JOSE RIZAL’S HIGHER

EDUCATION
 EDUCATION IN MANILA

 ATENEO MUNICIPAL DE MANILA

 Bachelor of Arts degree in 1877 at the age of 16
  Graduated as one of the nine students declared
sobresaliente
 Continued his education to obtain a degree in land
surveying and assessor
ATENEO MUNICIPAL DE MANILA

 Rizal was a member of the academy of Spanish Literature and the Academy
of Natural Sciences.
 Wrote his first poem Mi Primera Inspiracion (My First Inspiration) which
was dedicated to his mother on her birthday.
 He also wrote Through Education Our Motherland Receives Light and The
Intimate Alliance Between Religion and Good Education which showed the
importance of religion in education.
 “Mi Primera Inspiracion”

 Why falls so rich a spray of fragrance from the bowers of the balmy flowers upon this
festive day?
 Why from woods and vales do we hear sweet measures ringing that seem to be the
singing of a choir of nightingales?
 Why in the grass below do birds start at the wind's noises, unleashing their honeyed
voices as they hop from bough to bough?
 Why should the spring that glows its crystalline murmur be tuning to the zephyr's
mellow crooning as among the flowers it flows?
 Why seems to me more endearing, more fair than on other days, the dawn's enchanting
face among red clouds appearing?
 The reason, dear mother, is they feast your day of bloom: the rose with its perfume, the
bird with its harmonies.
 And the spring that rings with laughter upon this joyful day with its murmur seems to
say: "Live happily ever after!“
 And from that spring in the grove now turn to hear the first note that from my lute I
emote to the impulse of my love!
EDUCATION IN MANILA

 University of Santo Tomas

 Studied Philosophy and Letters during his first year
 Shifted to Medicine specializing in Ophthalmology when he
found out that his mother was going blind
EDUCATION IN MANILA

 Rizal was unhappy at this Dominican Institution of higher

learning because:
 (1) the Dominican professors were hostile to him
 (2) the Filipino students were racially discriminated
against by the Spaniards
 (3) the method of instruction was obsolete and repressive
 After finishing the fourth year of his medical course, Rizal
decided to study in Spain . He could no longer endure the
rampant bigotry, discrimination, and the hostility in the
University of Santo Tomas.
 University of Santo Tomas
 Rizal was unhappy at this Dominican Institution of higher
learning because:
 (1) the Dominican professors were hostile to him (2) the
Filipino students were racially discriminated against by the
Spaniards (3) the method of instruction was obsolete and
repressive
 After finishing the fourth year of his medical course, Rizal
decided to study in Spain . He could no longer endure the
rampant bigotry, discrimination, and the hostility in the
University of Santo Tomas.
EDUCATION IN EUROPE

 Traveled alone to Europe

 Madrid in May 1882
 Continued his studies in Medicine at the Universidad Central
de Madrid
 Degree of Licentiate in Medicine in 1884 Degree of
Philosophy and Letters in 1885
Spain as a realization
 It was a venue for realizing Rizal’s dreams.
 He finished his studies in Madrid and this to him was the realization of the
bigger part of his ambition.
 His vision broadened to the point of awakening in him an understanding of
human nature, sparking in him the realization that his people needed him.
 It must have been this sentiment that prompted him to pursue, during the
re-organizational meeting of the CirculoHispano-Filipino, to be one of its
activities, the publication of a book to which all the members would
contribute papers on the various aspects and conditions of Philippines life.
 Spain as a realization
Spain as a realization
 The proposal for the book was unanimously approved.
 But afterwards, difficulties and objections were raised, and a
number of gentlemen stood up and refused to discuss the
matter any further in 1884.
 Rizal decided not to press the issue any longer.
 Although the book was never written, the next year, Pedro
Paterno published his Ninay, a novel sub-titled Costumbres
filipinas (Philippines Customs), thus partly fulfilling the original
purpose of Rizal’s plan.
Noli Me Tangere
 The idea of writing a novel grew on him, and later he decided
to write and worked hard for Noli Me Tangere
 He never told anyone about it until it was finished, though
some of his companions knew what he was doing
 He wrote half of the novel in Madrid, a quarter of it in Paris
and the rest in Germany
 Education in Europe
 University of Paris (France)
 University of Heidelberg (Germany)
 Earned a second doctorate
 Inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and
the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the
famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow
 University of Heidelberg
 25-year-old Rizal completed in 1887 his eye specialization
under the renowned Prof. Otto Becker in Heidelberg
 Left Heidelberg a poem, “A las flores del Heidelberg”; both an
evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and
the unification of common values between East and West
A las flores del Heidelberg
 Go to my country, go foreign flowers, Planted by the traveler on his way, And there beneath that sky of blue
That over my beloved towers, Speak for this traveler to say What faith in his homeland he breathes to you.
 Go and say.... Say that when the dawn First brew your calyx open there Beside the River Necker chill, You
saw him standing by you, very still, Reflecting on the primrose flush you wear.
 Say that when the morning light Her toll of perfume from you wrung, While playfully she whispered, "How I
love you!“ He too murmured here above you Tender love songs in his native tongue.
 That when the rising sun the height Of Koenigsthul in early morn first spies, And with its tepid light Is pouring
life in valley, wood, and grove, He greets the sun as it begins to rise, Which in his native land is blazing
straight above.
 And tell them of that day he staid And plucked you from the border of the path, Amid the ruins of the feudal
castle, By the River Neckar, and in the sylvan shade.
 Tell them what he told you As tenderly he took Your pliant leaves and pressed them in a book, Where now its
well-worn pages close enfold you.
 Carry, carry, flowers of Rhine, Love to every love of mine, Peace to my country and her fertile loam, Virtue to
her women, courage to her men, Salute those darling ones again, Who formed the sacred circle of our home.
 And when you reach that shore, Each kiss I press upon you now, Deposit on the pinions of the wind, And
those I love and honor and adore Will feel my kisses carried to their brow.
 Ah, flowers, you may fare through, Conserving still, perhaps, your native hue; Yet, far from Fatherland, heroic
loam To which you owe your life, The perfume will be gone from you; For aroma is your soul; it cannot roam
Beyond the skies which saw it born, nor e'er forget.
Rizal’s Life in Europe
 Jose Rizal lived in Europe for 10 years.
 He could converse in more than 10 different tongues.
 Excelled at martial arts, fencing, sculpture, painting, teaching, anthropology, and
journalism, among other things.
 During his European sojourn, he also began to write novels. Rizal finished his first
book, Noli Me Tangere, while living in Wilhemsfeld with the Reverend Karl Ullmer.