Chapter 3 Early Education in Calamba and Binan Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Bifan. It w a typical schooling that a son of an ilustrado family receive during his time, characterized by the four R’s — reading, writing arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Know ledge was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the tedius memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the defects of the Spanish system of elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction preparatory for college work in Manila and abroad. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a physical weakling, rose to become an intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, the outmoded and backward system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last decades of Spanish regime. The Hero’s First Teacher. The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers. “My mother,” wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, “taught me how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God.”? As a tutor, Dofia Teodora was patient, cor 7 and understanding. It was she who first discovered aie had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to wit poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing th, ntORW id to stime'ate her son’s imagination, she related m, a pee an As Jose grow cldck, his aa! stories. eo . parents employed Priy, thc tam lessons at home. The first was Maestro c.t° tutors (0 Celestino andthe second, Maestro Lucas Pad Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s boy’s tutor. This old teacher live lua. Later, an old a. Later, an old man named live long. He died five months later. After Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents their gifted son to a private school in Bian. Jose Goes to Bifian. One Sunday afternoon in June, 1869, Jose, after kissing the hands of his parents and a tearful parting from his sisters, left Calamba for Bijan. He was accompanied by Paciano, who acted as his second father. The two brothers rode in a carromata, reaching their destination after one and one-half hours’ drive. They proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was to lodge. It was almost night when they arrived, and the moon was about to rise. decided to send That same night, Jose, with his cousin named Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead of enjoying the sights, Jose became depressed because of homesickness. “In the moonlight,” he recounted, “I remembered my home town, my idolized mother, and my solicitous sisters. Ah, how sweet to me was Calamba, my own town, in spite of the fact, that it was not as wealthy as Bifian.”” First Day in Bifian School. The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz. The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters from the home of Jose’s aunt. Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return to Calamba. Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the class. The teacher asked him: “Do you know Spanish?” “A little, sir,” replied the Calamba lad. “Do you know Latin?” “A little, sir.”jose RIZAL: LIFE, WORKS ANO WRITINGS he class, especially Pedro, the teacher The boys in t laughed at Jose’s answers. The teacher sharply stopped all noise and began the lesson s fan as follows: “He was of the day- Jose described his tea tall, thin, Jong-necked, with a sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by heart the grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this his severity, that in my judgment was exaggerated, and you have a picture, perhaps vague. that I have made ot him, put I remember only cher in Bi school, Pedro. oon of his first day in ing his t School Brawl. In the aftern¢ was having his siesta, Jose met the bully, He was angry at this bully for making fun of him duri conversation with the teacher in the morning. _ Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could easily beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and younger. € The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much \° glee of their classmates. Jose, having learned the amt of eee, i athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigge® 0°" , he became popular among his classmates. d Andres Afte: class i # the in the afternoon, a classmate name! nntistetemewrestiing mach. 1"? ir arms: Salandanan challenged went to a sidewalk Jose, nen geak house and wrestled with thei om the sidewalk. arm, lost and nearly cracked his head he had other fights with the boys ° by nature, but he never rap this.”? Firs' when the teache! Was the hous¢ for ctlter-in-law of Painting, spent Was ancho freelY » pressed bYJose and his classmate, Jose Gue ‘a, whc painting, became apprentices of the old painter. They imp their art, so that in due time they became “the favorite of the class”. Daily Life in Bifan. Jose led a methodical life in Bifian, almost Spartan in simplicity. Such a life contributed much to his future development. It strengthened his body and soul. Speaking of his daily life in Bifian, he recorded in his memoirs:* Here was my life. I heard the four o’clock Mass, if there was any, or I studied my lesson at that hour and I went to Mass afterwards. I returned home and I went to the orchard to look for a mabolo to eat. Then I took breakfast, which consisted generally of a dish of rice and two dried small fish, and I went to class from which I came out at ten o’clock. I went home at once. If there was some special dish, Leandro and I took some of it to the house of his children (which I never did at home nor would I ever do it), and I returned without saying a word. I ate with them and afterwards I studied. I went to school at two and came out at five. I prayed a short while with some nice cousins and I returned home. I studied my lesson. I drew a little, and afterwards I took my supper consisting of one or two dishes of rice with an ayungin. We prayed and if there was a moon, my nieces invited me to play in the street together with others. Thank God that I never got sick away from my parents. Best Student in School. In academic studies, Jose beat all Bifian boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects. : Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual Superiority. They wickedly squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and even told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes. Consequently the teacher had to punish Jose. Thus Rizal said that “in spite of the reputation I had of being a good boy, the day was unusual when I was not laid out on a bench and given five or six blows.”* End of Bifian Schooling. Before the Christmas season in 1870, Jose received a letter from his sister Saturnina, informing aJOSE RIZAL: LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS him of the arrival of the steamer Talim which would take from Bifian to Calamba. Upon reading the letter, he haw premonition that he would not retrrn to Bifian, so that he becam, Pid. He prayed in the town church, collected pebbles in the ower for souvenirs, and regretfully bade farewell to his teache, and classmates. He left Bifian on Saturday afternoon, December 17, 1870 after one year and a half of’ schooling in that town. He was thrilled to take passage on the steamer Talim, for it was the first time he ever rode on a steamer. On board was a Frenchman named Arturo Camps, a friend of his father, who took care of him. Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za. On the night of January 20, 1872, about 200 Filipino soldiers and workmen of the Cavite arsenal under the leadership of Lamadrid, Filipino sergeant, rose in violent mutiny because of the abolition of their usual privileges, including exemption from tribute and polo (forced labor) by the reactionary Governor Rafael de Izquierdo. Unfortunately, this Cavite Mutiny was suppressed two days later by troop reinforce- nents from Manila. The Spanish authorities, in order to liquidate Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, leaders of the secular movement to Filipinize the Philippine parishes, and their supporters (Jose Ma. Basa, Attorneys Joaquin Pardo de Tavera and Antonio Ma. Regidor, etc.) magnified the failed mutiny into a “revoit” for Philippine independence. Accordingly, Gom-Bur-Za (Gomez, Bur; / 1c : gos, and Zamora), despite the archbishop’s plea for clemency because of their innocence, were executed at sunrise, February 17, 1872, by order Seca oc Izquierdo. Their martyrdom was deeply pac by tt Rial family and many other patriotic families __ Paciano, suzeed by the execution of Burgos, his beloved ores yee housemate, quit his studies at the College eee Gauie gee ae es: where he told the heroic story encle Ze t Jose, who was then nearly The martyrdom of Gom-B: it ey p om-Bur-Za in 1872 truly i fight the evils of Spanish tyranny and redeem ty aired Rizal 'S OppressedEarly Education tn Calar people. Seventeen years later, in his letter written in Paris, April 18, 1889, to Mariano Ponce, he said:° Without 1872 there would not be now either a Plaridel or Jaena, or Sanciangco, nor would there exist brave and generous Filipino colonies in Europe; without 1872 Rizal would be a Jesuit now and, instead of writing Noli Me Tangere, would have written the opposite. At the sight of those injustices and cruelties while still a child my imagina- tion was awakened and I swore to devote myself to avenge one day so many victims and with this idea in mind I have been studying, and this can be read in all my works and writings. God will someday give me an opportunity to carry out my promise.” And later, in 1891, he dedicated his second novel, El Filibus- terismo, to Gom-Bur-Za. Injustice to Hero’s Mother. Before June of 1872, tragedy struck the Rizal family. Dofia Teodora was suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that she and her brother, Jose Alberto, tried to poison the latter’s perfidious wife. Jose Alberto, a rich Bifian ilustrado, had just returned from a business trip in Europe. During his absence his wife abandoned their home and children. When he arrived in Bifian, he found her living with another man. Infuriated by her infidelity, he planned to divorce her. Dofa Teodora, to avert family scandal, persuaded him to forgive his wife. The family trouble was amicably settled, and Jose Alberto lived again with his wife. However, the evil wife, with the connivance of the Spanish lieutenant of the Guardia Civil, a case in court accusing her husband and Dofia Teodora of attempting to poison her. __ This lieutenant happened to have an ax te grind against the Rizal family, because at one time Don Francisco (Rizal’s father) Tefused to give him fodder for his horse. Taking the opportunity C,2vense himself, he arrested Dofia Teodora, with the help of lamba’s gobernadorcillo, Antonio Vivencio del Rosario, a menial of the friars. These two ungrateful men had been fi Buests at the Rizal home. sae After arresting Dofia Teodora. the sadistic Spani: i 5 ish lieuten- ant forced her to walk from Calamba to Santa cae esereita Laguna Province), a distance of 50 kilometers. Upon arrival in 2s