WHAT THE TEACHERS DID.
There is a remarkable sameness about the towns in the Philippines.
They all have a large open square about the middle of the town, around
three sides of which are Chinese stores, unless one side lies open to
the sea, and on the fourth is the great stone _ecclesia_. The streets
run at right angles to one another and divide up the town into
creditable squares.
Everybody in the Philippines lives up-stairs, for the ground is so
soaked with water during the rainy season that it is a menace to
health to live upon the ground floor. So even the poorest _nippa_ hut
is built upon stakes four or five feet above the ground.
Bacalod is a typical Philippine town. As we landed, a broad open
square was spread out before us. Two sides of the square were lined
with two-story houses in which were Chinese stores below and Filipino
homes above. On the third side stood the great stone church in whose
massive tower the clock was striking the hour of four, while the
fourth lay open to the sea that had borne us thither.
We landed, but it was in a method new to us and one not usually
employed by the traveling public.
When our sail boat ran aground on the sandy bottom a hundred yards or
more from the shore, a crowd of Filipino men who were on the beach
slowly rolled up their pantaloons and waded out to the rescue,--for
the money that was in it. The boat's crew elevated their trousers'
legs also and slided down into the water. Each of us then straddled
the neck of a Filipino standing in the water and was held by ankles to
be steadied while our biped mounts proceeded to the shore.
We were now on the ground and face to face with the situation. To give
the reader an idea of the actual conditions met by the first teachers
who went to the Islands, the following is copied from the instructions
given us in Manila:
1. There shall be two sessions daily of all schools, and the
last hour of the morning session shall be devoted solely to
instructing the Filipino teachers.
2. In cases where teachers are sent to a town in which there
is no school-house, they are expected to secure the aid of the
people and have one built.
3. The American teacher is to see that all studying aloud is
stopped.
4. All supplies must be kept under lock and key. In towns
where there is no case or box to lock the supplies in, and it
is also impossible to get the town council to furnish a case,
a requisition may be sent to Manila, and, if an appropriation
can be secured, one will be made and sent out.
Thus it can be easily seen that we were indeed pioneers. In many
places no school-house was to be found, and in some cases it was even
difficult to get the town council to provide a case in which to keep
the supplies.
The work of the teachers was, in short; to "make the English language
the basis of instruction in the public schools." On our arrival at
Bacalod two schools were found in progress, for some soldiers had been
detailed for the work here previous to our coming. One of these was
for boys and the other, for girls. Thus the work here had been in a
measure simplified, but complications that had arisen at Talisay, one
of the largest and richest towns on the island, demanded a change of
teachers and the writer was assigned to the place as superintendent.
Here an attempt had been made to start a school but it had failed
ignominiously and a system of education was to be put into operation
from the very start.
The Filipinos are not strong advocates of co-education, so separate
schools were to be started for the boys and the girls. The one for the
boys was gotten well in hand before the one for the girls was
attempted at all.
A few days after reaching the town and securing a home the
_presidente_ of the town had it publicly announced that the following
Monday morning at eight o'clock a public school for boys would be
opened in a building that had been rented for the purpose by the
municipal council. About the middle of the afternoon of the same day a
man beat a little drum throughout all the streets of the town to call
the people out and the town clerk announced both in Spanish and in the
native language that this public school would begin at the time and
place mentioned above; that instruction would be free to all who came;
that the government would furnish all supplies; and that instruction
would be given in the English language. A native principal and
assistants were employed and everything was ready to begin.
The official report of the result is as follows:
Boys' public school of Talisay, Negros, P. I., began November
4, 1901. Forty-three boys present at eight o'clock. Forty-one
of them knew "good morning" and "good afternoon" but do not
know the distinction between them. Two of them speak simple
Spanish. At eight forty-five, eight more, who had been
attending an early morning private school, came in together.
The books they brought were so varied and so different from
one another that it seemed impossible to bring any reasonable
degree of order out of such a chaos, and so, after struggling
vainly for about a week with the problem, the superintendent
by one fell stroke removed everything in use and put in a
uniform system, and from that day on the English language has
been the _basis_ of instruction in the public schools of
Talisay. The work was of necessity very slow at first, but by
the end of a year two schools were going nicely and a number
of the brightest boys and girls had made really excellent
progress.