THE PHILIPPINES PAST AND PRESENT
By
DEAN C. WORCESTER
Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine Islands 1901-1913;
Member of the Philippine Commission, 1900-1913
Author of "The Philippine Islands and Their People"
In Two Volumes -- With 128 Plates
Volume II
New York
The Macmillan Company
1914
CONTENTS
VOL. II
CHAPTER PAGE
XIX. Education 501
XX. The Exploration of Non-Christian Territory 532
XXI. The Government of Non-Christian Tribes 559
XXII. The Government of Non-Christian Tribes (Continued) 591
XXIII. Corrigenda 637
XXIV. Non-Christian Tribe Problems 660
XXV. Slavery and Peonage 676
XXVI. Murder as a Governmental Agency 730
XXVII. The Philippine Legislature 768
XXVIII. The Picturesque Philippines 792
XXIX. Rod, Shotgun and Rifle 806
XXX. Philippine Lands 829
XXXI. Philippine Forests 846
XXXII. Improved Means of Communication 861
XXXIII. Commercial Possibilities of the Philippines 884
XXXIV. Peace and Prosperity 911
XXXV. Some Results of American Rule 921
XXXVI. Is Philippine Independence now Possible? 933
XXXVII. What Then? 961
APPENDIX
Instructions to the First Philippine Commission 975
Proclamation of the First Philippine Commission 977
Instructions to the Second Philippine Commission 980
Past and Present Organization of the Courts of the Philippine
Islands 988
Present accepted Estimate of the Non-Christian Population of
the Philippines 999
INDEX 1005
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. II
The Metamorphosis of a Bontoc Igorot Frontispiece
Facing Page
Head-hunters' Weapons 508
The Three Leading Men in the Funeral Procession of an Ifugao
who has lost his Head to the Enemy 516
The Sacred Tree of the Ifugaos 524
Entrance to the Quiangan Schoolhouse 534
An Ifugao School 540
The Sub-provincial Building at Quiangan 546
Ifugao Constabulary Soldiers 554
Bontoc Igorot Head-hunters 562
Bontoc Igorot Women in Banana-leaf Costume 570
A Bontoc Igorot Tug-of-war 578
Bontoc Igorot Boys learning to make Furniture 586
A Conference with Ifugao Chiefs 594
Finished Trail built by Ifugaos 602
Difficult Bit of Rock Work on the Mountain Trail in Benguet 610
A Flying Ferry in Operation 618
A Wild Tingian of Apayao 626
Tingian Girls threshing Rice 634
Typical Manobos 640
An Old Bukidnon Chief 650
Typical Street in a Filipino Town 656
A Typical Bukidnon Village Street 656
A Typical Improved Bukidnon House 664
A Typical Neglected Filipino House 664
Making Friends with the Mandayas 670
A Mandayan Boy 678
A Group of Bagobos 686
Moro Boats coming out to meet the Philippine Commission at
Jolo 692
Among the Moros 700
A Moro Chief with his Wives and Daughter 706
Lieutenant-Governor Manuel Fortich of Bukidnon 708
Governor Frederick Johnson of Agusan 714
A Typical Peon 722
The Penalty for Loyalty to the United States 728
The Philippine Assembly in Session 738
Señor Sergio Osmeña, Speaker of the Philippine Assembly 742
The Manila Hotel 750
Mayon Volcano 756
The Crater of Taal Volcano 764
A Bit of the Pagsanjan Gorge 772
A Giant Tree Fern 780
Scene on a Bird Island 788
A Day's Catch 796
After the Hunt 804
Typical Scene at the Edge of a Hardwood Forest 812
A Typical Forest Scene 820
Old-style Road across Lowlands 826
New-style Road across Lowlands 826
Typical Old-style Country Road 836
Typical New-style Country Road 836
A Canga, or Carabao Sledge 844
A New-style Cart, with Broad-tired Wheels, which does not
injure the Roads 844
Road Destroyers at Work 852
An Old-style Culvert 858
The Old Way of Crossing a River 868
The New Way of Crossing a River 868
A Typical Old-style Bridge 878
A Typical Reënforced Concrete Bridge 878
A Collapsible Bridge 886
Map: Manila, the Future Distributing Centre for the Far East 888
Preparing Rice Land for Planting 892
Planting Rice 892
A Three-year-old Coffee Bush 902
A Ceara Rubber Tree 906
A Typical Cocoanut Grove 918
A Typical Filipino Town 922
A Typical Group of Filipinos 930
A Typical Spanish Mestiza 938
A Strange Couple 946
A Member of the Cabaruan Trinity 946
A Typical Old-style Provincial Government Building 962
A Modern Provincial Government Building 962
A Refuge from the Moros 968
A Possible Office-holder 972
THE PHILIPPINES PAST AND PRESENT
CHAPTER XIX
EDUCATION
No work accomplished since the American occupation is of more
fundamental and far-reaching importance than that of the Bureau of
Education. In order to appreciate it one must gain some familiarity
with the conditions which prevailed in Spanish times.
The first evidence of the Spanish governmental attitude toward
education in the Philippines is found in a royal edict of March 21,
1634, [1] in which Felipe IV orders all archbishops and bishops to
take steps for the education of the Filipinos in the Spanish language
and in Christian doctrine.
That this decree was more honoured in the breach than in the
observance is evident from another royal decree of June 20, 1686,
[2] in which the king reminds civil and religious authorities that
the non-observance of the decree of 1634 will be charged against them.
Neither of these documents provided for financing the scheme of
education ordained, but a decree of December 22, 1792, [3] did make
financial provision for the establishment of Spanish schools for
natives. The salaries of teachers were to be paid from the royal
treasury, and deficits were to be made up from the communal properties
and treasuries.
Although this was the first practical attempt to introduce general
native education, there are evidences that individual opportunities
were offered to, and embraced by, Filipinos. It is probable, too,
that in certain localities the most generous of the Spaniards opened
private schools.
The College of San José was founded in 1601, the University of Santo
Tomás in 1619. Neither made provision for educating natives. They were
established for the children of Spaniards only, although both later
admitted Filipinos. But in the rules for the short-lived college of San
Felipe (1641-1645), [4] Corcuera lays down the following: "The college
servants shall be of influential Pampango families, and they shall be
taught to read and write in the Spanish language, and shall be given
clerkships if they show aptitude therefor." We learn that when the
charity school of San Juan de Letran passed under the control of the
Dominicans in 1640, native boys were admitted, on payment of fees,
to share the advantages offered charitably to Spanish orphans. [5]
Primary education for Filipinos secured no real foothold until
1863. [6] In that year, by royal decree, a school system originally
planned for Cuba was extended to the Philippines. It made provision
for the beginnings of primary instruction in all municipalities of the
islands. A summary [7] called forth by a circular of March 1, 1866,
gives information with regard to the progress actually made. This
summary fixes the number of towns at nine hundred, the number of
children attending school at one hundred thirty-five thousand boys
and twelve thousand two hundred sixty girls, and the number of schools
at sixteen hundred seventy-four, but it gives the number of buildings
actually in use for schools as only six hundred forty-one. Instruction
in Spanish was not always, or even generally, given.
In 1863 provision was also made for the establishment of a normal
school at Manila. In 1893, [8] forty years later, the actual
appropriation for the Normal School was $5525. Fourteen years after
the American occupation, the appropriation for the Normal School
was $56,476.42, in addition to $224,500 spent for new buildings and
furniture. [9]
In 1892 there were two thousand one hundred seventy-three schools. The
attendance of these schools was small and irregular. In 1896, at the
outbreak of the insurrection, the Spanish had in operation a public
school system which could call upon the Normal School for teachers
and also upon such graduates of private schools as cared to undertake
the work. Naturally the latter were few. Between 1863 and 1893,
the Normal School had enrolled two thousand and one students.
This may be contrasted with the number of schools which, under the
present régime, prepare the pupils for teaching, as well as for other
occupations. Including the students of the Philippine Normal School,
the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, the Provincial High and
Intermediate Schools, nearly thirty-seven thousand pupils are now
following studies which fit them more or less to undertake the work
of giving instruction to others.
In addition to the Normal School, the Spanish established a
Nautical School in 1820, a School of Commercial Accounting and of
the French and English Languages in 1839, and an Academy of Drawing
and Painting. Their final system of public instruction was not badly
planned, but it was never actually put into full operation.
From the beginning of the insurrection against Spain in 1896 until
the beginning of the insurrection against the United States in 1899,
most of the public schools were closed. The schoolhouses were used
for barracks, prisons, or hospitals. No attempt was made to keep them
in repair, and what scanty equipment they had once possessed was for
the most part destroyed or stolen.
Between 1899 and 1901, many of these buildings were repaired in towns
which were occupied by American soldiers, and the beginnings of a
public school system were made by our victorious army. Wherever our
flag was raised a public school was soon established, soldiers often
serving as teachers, and the moral effect of this upon the Filipinos
was very great.
The city of Manila was naturally the first place to receive
attention. Three weeks after our army entered it on August 13,
1898, seven schools were opened under the supervision of Father
W. D. McKinnon, chaplain of the first California Regiment. In June,
1899, Lieutenant George P. Anderson was detailed as city superintendent
of schools for Manila, and during the following school year he
had an average of forty-five hundred pupils enrolled in the primary
schools. Captain Albert Todd was detailed to act as superintendent of
schools for the islands, but on May 5, 1900, in anticipation of the
transfer of the islands from military to civil government, he gave
way to Dr. Fred W. Atkinson, who had been chosen by the Philippine
Commission as superintendent of public instruction. This title was
changed later to that of director of education.
On January 21, 1901, the commission passed Act 74, the basis of
the present school law. It provided for the appointment of one
thousand American teachers to begin the work of establishing a school
system carried on in English. Appointments were made as rapidly as
possible. By the end of the year, seven hundred sixty-five American
teachers were at work.
When provision was made for the appointment of this large number of
Americans, it was with the idea that they should act as teachers of
English in schools over which there should be Filipino principals,
but there was, at that time, no body of Filipino teachers properly
prepared to carry on school work, and by force of circumstances,
this plan was soon altered.
Ten school divisions were established, covering the archipelago. Each
was presided over by a division superintendent of schools. The teachers
were theoretically subject to his control, but the divisions were
so large that it was impossible for him to exercise control very
effectively. It is perhaps well that many of the teachers were left
free to employ their own ingenuity in meeting local conditions.
The school system finally established represents a composite of the
recommendations of hundreds of teachers scattered throughout the
archipelago, and these recommendations were based on hard-earned
experience.
One of the first duties of teachers was to begin the training of
Filipino assistants. This took form in the organization of so-called
aspirante classes, into which the best of the Filipino youth who were
old enough to teach, and who had already received some education, were
gathered. These aspirante classes were often held side by side with
classes in the primary schools first established by American teachers,
and by the beginning of the year 1902 some of the brightest pupils were
able to assist in primary school work. These classes made possible
the establishment of organized primary schools under the control of
American teachers with Filipino teachers in the lower grades. Their
graduates formed the nuclei of the first secondary schools, which
were established in 1903.
The difficulties which teachers had to overcome at the outset were
numerous. In some of the older and richer towns there were stone or
brick schoolhouses more or less fit for occupation. In such cases a
small number of old wooden benches and a few square feet of blackboard
were usually available. Sometimes there were books provided by the
army: Baldwin's readers in English or in rudely translated vernacular;
Frye's geographies translated into Spanish; and possibly Spanish
editions of the history of the United States. This stock was greatly
improved during the latter half of 1902, and teachers were furnished
books and supplies as rapidly as transportation facilities permitted.
In 1901 the number of school divisions was increased to eighteen, and
in 1902 to thirty-six, making the school divisions identical with the
thirty-six then existing political subdivisions of the islands. The
organization of the public school system gradually crystallized and
assumed something of the form which it has to-day. Barrio [10] schools
were opened, and the work of American teachers who were detailed to
supervise them was thus greatly increased.
The school system took permanent shape in 1903 and 1904. As it
now stands it is controlled by the director of education, who
is responsible for its conduct. Serving with him, and subject
to his control, are an assistant director and a second assistant
director. The directors have immediate charge of the general office,
which has the following divisions: records, accounting, buildings,
property, academic, industrial and publications. Each has a chief
who is directly responsible for its work.
The islands are now divided into thirty-four school divisions,
corresponding, except in two cases, to provinces. Each has its
superintendent of schools.
The divisions are subdivided into districts, over each of which
there is a supervising teacher who is responsible for the conduct of
its work. Certain of the intermediate schools are under supervising
teachers, while others are directly under division superintendents.
The school system to-day extends to the remotest barrios. It is
organized and equipped for effective work, and ready to carry out
promptly and effectively the policies determined upon by the central
office.
In each province there is a central provincial school offering
intermediate and secondary courses. Only twelve of them now give a
full four-year course. Others offer three years, two years or one
year of secondary work. There is also a manual training department
attached to the provincial school, or a trade school. So much for
the provincial school system.
At Manila we have the Philippine Normal School, with an attendance of
six hundred sixty-nine, and the Philippine School of Arts and Trades,
with an attendance of six hundred forty-one. Also, there are the School
of Commerce and the School for the Deaf and Blind, both supported
directly from insular funds. The School of Household Industries
has recently been established for the training of adult women in
embroidery, lace-making and similar arts, so that they may return
to their provinces to establish little centres for the production of
articles of this nature. This is most important work. The Filipinos
are endowed with great patience, and with extraordinary delicacy of
touch and manual dexterity. If productive household industries based
on these valuable characteristics are generalized, the prosperity of
the common people will be very greatly increased.
Of the school system in general it can be said that Filipino teachers
have been gradually employed for the lower grades, and Americans have
thus been freed to take charge of the higher instruction. Primary
instruction is now in the hands of Filipinos, and intermediate
instruction is rapidly being turned over to them. In July, 1913, there
were about eighty-five hundred Filipino teachers, with an estimated
total enrolment of five hundred thirty thousand pupils. The total
enrolment in primary schools was approximately four hundred ninety
thousand, in intermediate schools thirty thousand nine hundred, and in
secondary schools six thousand. When we compare these figures with the
hundred and seventy-seven thousand reported by the Spanish government
in 1897, and when we consider the fact that attendance at that time
was extremely irregular, it is evident that noteworthy progress
has been made. Mere figures, however, come far short of telling the
whole story. There has been very great improvement in the quality of
the instruction given. In the old days children "studied out loud,"
and the resulting uproar was audible at quite a distance.
On their arrival in these islands, Americans found that the educated
Filipinos as a rule held honest manual labor in contempt, while many
of those who had managed to secure professional educations did not
practise their professions, but preferred to live a life of ease. There
were doctors who made no pretence of treating the sick, and lawyers
who had studied simply for the standing which the title would give
them. The Bureau of Education has brought about a profound change in
public sentiment; a change of basic importance to the country. It
was apparent at the outset that any educational system adhering
closely to academic studies would simply serve to perpetuate this
condition of affairs. Fortunately, those in charge of the situation
were untrammelled by tradition, and were free to build up a system
that would meet actual existing needs. The objection to manual labor
offered much difficulty, but it has been largely overcome. There was,
furthermore, a feeling against industrial work on the part of the
people in many regions, based on the idea that teachers meant to
supplement their salaries by the sale of the industrial products
of the schools. This prejudice, which seemed formidable at first,
disappeared when the bureau took up in earnest the introduction of
industrial education and vocational training.
Just as the academic organization grew out of local conditions, so did
industrial education accommodate itself to existing circumstances. In
the Spanish colegios, girls had been taught to do exquisite embroidery
and to make pillow lace. In various parts of the islands, hat weaving
was carried on by families or groups of families. The making of
petates, [11] of rough but durable market baskets and of sugar bags
constituted widespread local industries. American teachers were quick
to see how these vagrant arts could be organized and commercialized. An
intense rivalry sprang up between supervising teachers, and as a
result the arts of pillow lace-making, embroidery, Irish crochet,
hat weaving, basketry and macramé work have been introduced and
standardized throughout the primary and intermediate schools. The
excellence of the output is truly astonishing.
Courses in housekeeping and household arts also received early
attention. The social and economic conditions in the Philippines are
such that the so-called "domestic science" course of American schools
is quite inadequate to meet the needs of Filipina girls. Specialized
instruction in hygiene, in the care of the sick, in household
sanitation and in the feeding and care of infants is included in this
course of housekeeping and household arts, which was taken by fifteen
thousand two hundred twenty-seven girls during 1912-1913.
School gardening was introduced at an early date. This course now
includes the school garden, in which each pupil has his own individual
three and a fourth by thirteen foot plot, and home gardens which
are not less than four times the size of the school plot. By this
arrangement eighty per cent of the garden work is carried on at the
homes of the pupils or on vacant lots under the direct supervision
of teachers.
In the beginning much of the school agricultural work was not very
practical. Teachers who themselves knew nothing about agriculture
were wedded to the small "individual plot" idea, which I regret
to say still continues to prevail in some of the schools. On a bit
of ground about three feet by six the pupil might plant one tomato
plant, one camote vine, one grain of rice, two or three eggplants and
a flowering plant or two. This gave him helpful open-air exercise,
but taught him nothing about agriculture. Weeks after the school year
had opened I once visited a number of school gardens in Mindoro and
found that several of them consisted of rectangular plots marked off
on solid sod with shells picked up on the beach! On my return I told
the director of education that three active hens would have done far
more toward preparing soil for cultivating than had all the children
in these towns.
These conditions have changed rapidly since the adoption, three
years ago, of a definite policy of agricultural education consisting
of standard school and home gardens and farm schools for Filipinos;
and large communal tracts of land cultivated at the Settlement Farm
Schools for non-Christians.
Lieutenant-Governor Frederick Lewis of Bukidnon was as deeply disgusted
with the former play agriculture as was I. Exercising, I fear, rather
arbitrary authority over the local Filipino teachers, but with my
connivance, he persuaded them to turn their active, strong schoolboys
loose on large tracts of the beautiful prairie land found near almost
every school in the sub-province, and raise crops. As a result of this
experiment, first carried out at Tankulan, each boy took home a bushel
or two of unhulled rice. Parents were enthusiastic, and so were the
boys. From this small beginning came the so-called farm-settlement
schools, of which there are thirty-eight among the non-Christian
tribes. On large, well-fenced, carefully cultivated tracts of ground
the schoolboys grow camotes, upland rice, corn, bananas, cowpeas,
beans, pineapples, eggplants, arrowroot, and in some cases, cacao
and coffee. Instead of learning what individual plants will do when
grown quite by themselves under abnormal conditions, they learn to
produce real crops. They become interested in the introduction of
American sweet potatoes in place of the less nutritious camotes,
in the selection of seed corn, in the generalization of the better
varieties of bananas, and in other practical matters. Incidentally
they largely furnish the school food supply.
It is of course true that in many of the Filipino towns sufficiently
extensive tracts of land cannot be had near the schools to make such
a system possible, but, wherever it can be done, school children
should be taught how to raise crops on a commercial scale, instead
of spending their time on small individual plots of ground. Even the
latter procedure has good results. It teaches them not to be ashamed
to work. It also makes possible the introduction of home gardens,
and through this means brings the practical production of vegetables
into the home life of the people, with the result that unused yards
and vacant lots are put under cultivation.
The system of establishing home gardens is one which meets with my
unqualified approval. In 1911-1912 there were no less than twenty-two
thousand nine hundred fifty-eight of these. It is said to be true
that a large percentage of them soon pass into family care, and thus
not only help to educate parents, but become a permanent additional
source of food supply.
The schools have proved a useful medium through which to bring
about the introduction of new and valuable plants. There are many
school nurseries in which grow thousands of seedlings, and these are
distributed at opportune times.
Woodworking is one of the industrial branches which received first
attention. As previously stated, every one of the thirty-eight
provinces has either a trade school with first-class equipment, or a
manual training department attached to the provincial school. Eighteen
schools have already been established as regularly equipped trade
schools. The Philippine Normal School and the Philippine School of
Commerce offer special advantages to those studying for the profession
of teaching, or for a business career.
Previous to 1909, industrial instruction was only partially
organized. Experience had shown, by that time, that it was expedient
to introduce a degree of specialization into the courses of study
at an early stage of the child's development. Special intermediate
courses were therefore organized to meet this need. After finishing
the four-year primary course, the child may choose between a course in
teaching, a course in farming, a trade course, a course in housekeeping
and household arts and a general intermediate course. Relatively few
children are at present able to take up secondary courses, and it is
therefore necessary to provide in the lower grades for instruction
which will prepare them for some vocation. So important has become
this line of instruction that it has been found necessary to maintain,
in the general office, an industrial information department, under
a division chief, which employs a botanist, a designer, four native
craftsmen and a force of travelling supervisors who inspect trade
schools, machinery, school gardens, building sites and the general
industrial work done throughout the public school system. This
system of industrial instruction receives the fullest support from
the Filipino people.
The following quotation from the twelfth annual report of the director
of education serves to give some idea of the extent to which industrial
instruction has been developed in the Philippines:--
"As is at once evident, with requirements so definitely fixed for
industrial work in the schools, the great majority of the pupils
who are enrolled must be engaged in some branch of this work. An
examination of the figures included among the statistical tables
of this report will show that of the total enrolment of 235,740
boys and 138,842 girls during the month of February, 1912 (an
average month), 216,290 boys and 125,203 girls--91 per cent of
the entire monthly enrolment--were doing some form of industrial
work. More specifically, it will be found that 21,420 boys were
taking manual training and trade work; 96,167 boys were engaged
in school gardening and farming; 15,463 girls were also engaged in
garden work; and 68,194 girls were taking up various lines which go
under the general caption of minor industries.... Further in this
connection it will be found that in the subject of lace-making
alone 16,439 girls were receiving instruction; in embroidery,
12,339; and in cooking 4768. There were 22,965 boys and 7709 girls
making hats in the industrial classes, 40,264 pupils making mats,
and 104,424 studying the art of basketry.
"... 1309 pupils were enrolled in the regular trade school
classes; 924 in regular trade courses in other schools; and 7360
in the shops operated in connection with provincial and other
intermediate schools. In 401 school shops having an enrolment of
19,949 boys, articles to the value of P142,189.74 were fabricated
and from this product, sales to the amount of P131,418.13 were
made during the school year 1911-12. In addition to the above,
10,356 pupils were doing work in 236 primary woodworking shops
conducted in connection with municipal primary schools in all
parts of the Islands. The figures for trade and manual training
are taken from the March report."
This most important result is due in very large measure to the
determination of the Honourable Newton W. Gilbert, while secretary
of public instruction, to give a practical turn to the activities
of the Bureau of Education. I must confess that at first I was
profoundly dissatisfied with the work which this bureau was doing,
for the reason that, in my opinion, it tended to produce a horde of
graduates fitted to be clerks, in which event they would naturally
desire to feed at the public crib, or be likely to become abogadillos,
[12] who would be constantly stirring up trouble in their own towns,
in order to make business for themselves.
Much of the industrial work originally provided for was at the outset
carried out in a haphazard and half-hearted way. Under Mr. Gilbert's
administration it has been hammered into shape, and we now see in
prospect, and in actual realization, practical results of vital
importance to the country.
Personally, I feel especially indebted to Mr. Gilbert for his attitude
relative to school work among the non-Christian tribes. The children
of the hill people are naturally hard-working. In some places they
were being actually taught idleness in the schools, and in most
the education given them was of little practical value. I found
Igorot children in Lepanto studying geography. I asked a boy what
the world was, and was told that it was a little yellow thing about
the size of his hand! This was a fairly accurate description of
a map, the significance of which had utterly failed to penetrate
his understanding. Filipino teachers who were not considered fit
for appointments in the lowlands were being foisted off on to the
unfortunate hill people, as they were willing to accept very small
salaries in lieu of none at all. Prior to Mr. Gilbert's assumption of
office, my frequent complaints had produced no practical result. He
was kind enough to say to me at the outset that he would give very
serious consideration to my opinions in the matter of educational
work among the people of the non-Christian tribes. To-day industrial
work has taken its proper place in schools established for them, and
considerable numbers of them are being fitted for lives of usefulness,
although it is still true that school facilities among them are,
as a rule, grossly inadequate. In Ifugao, for instance, with at
least a hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants, there are but
two schools. In Kalinga, with some seventy-six thousand inhabitants,
the first school has just been opened. However, this condition will
doubtless be remedied in time.
The former tendency of Filipinos to prepare themselves for trades or
professions and then not follow them has been largely overcome. Most
of the students graduating from the Philippine Normal School take
up the profession of teaching, and practically all of the graduates
of the Philippine School of Arts and Trades are following the lines
of work which they have studied. And now I come to what I deem to be
one of the most important accomplishments of the Bureau of Education.
Before the American occupation of the Philippines the Filipinos
had not learned to play. There were no athletics worthy of the
name. Athletic sports had their beginnings in the games played
between soldiers. Gradually Filipinos became interested enough
to attend contests of this nature. Later, through the influence
of American teachers, they began to take part in them. As soon as
athletic sports reached a point where competition between towns and
provinces was possible, they aroused the greatest enthusiasm among
the people. To-day, the athletic policy of the Bureau of Education is
heartily approved by all classes. At first, highly specialized sports
were introduced, but the necessity for developing some form of group
athletics in which a large percentage of the pupils would take part
was soon made manifest. For the past few years this programme has
been pushed. Eighty per cent of the pupils now participate in some
form of athletics, and the number steadily increases.
The results are justifying the hope of the original promoters of this
athletic programme. The physical development of the participants
has been wonderful. The spirit of fair play and sportsmanship,
hitherto lacking, has sprung into being in every section of the
islands. Baseball not only strengthens the muscles of the players, it
sharpens their wits. Furthermore it empties the cock-pits to such an
extent that their beneficiaries have attempted to secure legislation
restricting the time during which it may be played. It has done more
toward abolishing cockfighting than have the laws of the commission and
the efforts of the Moral Progress League [13] combined. It is indeed
a startling sight to see two opposing teams of youthful savages in
Bukidnon or Bontoc "playing the game" with obvious full knowledge of
its refinements, while their ordinarily silent and reserved parents
"root" with unbridled enthusiasm!
Annual meets between athletic teams from various groups of provinces,
and a general interscholastic meet held each year at the Philippine
Carnival, offer advantages of travel to boys who have seldom if ever
left their homes, and promote a general understanding between the
various Filipino peoples. In the "Far Eastern Olympiad" held at Manila
in 1913, in which China, Japan and the Philippines participated, the
victorious teams representing the Philippines were largely composed
of schoolboys.
When the American school system was organized, it was found that
adequate accommodations for school children were almost entirely
lacking. In some of the towns there were long, low stone or brick
buildings, small and poorly lighted. They were usually located in the
larger centres of population, and had no grounds that could be used
for play or garden purposes. In most of the barrios, there were no
schoolhouses at all.
The American teachers at once set to work to put the old buildings
into decent condition. Some private houses were rented, and
others were donated, for school purposes. In a number of cases the
teachers attempted, as best they could, to construct buildings for
the thousands of pupils who wished to avail themselves of school
privileges. At that time the whole burden of such construction fell
upon the municipalities. The insular government had given them no
aid. Many mistakes were made during these early days, and many of the
buildings then erected have long since fallen into ruin. The experience
gained has demonstrated the folly of spending large sums of money on
anything but strong, permanent construction. It will be necessary,
for a long time, to depend to some extent upon temporary buildings;
and when these can be erected at low cost they are good provisional
expedients, but destructive storms and the ravages of wood-eating
insects quickly reduce them to ruins.
The demand upon local funds for the maintenance of schools was so
pressing, and these funds were so limited, that it was found impossible
to erect modern buildings without insular aid. When the necessity
for help was brought to the attention of the insular authorities, the
commission responded by enacting a bill which appropriated $175,000
from the congressional relief fund for the construction of school
buildings. Two years later $150,000 were appropriated and, in August,
1907, an additional $175,000 were voted for this purpose. A total
of $500,000 was thus made available by the Commission before the
Philippine assembly came into existence. This amount was augmented
by provincial and municipal funds and voluntary contributions, and
the erection of twenty-two buildings for provincial high schools,
twenty-six for trade and manual training schools, and fifty-seven
for intermediate schools other than provincial was thus made possible.
The first act of the Philippine Assembly was to vote for an
appropriation of $500,000, available in four equal annual instalments,
to aid municipalities in constructing school buildings. The bill was
duly approved by the commission and became a law. Under its terms,
municipalities received $2 for every dollar furnished locally, the
maximum insular allotment for one project being $2500. This bill was
later supplemented by an act which appropriated an additional $500,000
under similar conditions. Three subsequent acts have been passed,
each appropriating the sum of $175,000 for the aid of municipalities in
constructing school buildings under such conditions as the secretary of
public instruction may see fit to prescribe. The funds made available
by the three appropriations last mentioned are being used chiefly for
the erection of large central school buildings at provincial capitals.
The sums appropriated by the Philippine Legislature since the assembly
was established have made possible the construction of five hundred
twenty-nine school buildings, of which two hundred seventy-three are
finished and three hundred nineteen are being built.
There have been additional appropriations for the construction of a
Philippine Normal School already completed at a cost of $225,000, a
girls' dormitory now building to cost $147,000 and a building for the
Philippine School of Arts and Trades to cost approximately $250,000.
The bureau has required that school sites for central schools shall
have a minimum of one hectare [14] of land, and the barrio schools
a minimum of one-half hectare, for playgrounds and gardens. There
have been secured to date three hundred eighty-nine school sites of
ten thousand or more square metres, and six hundred forty-three sites
of at least five thousand square metres. These represent the results
obtained during the past three years.
The Bureau has formulated a very definite construction policy. Its
programme may be outlined briefly as follows:--
1. The preparation of a set of standard plans for permanent
buildings which provide for a unit system of construction
whereby additions may be made without injury to the original
structure, and which shall be within the limited means
available.
2. The selection of suitable school sites.
3. A decent and creditable standard in temporary buildings.
4. The proper care and maintenance of schoolhouses and grounds.
5. The equipment of every school with the necessary furniture
and appliances of simple but substantial character.
From the beginning, other branches of the government have clearly
seen that no agency is so effective as the Bureau of Education in
the dissemination of knowledge among the people. It has therefore
been called upon frequently to spread information, either through
classroom instruction or through the system of civico-educational
lectures established by an act of the Philippine Legislature. The
Bureau of Health has frequently requested it to instruct the people
in the means to be used for the prevention of diseases, particularly
cholera, smallpox and dysentery, and has always met with a ready
response. Great good has doubtless been accomplished in this way,
but with regret I must call attention to the fact that in connection
with a matter of fundamental importance the Bureau of Education has
signally failed to practice what it preached, or at all events what
it was requested to preach. The Philippines are constantly menaced
by epidemic diseases, such as cholera and bacillary dysentery, while
amoebic dysentery occurs in every municipality in the islands and is
a very serious factor in the annual death-rate, hook-worm disease is
common, and typhoid fever is gradually increasing in frequency. The
question of the proper disposition of human feces is therefore one
of fundamental importance. It seems incredible, but is nevertheless
true, that in connection with a large majority of the modern school
buildings which have been erected there are no sanitary facilities
of any sort whatsoever. The condition of the ground in the rear of
many of these buildings can better be imagined than described. This
state of affairs not only sets an evil example to the children, but
exposes them to actual danger of infection with the above-mentioned
diseases. In many of the special provincial government towns where
a great effort has been made to have the people clean up, I have
found school grounds and the private premises of school teachers,
including, I regret to say, those of American school teachers, to be
in a more unsanitary state than were any others in town; and finally,
in despair of securing improvement in any other way, I have fallen
back on the courts and caused teachers responsible for such conditions
to be brought before justices of the peace and fined.
The Teachers' Camp at Baguio was long maintained in a shockingly
unsanitary condition; and as a result many persons who went there
seeking health and recreation became infected with intestinal
diseases, and were incapacitated for work during more or less prolonged
periods. In dealing with this situation I finally resorted to radical
measures, but got results.
Such a state of affairs is wholly incomprehensible to
me. School-teachers should be the first to set the people practical
examples in sane living, which means sanitary living, and should
improve the great practical opportunity afforded by the public schools
to bring home to their pupils certain homely but much-needed lessons
in ordinary decency.
In another important particular the Bureau of Education has, in
my opinion, fallen short of performing its manifest duty. Not only
does beri-beri kill some five thousand Filipinos outright, annually,
and cripple ten times as many, but it is believed to be a determining
factor in the deaths of large numbers of infants through its untoward
influence upon their mothers. As previously stated, the fact that
it is due to a diet made up too largely of polished rice has been
demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt. Persons who eat unpolished
rice do not contract it. Tiqui-tiqui, the substance removed from rice
in the process of polishing, has proved to be a very effective remedy
for it. The use of polished rice should therefore be discouraged,
yet at the Philippine Normal School, where the brightest and best
youths of the land receive their final education before going out to
teach their fellows, polished rice is furnished the students; and
the director of health, and I myself, have sought in vain to have
the unpolished article substituted for it.
The secretary of public instruction has stated, with obvious truth,
that it is only when polished rice forms a very large element in the
diet that there is actual danger of its causing beri-beri, and so far
as I am aware no case of beri-beri has occurred at this school; but the
practical result of the present practice will be that the graduates,
while instructing their pupils in the dangers of the use of polished
rice, will themselves continue to use it. There exists at the present
time a foolish prejudice against unpolished rice, which, although far
more nutritious and actually more palatable than the polished article,
does not look so attractive and is commonly considered "poor man's
food." So long as the instructors in the public schools continue to
teach by precept that its use is dangerous, and by example that it is
safe, the undiscriminating and ignorant Filipino public, which does
not draw fine distinctions, will be encouraged to continue to eat it,
will eat it in excess, and will pay the penalty.
The Bureau of Education has coöperated with the Bureau of Lands
in instructing the people as to the right to acquire homesteads
and free patents. It has also given the Bureau of Public Works
assistance in promoting the campaign for good roads. Its system of
civico-educational lectures has met with fair results. Thousands of
people have secured information relative to the rights and duties
of citizens, the prevention of human and animal diseases, and the
growing of corn, coconuts and other useful crops. A corn-raising
contest in 1912 was participated in by more than thirty thousand boys,
and thousands of people attended the demonstrations which formed a
part of the campaign. This is a most important matter. Corn is a far
better food than rice.
At first the only books available for use in the schools were those
prepared for American children. These were soon found to be unsuited
to the needs of Filipino children, and teachers were set to work to
prepare more suitable text-books. Book companies in the United States
quickly interested themselves, and as a result there is now in general
use a comprehensive series of text-books particularly adapted to the
needs of Filipinos.
In the secondary grades American text-books are quite generally used,
although a few special texts dealing with literature, rhetoric,
economic conditions and colonial history have been prepared in the
islands.
In order to keep the teacher in the field well informed, the Bureau
of Education has issued a large number of bulletins and circulars on
matters of current interest. These bulletins have covered instruction
in domestic science, drawing, manners and right conduct, school
buildings and grounds, embroidery and athletics, and have conveyed
information as to the general and special courses of study followed in
such schools as the School of Arts and Trades, the School of Commerce
and the Normal School. They have received much commendation from
educators in the United States and the Orient.
When public schools were first opened children crowded into them by
thousands. With them came many adults who believed that they could
learn English in a period of a few weeks, or in a few months at the
most. No doubt they entered the schools in many cases with the idea
of thus conciliating the victorious American nation. It was not long
until they realized that there was no royal road to learning. Then came
a slump in attendance. Largely through the influence of the American
teacher and his Filipino assistants, the attendance was again built
up. This time the people clearly understood that education is not a
matter of a few months or weeks. It is greatly to their credit that
they have now settled down to a realization of what public education
is, and are giving the public school system most loyal support.
The industrial programme has been accepted with enthusiasm, and
without doubt there are in the islands to-day thousands of people
who believe that it is a Filipino product.
There is an interest in athletic sports that can hardly be equalled in
any other country. The crowds of enthusiastic spectators that attend
every meet of importance testify to the hold that such sports have
taken upon the people, whose attitude toward all forms of education
is such that it needs only adequate revenue to develop an effective
school system along the broadest lines.
Manhood suffrage does not exist in the Philippines. The qualifications
for an elector are as follows: he must be a male citizen at least
twenty-three years of age, with a legal residence of six months
previous to election in the municipality where his vote is cast,
and must belong to at least one of the three following classes:--
1. Those who, previous to August 13, 1898, held the office of
municipal captain, gobernadorcillo, alcalde, lieutenant,
cabeza de barangay, or member of any ayuntamiento.
2. Those who hold real property to the value of $250 or annually
pay $15 or more of established taxes.
3. Those who speak, read or write English or Spanish.
With a population of approximately eight million people, there were,
in 1912, two hundred forty-eight thousand qualified voters. Of these
a large number had obtained the franchise because they belonged to
class 1 or class 2. Death yearly claims its quota from both these
classes, but the public schools more than make up the decrease by
their yearly contribution. Any boy who finishes the primary course
possesses the literary qualifications of an elector, and will become
one on attaining legal age.
In 1912 there were graduated from the primary schools 11,200 pupils,
of whom approximately 7466 were males; from the intermediate schools
3062 pupils, of whom 2295 were males; and from the secondary schools
221 pupils, of whom 175 were males. In that year alone the schools
therefore contributed 9936 to the contingent of persons qualified
by literary attainments to vote. Of these 175 are perhaps capable
of intelligently holding municipal and provincial offices, and to
this number may probably be added half of the 2295 intermediate male
graduates, making an increase of 1362 in the possible leaders of
the people.
The public schools, however, do not limit their contributions to
that part of the electoral body having literary qualifications
only. Vocational training, it is true, is limited in the primary
grades to cottage industries; but no pupil is graduated from the
primary schools with only literary qualifications. In some form or
other, he has had a vocational start. His own energy must determine
the use he makes of it.
The intermediate schools add vocational training to increased academic
training. All their graduates have done three years' work in the
general course, leading to a literary course in the high schools,
the course in farming, the course in teaching, the business course,
the course in housekeeping and household arts or the trade course.
Of the graduates of secondary schools a small part have highly
specialized vocational training; but the great majority have followed
the literary course and have undoubtedly done this with the idea of
entering political life. Rome was not built in a day, and in spite of
herculean American efforts, it will be a long time before Filipinos
cease to regard a certain kind of literary culture as the proper
basis for statesmanship. It has been said of them that they have
"the fatal gift of oratory"! The future leaders of the Filipino
people, dependent or independent, must be the output of the public
schools. The danger is that the number of would-be leaders will be
disproportionately great in comparison with that of the useful but
relatively inconspicuous rank and file.
There are in the Philippine Islands fully twelve hundred thousand
children of school age. The present available resources are sufficient
to educate less than one-half of that number.
The claim has been made that a due proportion of the very limited
revenues of the insular government has not been expended for
educational purposes. It is not justified by the facts. It is certainly
important to keep the Filipinos alive, and if this is not done, they
can hardly be educated. The expenditure to date [15] from insular
funds for health work, including cost of necessary new buildings,
has been approximately $9,630,000; that for educational purposes,
also including buildings, approximately $21,376,000.
As a simple matter of fact, the Bureau of Education has been
treated not only with liberality but in one regard with very great
leniency. Taking advantage of the friendly attitude of the legislative
body and of the people toward education, one of its earlier directors
incurred expense with utter disregard for appropriations. He repeatedly
made deficits of $150,000 to $250,000 and then in effect calmly
asked us what we were going to do about it. After stating that I,
for one, would never vote to make good another deficit incurred by
him while he was allowed to remain in the service, and at a time
when I was threatening to hold the director of forestry personally
responsible for a deficit of $5000 resulting in his bureau from
unforeseen expenditures by forest officers in remote places, and
therefore more or less excusable, I learned that the usual shortage
in the Bureau of Education had again occurred and was being covered
by the quiet transfer of a sum approximating $200,000.
The present director of education believes that the total number
of children who would enter the public schools without compulsion,
if adequate facilities were provided, is approximately eight hundred
thousand. Until revenues materially increase not many more than five
hundred thousand of these can be educated, if due regard is had for
other imperative necessities of the government and the people. If the
people of the United States, or any political body composed of them,
really desire to help the Filipinos toward the practical realization
of their ideal of an independent, self-sustaining government, let them
stop talking about the advisability of now conferring upon the present
generation of adults additional rights and privileges, and provide the
hard cash necessary to make intelligent, well-trained citizens out of
the three hundred thousand children who are now annually left without
educational advantages which they earnestly desire, and greatly need.
Under the Spanish régime private education as distinguished from that
provided for by the government attained considerable importance. At the
time of the American occupation, Santo Tomás, the oldest university
under the American flag, had colleges of medicine and surgery,
theology, law, engineering and philosophy. There were also numerous
private so-called "colleges" for boys and girls and very numerous
smaller private institutions. At first the establishment of public
schools had no apparent effect on those conducted privately other than
to induce them to introduce the study of English, but as years went
by, the organization, modern methods and industrial development of the
public schools forced the private institutions into activity. The law
provides that the secretary of public instruction may give approval
and recognition to such private schools as meet certain requirements,
and in 1910 a division superintendent of schools was detailed to
assist him in carrying out this provision. His report for the period
ending September 1, 1912, is a very interesting document. It compares
the Philippine private schools with those of South America, very much
to the disadvantage of the former. It notes particularly the lack of
manual training in boys' schools and the lack of standardization in
the manual training of girls' schools; and speaks of the allegiance
of the Filipino institution to the classical programme of mediæval
institutions of learning. It is a notable fact, however, that English
is gaining. Thirty-four private schools are giving their entire primary
and intermediate courses in that language; nine are giving primary,
intermediate and high school courses in it, and two are so giving
all courses, including the college course.
These private institutions are employing public and normal school
graduates as teachers to a constantly increasing extent. They are
bringing their courses of study into conformity and competition with
those of the public schools; are introducing athletics; using standard
patterns and materials in their industrial work, and rapidly improving
their buildings and equipment. During the year 1911-1912 improvements
to the value of $100,000 were made in four of the Manila private
schools: the Jesuits are planning a new college to cost $1,000,000;
the Dominicans an expenditure of $500,000 on a new university, and
the Liceo de Manila looks forward to becoming the most modern and
best equipped school in the islands.
Twenty-five private schools have already received government
recognition and approval.
No account of education would be complete without mention of the
University of the Philippines. Higher education is the great conscious
goal of Filipino desire; and to meet the growing need for it, an
act passed June 18, 1908, established this institution. Subsequent
amendments authorized, when practicable, colleges of liberal arts,
law, social and political science, medicine and surgery, pharmacy,
dentistry, veterinary science, engineering, mines, agriculture and
fine arts. At present there are in actual operation the colleges of
liberal arts, veterinary science, engineering, medicine and surgery,
law, agriculture and the school of fine arts. Instruction in pharmacy
is given in the College of Liberal Arts, and instruction in forestry is
given in the College of Agriculture. By special acts of the Philippine
legislature, several scholarships have been provided, but for the most
part the university is open only to those who can afford to live in
Manila during their period of attendance.
The opening of some of these colleges has served sharply to call
attention to one of the present weaknesses of the Filipino people. It
is but a few years since agriculture was well-nigh prostrated as a
result of the decimation of cattle and horses throughout the islands
by contagious diseases. The need for well-trained veterinarians
was, and is, imperative. Filipinos properly qualified to undertake
veterinary work would be certain of profitable employment. A good
veterinary course was offered in 1909. At the same time the School
of Fine Arts was opened. No one took the veterinary course the
first year. Admissions to the School of Fine Arts were closed when
they reached seven hundred fourteen. At the end of the school year
1912-1913 the students in the Veterinary College numbered twenty-seven
as compared with six hundred ninety-four in the School of Fine
Arts. The grand total enrolment of this latter institution since
its organization is thirty-two hundred twenty-nine, while that of
the Veterinary College during the same period is forty-seven. It is
necessary to restrict attendance at the School of Fine Arts. Until
there is a livelier and more general interest in saving carabaos
than in painting them, the country will not attain to a high degree
of material prosperity through the efforts of its own people.
I take genuine pleasure and pride in briefly describing the work of
the Philippine Training School for Nurses. I have always believed
that young Filipina women would make excellent trained nurses, and
I earnestly endeavoured to have a certain number of them included
among the first government students sent to the United States for
education soon after the establishment of civil government. In this
effort I rather ignominiously failed. The prejudices of the Filipino
people were then radically opposed to such a course, and my colleagues
of the commission were not convinced that it would lead to useful
practical results.
To the Bureau of Education must be given credit for inaugurating
the movement which has resulted in the firm establishment of the
profession of nursing in the Philippine Islands as an honourable
avocation for women. At an early date it employed an American trained
nurse to give instruction, and inaugurated a preparatory course at its
Normal School dormitory. The work at the outset could not be made of a
very practical nature, but after a number of bright and well-trained
young women had become interested in it arrangements were perfected
for giving them actual training at the government institution then
known as the Civil Hospital. Here strong racial prejudices of the
Filipinos were gradually overcome, and the student nurses soon showed
themselves to be unexpectedly practical, faithful and efficient.
Later when the great Philippine General Hospital was established it
became possible for the Bureau of Health to open a school under the
immediate control of the chief nurse, and to take over all the work of
training nurses. Students at this school are supported at government
expense while in training. Its opportunities and advantages are open
to young men, as well as to young women, and may be extended to a
number not exceeding one hundred six of each sex at a given time.
The training of young women began sooner, and thus far has resulted
more satisfactorily, than has that of young men, although many of
the latter are now making good progress.
The work is popular, and as there are more candidates than places only
the more promising are admitted. They have shown that they possessed
common-sense by avoiding the traps set for them by Filipino politicians
and newspaper reporters. Their tact and self-respect have brought them
safely through many embarrassing, and a few cruelly trying, situations
forced upon them by the unkindness or brutality of those whom they
have sought to serve. Their gentleness and kindness have endeared
them to their patients, and it is now a common thing for Americans
to request the services of Filipina nurses. Their faithfulness
and efficiency have won the confidence of patients and physicians
alike. Their courage has enabled them to triumph over the prejudices
of their own people, and to perform many hard, disagreeable tasks,
and meet some very real dangers, without faltering. The gratefulness
which they have shown for the opportunity to help their people, no
less than for the interest taken in them by Americans, has won them
many friends. The training of Filipina nurses has passed far beyond
the experimental stage; it is a great success.
Instruction in the Philippine Nurses' Training School is now largely
given by members of the university faculty and the graduates of this
school must certainly be numbered among the most highly educated
women of the Philippines. More of them are sadly needed, not only in
government institutions, but in private hospitals, and especially
in the provincial towns, where a few of them are already engaging
in district nursing with unqualified success. The country might well
get on for the present with fewer lawyers, and fewer artists, if the
number of nurses could be increased.
Equally praiseworthy is the work of the students and graduates of
the College of Medicine and Surgery, which is housed in a commodious
and adequate building. Their theoretical instruction is of a very
high character, and they have almost unrivalled facilities for
practical clinical work in the Philippine General Hospital. Entrance
requirements are high and the course of study is severe. A number of
the best students do post-graduate work in the hospital, where they
are employed as internes and assistants. As a result, the college is
turning out graduates admirably qualified for the great work which
awaits them among their own people.
The other colleges of the university are, for the most part, doing
their work efficiently and well, and as a rule their students are
showing appreciation of the opportunities afforded them, and are
utilizing them to good advantage.
Important educational work is being carried on by various bureaus
of the government. The Bureau of Lands has an excellent school for
surveyors. The Bureau of Printing is in itself a great industrial
school, and ninety-five per cent of its work is now done by Filipinos
trained within its walls, while many others who have had practical
instruction there have found profitable private employment.
An excellent school is conducted in Bilibid Prison with convicts as
teachers. A very large proportion of the prisoners receive practical
instruction in manual training and are fitted to earn honest livings
when their sentences expire. Furthermore, they readily secure
employment, as the men discharged from this institution have in many
cases earned well-deserved reputations for honesty and industry.
All the women confined at Bilibid are taught to make pillow lace.
At the Bontoc Prison, the non-Christian tribe convicts of the islands
are taught useful industries, and so satisfactory are the results that
I have formed the habit of calling the institution my "university."
At the Iwahig agricultural penal colony convicts are taught modern
agricultural methods under a system such that they gradually become
owners of houses, land and agricultural implements and may in the
end have their families with them so that they are well settled
for life when their sentences expire, if they take advantage of the
opportunities given them.
The educational policy which the United States has adopted in
dealing with the Filipinos is without a parallel in history. I am
glad to have assisted in its inauguration, and I am proud of its
results, which will make themselves felt more and more as the years
go by. Even now English is far more widely spoken in the Philippine
Islands than Spanish ever was, and this is a boon the magnitude of
which cannot be appreciated by those who have not had brought home
to them by experience the disadvantages incident to the existence of
very numerous dialects among the inhabitants of one country.
When it is remembered that in the present instance each of these
dialects is very poor in literature, and that its use is limited to
a million or two of human beings at the most, the enormous value of
instruction in English will be realized, to some extent at least.