Before attacking or defending the lay education of the public schools
it would seem useful to know what the education of the Filipino
people was under religious direction, and then know what results were
obtained; that is to say, how a man subjected to such a system was
transformed after more than three centuries of such a practice.
I must secure the data which I here present from ecclesiastical sources
because, altho they contain a certain exaggeration, in speaking of its
own work which, as it is natural, they defend, magnify, and praise,
they are after all the most useful in knowing the defects themselves
which, under the circumstances, constitute real confessions.
Father Santiago Paya, Rector of the University of Santo Tomas, said
among other things the following to the Philippine Commission on July
1, 1899:
All secondary instruction in the Philippine Islands was under
the University of Santo Tomas. Besides the private schools
in Manila there were also some in the provinces, but all the
colleges of secondary instruction were subject to Santo Tomas.
There were primary schools in almost all the towns supported by
the Government in which a very elementary instruction was given
* * * reading, writing, catechism, and a little arithmetic.
The Filipinos, as a general rule, have good memory but without
great talent; they have no good talent.
Almost all education in the Philippines was given by the
religious orders, that is to say, the secondary and university
instruction was maintained by the religious orders, and
primary instruction by the curates of the towns.
Among the Filipinos all is imitation. They lack
originality. They were taught how to read and write Spanish but
the majority of them learned it in a purely mechanical manner.
The Indios were very averse to the Castilian language; those
who knew how to speak it did not like to speak it. This was
true in Manila as well as in its suburbs. Those who know
Spanish prefer to speak their own language in their homes.
From Fray Jose M. Ruiz in his Memoria presented to the Philippine
Exposition in Madrid in 1887, we take the following:
The curate is a local inspector of public instruction, adviser
of the gobernadorcillos, and president of the various local
boards. The Indios see in them a father, a pastor, and a
protector, and as such they have always been recognized by
the Government of these Islands (p. 239).
A great part of the Philippine inhabitants, that is to say,
that which lives in the barrios and places more or less
isolated and inaccessible, is about to be civilized (esta
casi por civilizar) (p. 247).
Referring to the mass of the people the same father says:
The masters devoted as they are, save in a few honorable
exceptions, to their proper interests, have ignored completely
the instruction of these unhappy ones in their religious duties
* * * and their children, given over to the pasture of work
animals, are reared in the midst of the most stupid ignorance
(p. 254).
Later the author adds:
To give the Indio means of instruction and to place him in
condition to benefit from it, and while this is not done,
and until now this has not been done as we shall later show,
is to concede rights to him who does not know how to appreciate
what he deserves to the disgrace of the Spanish name and to
the shame of the Spaniards in these Islands (p. 288).
Says the same Friar Ruiz:
And altho they are inimical to going to schools (the Indios)
and to sending their children, it is because it is nothing but
for wasting time since they learn nothing * * *. Furthermore,
the towns are so crowded with ignorant teachers that without
consulting anybody they establish private schools paid for
by the parents of the children. Thus they learn what little
good and a great deal of bad which they possess, to whom
they teach Cartilla, and something of reading and writing,
utilizing as texts for both the books called Corridos, which
are full of anachronisms, errors, and absurdities of all kinds
* * *. They also learn something of the Catechism (p. 337).
The places for the schools besides being bad are completely
abandoned, and many are in ruins (p. 339).
There is no order in the school, and each one goes in and
out without permission whenever he pleases (p. 440).