Early Education in

Calamba and
Biñan of Rizal
Larabelle Adrianne M. Luntayao
- Teaching was characterized by four R's:
Reading
Writing
Aritmetic
Religion
- Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge was
forced to its students through memory method aided
with a whip
- His first teacher was his mother
- Jose did not like his experience in Biñan under his
teacher Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz who never
forgot to whip him or punish him with blows in an
open palm even when he was good in class
- He was advanced beyond his teachers.
- Primarily educated himself in the family library and
through conversation with family and friends
- Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly
squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school. and even told lies
to to discredit him before the teacher's eyed. Consequently, the teacher had to punish
Jose. Thus, Rizal said that "in spite of the reputation I had of being a good boy, the day
was unusual when I was not laid out on a bench and given five or six blows".
- Rizal eventually earned a land surveyor's and assessor's degree from the Ateneo
Municipal while taking up Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas
-Rizal traveled to Europe in May 1882
- Rizal earned a Licentiate in Medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid
- Rizal also attended the University of Paris and, in1887, completed his eye specialization
course at the University og Heidelberg.