STUDY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS

OF JOSE RIZAL
(GEd 103)

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 MODULE 1

This module consists of different lesson designed to introduce to students the real Rizal, the
ordinary and extraordinary individual, the human person immortalized in our memory. This
module will surely help the teachers to facilitate lesson and activities in Life and Works of Jose
Rizal. Students will work, step by step, and also answers questions and activities guided by each
lesson as they progress through the different lessons presented. It is an alternative approach
designed to invite critical thinking among the students so that the students can come up with an
intelligent opinion. Everything in the list represents something students will do to help them learn
new information or new skills.

LESSON 1 THE STUDY OF RIZAL IN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL APPROACH

Introduction/Overview

Lesson I shall focus on the introduction and passing of Rizal Law (R.A 1425) that gave
rise to the implementation of the Rizal Course. Students also learn to understand Rizal as a modern
man who conquered his inferiorities. Rizal became a hero because he responded to the challenge
of conquering himself and he succeeded. In the end, he was finally able to accept a great
responsibility to give his own life for his own country. From a weak, frail child, Jose Rizal rose to
become one of the tallest men in history.

Intended Learning Outcome

1. Explain the rationale of the Rizal Law.

2. Discuss the historical context of the Rizal Law.

3. Relate the passage of Rizal Law to nation-building, patriotism and nationalism

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WHY STUDY RIZAL: BECAUSE IT IS MANDATED BY LAW

The teaching of Jose Rizal’s life, works, and writings is mandated by Republic Act 1425,
otherwise known as the Rizal Law. Senator Jose P. Laurel, the person who sponsored the said law,
said that since Rizal was the founder of Philippine nationalism and has contributed much to the
current standing of this nation, it is only right that the youth as well as all the people in the country
know about and learn to imbibe the great ideals for which he died. The Rizal Law, enacted in
1956, seeks to accomplish the following goals:

1. To rededicate the lives of youth to the ideals of freedom and nationalism, for which our
heroes lived and died.

2. To pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in shaping the Filipino
character.

3. To gain an inspiring source of patriotism through the study of Rizal’s life, works, and
writings.

WHY STUDY RIZAL: BECAUSE OF THE LESSONS CONTAINED WITHIN THE

COURSE

Aside from those mentioned above, there are other reasons for teaching the Rizal course in
Philippine schools:

1. To recognize the importance of Rizal’s ideals and teachings in relation to present

conditions and situations in the society.

2. To encourage the application of such ideals in current social and personal problems and
issues.

3. To develop an appreciation and deeper understanding of all that Rizal fought and died
for.

4. To foster the development of the Filipino youth in all aspects of citizenship

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Rizal: Human and Hero

❖ Reverence without understanding is for deities, not flesh and blood heroes like Rizal. Hero-
worship must be both historical-critical.” (Ocampo: 1969)

❖ We must view Rizal as an evolving personality within an evolving historical period.

❖ Rizal was capable of unraveling the myths that were woven by the oppressors of his time,
but he would have been at a loss to see through the more sophisticated myths and recognize
the subtle techniques of present-day colonialist, given the state of his knowledge and
experience at that time.

❖ Many of his social criticisms are still valid today because certain aspect of our life is still
carry-over of the feudal and colonial society of his time.

❖ To be able to appreciate a hero for that matter, we must be able to learn more about him –
not merely his acts but the thoughts behind his acts, his reasons, the situation he found
himself in as well as his motivations.

❖ “If Rizal is treated like God, he becomes unattainable and his accomplishments inhuman.”
(Cristobal, 2004)

Rizal: An example of Sacrifice

❖ Our national hero was a man of peace with a vision.

❖ Rizal suffered as much as his countrymen.

❖ He was the spark that gave birth to Philippine pride for one’s country and people.

❖ Yet all he wanted for his people was that they educate themselves so that they could stand
as free men and face the world with head held high.

“Whatever our condition might be then, let us love our country always and let us wish
nothing but her welfare. Thus, we shall labor in conformity with the purpose of humanity
dictated by God which is the harmony and universal peace of His creations”

Letter of Rizal to Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt

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Rizal Ideas: A Reply to the Challenges of our Millennium

“Rizal ideas are responses in the challenges of the new millennium”

- Ambassador Edmundo Libid-

Jose Rizal is indeed pre-eminent among the national heroes of the Philippines and is thus
revered by the Filipino nation primarily because of his virtues of character which exemplify
honesty, personal integrity, patriotism and civic responsibility. willingness to sacrifice for the cause
of his native land, high sense of justice and family solidarity, and the other loftiest standard of truth
with which he pursued the nobility of his cause to found and foster Filipino Nationhood.

Rizal's pre-eminence is derived from the very fact that he validated all his social and civic
virtues,embodied in his noblest aspirations for his country and people, by consciously and
clear-headedly accepting the ultimate sacrifice of death in the tragic field of Bagumbayan now
called as the Luneta on December 30,1896.

Rizal the man stands among those few that are companion to no particular epoch or
continent, who belong to the world, and whose lives have a universal message. His field of action
lay in the strife of politics and power, but these were not to his inclination. He shouldered his
political burden solely in the cause of duty, a circumstance rendering him one of those figures rare
in human affairs, a revolutionary without hatred, and a leader without worldly ambition. Where his
true inclination lay is finely demonstrated in his life by the fact tat his works in science, history,
and literature, and his profession as an ophthalmic surgeon, share a single, identical aim- to shed
illumination and give sight to the blind.

Rizal's Virtues of Character

• Honesty

• Personal Integrity

• Patriotism

• Civic Responsibility

• Willingness to Sacrifice

• High Sense of Justice

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 • Family Solidarity

Our reply to these questions will take a measure of our confidence and faith in the goals
and guidance set in the heroism and civic sacrifice of Rizal, the values distilled in the calm example
of his virtues and in the very ideals and aspirations that he nurtured for his people, for which he
demonstrated his full commitment with his death.

In this millennium, it is not outlandish to predict those basic values of human honor and
dignity, the same aspirations for freedom and independence of peoples everywhere, the same
natural desire for mutual respect, material well-being. In brief, the very values and virtues
embodied in the spirit of RIZALISM will form the core humanity’s aspirations despite adjustments
that must be accommodated by the new reality of evolved technology and scientific advances far
superior than the knowledge in the previous millennium.

Rizal: A Modern Day

According to Nick Joaquin, Rizal was greatly aggrieved by his physique. When Rizal was
young, he was always teased by his sisters because of his frail body and often described as a very
tiny child with a disproportionately big head that he carried even in his adulthood.

When the young Rizal was in the early stages of adolescence, he strove to erase his punny
image. He became interested in body-building and athletics but his feelings of inferiority had made
an indelible mark on his soul. Rizal was forever haunted by a sense of inadequacy which explains
his inability to sustain relationships with women and great dread for responsibility.

Rizal's inferiority complexes were not without positive side, however. It is his feelings of
inn adequacy that made him dynamic, and he continually looked for ways to be better than others.
Jose Rizal's dynamism was what made him a jack of many talents, and a master of many trades.
What he lacked in physique he compensated by excelling iin many fields such as science, art,
literature, among many others. Because of his insecurities, Rizal strove to overcome himself and
rise above the others.

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END