adoring parents, insightful and caring siblings. He spent his
youth at the lake shore town of Calamba with its picturesque excellence and the great Mt. Makiling a
couple of kilometers from their home. He delighted in the energetic magnificence of Laguna de Bay, an
excellent in Land Lake with verdant tall trees and plants that surround it. Where in the center piece of the
lake was the lovely island of Talim. On the most distant north of the town lies the renowned mountain
altar of Miraculous Lady of Peace and Good Voyage of Antipolo where his mom pledged to the virgin
that he would be taken to her sanctuary by the method of journey.

At three years old his mom teaches him how to read the alphabet together with his sisters. Jose
grew up as a decent catholic. He takes a portion of the family every day petitions. At the point when he
was a delicate and wiped out and little for his age. As a result of his parents and his siblings had given
him their delicacy and care. When he was four, he experiences his first distress; the demise of his sister
Concha at three years old because of sickness. He truly lamented the demise of Concha since she was his
close friend and he gains from her the pleasantness of genuine adored. Jose cried sharply and carried
distress to the entire family.

At five years old he can read Spanish bible o and he demonstrated tendencies to be craftsman
while his figuring out how to peruse and compose. He flabbergasts his family and his family members by
his pencil drawings and representations and his trim of earth. He adored go to chapel, to ask, to partake in
novena, and to join religious parade.

One of the men that he regarded and enormously respects in Calamba was the town priest Father

Leoncio Lopez a scholar. He used to visit him and listen to his invigorating conclusions of
current occasions and sound of philosophy of life. At the age of eight he composed his
tagalog sonnet entitled "Sa aking mga Kababata" with subject that revolved on ones adore for
its language. At his youthful age he appeared with an imaginative ability. He adored to spend his
time watching beauty of the surrounding. He spends much of his time in making images rather
than playing. His sister used to laugh at him. But he never says any words to them. In his childhood
he reveals his lovely intellect. He begun to write brief verses on the paper or on the pages of his sister’s
book. He cherished to listen to his mother stories. His favorite story was the story of the moth. He
was awed to the young moth since he gives up his life for a respectable cause. His father builds him a
nipa cottage in their garden where he can play and rest amid day time.

His parents hire him a kind old woman as his nurse servant to see after his needs and consolation.
He used to call her "Aya". His Aya used to read him stories of fairies, stories of buried treasures and tree
blooms of diamond, legend, folk tale. When some of the time that he wouldn’t ate his supper his Aya
would startle him of the aswang or nono, tikbalang, or the unshaven and turbaned bombay who would
come and take him away if he would not eat. One of his fond memories amid his childhood was the
everyday prayer. His mother would accumulate them for a religious activity, the Angelus. They also pray
the rosary daily. He delighted in the noctumal walk within the town amid full moon.

On June 6 1868 he had first up with his father to the lake of Calamba going to the marvelous
shrine Antipolo. To fulfill his mother pledge that she ought to take the child to the holy place. She
promised there that she and the child should survived the delivery. The deliveries nearly cause the passing
of his mother. He and his father rode a casco and cruised over the Pasig River. He was happy on his first
voyage. He was astounding within the beauty of the watery scope, the silence of the night and the brilliant
rays shone on the surface of the wide lake the following morning. After imploring at the shrine, they
continue to Manila to visit his sister Sutunina who's studying at La Concordia College in Santa Ana. It
was his first travel outside Laguna.

Rizal’s early education * In Calamba

It was a typical for a son of an ilustrado family to receive the four R’s methods of teaching;
reading; writing; arithmetic; religion. The instruction was strict and rigid. The knowledge was forced to
the mind of the students by the means of tedious memory method aide by the teachers whip.

Jose first teacher was his mother. She taught him how to read and write. In his memoir he wrote
‘my mother taught me how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers witch I raised fervently to
God’. As a tutor his mother was patience, conscientious, and understanding. It was her who discovered
her son talent in poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged her son to write poem and to lighten the monotony
of memorizing the alphabet.

His parents hired him a tutor to help him and give him lesson at home. His first tutor was Maestro
Celestino. His second tutor was Maestro Lucas Padua. And later on, his father hired a classmate. He
taught him the rudiments of Latin and Spanish. Jose called him Maestro Leon Manroy. He stayed at
Rizal’s home. But unfortunately, Manroy died five months later. So, they let their gifted child send to a
private school in Biñan.
 In Biñan, Laguna

On Saturday evening of June 1869 after the very sad moment of separating with his sisters and
kissing the hand of his parents Jose alongside his brother Paciano cleared out Calamba for Biñan. Paciano
act as his second father. After one and half hour of traveling in caromata they reach the house of their
Close relative where he is supposed to stay. At the very night, Jose at the side his cousin named Leandro
went into sightseeing within the town but he never acknowledged it since he felt home sick. “In the moon
light, I remember my home town, my idolize mother, my solicitous sister. Ah! How sweet to me was
Calamba, my own town, in spite of the fact that was not a wealthy as Biñan. By the next day his brother
Paciano brought him to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz, a previous educator of Paciano. It
was 30 meters away from their Aunt house. The school was the house of the Maestro Justiniano. It was
little nipa cottage.

When Paciano left Jose was assign to his seat. At that point the teacher inquires him; do you

know Spanish? the lad answer "a little sir." He once more inquired him; do you know Latin? "a little sir"
he also answers. Everyone chuckles at him particularly Pedro the child of the Maestro Justianiano. But
the teacher strongly ceased the commotion and started to begin the course for that day.
Jose portrays the instructor within the Binan as follow; "he was a tall, thin, long-necked, with sharp nose
and a body somewhat bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the gifted hands of
the ladies of Batangas. He knew by the heart the linguistic uses by Nebrija and Gainza. Include to
this severity in my judgment was exaggerated and you have a picture, maybe vague, that I have made of
him, but I keep in mind as it were this. At the exceptionally to begin with day of his ponders in Binan
Jose met a fight. It was during the teacher's rest that he met the bully Pedro, he was angry with this
bully since Pedro was making fun of him during his discussion with the teacher.

Jose challenged Pedro to have a battle with him. The latter acknowledged the battle, considering that Jose

was little and younger than him. The two boys had wrestling angrily inside the classroom, much to
the glee of their classmates. Jose having learned the art of wrestling from his Tio Manuel and have
the strength he crushed the bigger boy. Those realities make him popular to their school. After
that afternoon a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenge him for an arm-wrestling match. They
went into the sidewalk of the house and started the battle. Jose having the weaker
hand defeated the battle and nearly broken his head. Within the succeeding days he had battle with the
boys of Binan.

He was not a quarrelsome in nature but he never ran away from the fight. In academic studies,

Jose beat the Binan boys. He outperformed them all in Spanish, Latin and other subjects. Some of his
classmates were jealous of his mental superiority. The wicked classmates denounce him some time
recently the teacher in spite of the fact that without any reasons. Which in show disdain toward of
his progress he received numerous whippings and a stroke of ferule. Rare was the day when he was
not stretched on the seat for a whipping punished with five or six blows on the open palm.
Jose's response to all those disciplines was one of the strongly hatred in arrange to memorize and in this
way carry out his father's will. Jose spent his leisure time within the house of Maestro Justiniano's father-
in-law which was a master painter.