The opening of the school year in the month of June has become associated with the birthdate of the country's national hero. This is perhaps because Jose Rizal had the typical Victorian faith in education. But what was school precisely for Rizal?
First was the traditional way of teaching from his mother's knee. This was the learning of the basics--the alphabet, syllabication, stories and catechism. It was during this time that the famous fable of the moth and the flame impressed much on the young Pepe's mind. More advanced lessons were given by a private tutor who went from house to house gathering all children, devoting an hour or two for instruction, earning little yet spending the whole day covering more houses as he could. The young Pepe had a certain Maestro Celestino, Maestro Lucas Padua and Maestro Leon Monroy as his tutors. This group of tutors still existed until the 1920s in the persons of aging men and women travelling from house to house in the afternoons, teaching the rudiments of Spanish and piano-playing.
From the hands of his private tutor, Rizal went to a preparatory school in Binan, Laguna. Here, Rizal noted the corporal punishment employed by his teacher Justiniano Aquino Cruz, as indispensable in the process of learning. Elsewhere in the world, this was the practice of tutors who did not spare the rod on mischievous young pupils.
Eventually, the young Rizal went to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in Intramuros where he spent the most memorable years of his life. On his way to Bagumbayan on that early December morning in 1896, he recalls his stay at the Ateneo as "the happiest in my life." His program of study in high school included Spanish, Latin, Greek and French; world geography and history; the history of Spain and the Philippines; mathematics and the sciences; and the classic disciplines of poetry, rhetoric and philosophy. It should be noted that Filipino boys at the Ateneo received Excellent grades easily. Thus it can be said that Rizal never really stood out in Ateneo.
After the Ateneo, Rizal pursued his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Letters degree at the University of Sto. Tomas but shifted to ophthalmology when he learned that his mother was gradually becoming blind. He left Sto. Tomas when it became clear to him that the Dominican friars discriminated Filipino students. Without his parents' consent, Rizal left for Madrid and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned his Licentiate in Medicine.
His education continued at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg where he earned his second doctorate degree. It was during this time when his interests became varied: ophthalmology, sculpture, painting, agriculture, education, history, poetry, journalism, theater. He also showed interest in the areas of architecture, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He even excelled in ventriloquism!
Rizal may properly be called a Renaissance Man on account of his broad intellectual interests and accomplishments in the areas of the arts and the sciences. Rizal's commitment to education should inspire young men and women today not only to excel in their studies but to expand their interests as well. Anything worth doing is worth doing well!
