RIZAL AS A NOVELIST

Anatomy and Analysis of his Novels

In 1887 Rizal’s literary fame began with the publication of Noli Me Tangere. The novel’s literal
meaning is “Touch Me Not,” while in its English translation it is entitled “The Social Cancer”. In 1887
Rizal’s literary fame began with the publication of Noli Me Tangere. The novel’s literal meaning is
“Touch Me Not,” while in its English translation it is entitled “The Social Cancer.”

The story revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra, the son of a wealthy Creole landlord, who is
engaged to Maria Clara, the daughter of Santiago de los Santo (Kapitan Tiago). Ibarra is sent abroad
to study. Ibarra’s father was accused of being a heretic and filibuster and died in prison. When he
returned to the country, he is very determined to lead his people to independence through education.
He established a school and then comes into conflict with local authorities. The plot becomes more
complicated when Father Salvi falls in love with Maria Clara. Ibarra opens the school in a public
ceremony, and in a celebration, Friar Damaso insulted Ibarra’s father. The latter has to be restrained
to prevent him from killing the former. Ibarra has been excommunicated for laying violent hands on
a priest. He is also forbidden to see Maria Clara again. Friar Damaso arranged Maria Clara into
marrying one of his distant relative named Linares. Ibarra is accused of plotting a revolution. The
evidence of his insurrection comes from letters provided by Maria Clara. Ibarra confront Maria Clara.
Maria Clara told Ibarra that her father is Friar Damaso. Maria Clara refuse to marry Linares and
became a nun instead. Noli ends with a glimpse of a young nun on the roof of the convent crying about
the inequities of her life as thunder and lightning roar in the background.

Noli Me Legere, The Spanish were furious with Rizal for his novel. They did not allow the book
to be imported in Manila. Only a small number of copies were able to enter the Philippines. The Friars
threatened excommunication to anyone who is caught reading it. Friar Jose Rodriguez wrote a small
pamphlet entitled “Caingat Cayo” to warn the people not to read the novel. An excerpt of the report
of the permanent commission on Censorship of the Philippines. The author nursing an ill-concealed
hatred of the mother who gave him birth and steeped in the defamatory writings of envious
foreigners who wish to discredit one of the greatest works of generous Spain in these Islands, and
giving himself Volneyist and Voltairian airs, makes it his principal object to discredit openly and
impudently all the institutions established by the Metropolis in these distant Islands. He attacks in a
violent and wicked manner some fundamental dogmas, many truths, and pious beliefs of the state
religion, the target of his fury being the religious communities and the Civil Guard, not so much for
the habit the former wear and the rules they follow and the latter’s social mission, but for considering
both institutions the principal impediment and insuperable of the country.

A synthesis of the result of the analytical censure summarizes its findings into articles whose
respective titles are:
1. Attacks on the integrity of Spain
2. Attacks on the administration, the Spanish employees of the government, and the courts of
justice.
3. Attacks on the Civil Guard. Attacks on the integrity of Spain

Attacks on the integrity of Spain

a. The most important part of Noli Me Tangere is that which refers to the separatist liberty and
independence of the country, the point towards which all the thoughts and poisoned reflections
of the author converge.
b. The author takes as the chief character in his work a young man of great heart and high patriotic
sentiments who was educated abroad. The father of this youth, who is named Ibarra, died
wretchedly, persecuted by the Spanish authorities according to the story
c. From here on Rizal represents the Philippines as a slave tied hand and foot. The archipelago is
the victim of the Civil Guard’s violence as well as suffers from the fanaticism and despotic
arbitrariness of the missionaries; it is delivered over to the greed and immorality of the courts of
justice, plundered by the constituted authorities, and forgotten and abandoned by the
Government of Spain.
d. “The government! The government you say!” said the philosopher, raising his eyes to the ceiling.
“Howsoever desirous it may be of advancing the country for its own benefit and for that of the
Mother Country; howsoever one or more officials may remember the generous spirit of the
Catholic kings in their hearts, the government itself will not see, hear, or judge more than what
the priest or the provincial makes them see, hear, or judge. Compare if you dare, our
governmental system with that of other countries you have visited.
e. “The people do not complain because they have no voice; they do not move because they are
under a spell of lethargy, and still you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen how
their hearts bleed. But some day you will see and hear! Unhappy those who allow themselves to
be deceived and work in the night thinking that everyone sleeps! When the light of the day shines
upon the deeds of the night then shall the terrible reaction follow! Such forces repressed during
centuries; such poison distilled drop by drop and such stifled sighs appear in the light and
explode!”
f. Hatred of Spain and the frenzied desire for liberty, for independence and for revenge reach their
climax in these lines. “And now I see the horrible cancer which is gnawing at this social structure,
which is acquiring a firmer grip on its flesh and demands violent extirpation. They have opened
my eyes, have shown me the sore and have impelled me to be a criminal! And since they wish it,
I will be a filibuster, but a real filibuster; I will call all the unfortunate ones, all who feel a bleeding
heart beating in their breast, those who sent you to me.
g. “I die without seeing the Day dawning on my country. You who will see it, greet it…and forget not
those who fell in the Night!”

Attacks on the administration, the Spanish employees of the government, and the courts of
justice
a. “We Spaniards who come to the Philippines are unfortunately not what we should be. (I say
this with reference to one of your grandparents as well as to the enemies of your father.) The
continuous changes, the corruption in the high positions, favoritism, the cheapness and the
shortness of the voyage are to blame for everything. He re come the worst of the people of
the Peninsula, and if a good man comes, the country soon corrupts him.”
b. Talking of Kapitan Tiago, a mestizo contractor who does business with all government offices.
c. He tells of a governador cillo, and refers to the supposed general immorality in the
appointments of municipal and other officials of the state thus: “The person was an unhappy
man who did not command but rather (the governador cillo) obeyed. He did not scold anyone
but was scolded; did not control anybody but was controlled. Rather was he responsible to
the alcalde mayor for what he had been ordered, directed, and instructed to do as if
everything had originated in his brain although it should be stated to his credit that he had
not stolen or usurped this office. It actually cost him five thousand pesos and much
humiliation, and, considering what he gets out of it, he considers the price cheap enough.”
 d. Telling of the ease with which in the Ministry and at Rome a miter can be obtained (Note by
Austin Craig: that is, a Friar can get promotion to be a Bishop, then a government position as
well as a Church dignitary), he says: “They give it for nothing nowadays. I know one who got
it doing less than that. He wrote a little work in chabacano, a Philippines dialect of Spanish –
showing that the natives have no capacity for anything except
craftsmanship…Pshaw…Common old stuff!”
e. The author makes the most serious charge possible, against the honesty and integrity of the
Governor General, supposing him to be bribed by a P1,000 ring presented to by a Trozo
mestiza in order that hey family shall not be implicated in an alleged conspiracy against the
sovereignty of Spain.
f. There follows an animated discussion in which it is sought to prove that the administrative
officials and the Government are venal and corruptible by any gift of value and for it will sell
reason and justice.

Attacks on the Civil Guard

a. According to Rizal, the meritorious Civil Guard is worse than a gang of ruffians.
b. “The civil guards are not people; they are just civil guards. They do not listen to prayers and
are used to seeing tears shed.”
c. The Civil Guard is presented as back of the ruinous and prohibited games.
d. “That is all they are good for! To disturb the peace of town! They only persecute honest men!”
e. There are civil guards who are not wearing the uniform of their reputed corps nor are they
dresses as civilians. They are wearing a disguise which is in harmony with their conduct.

After the analytical examination, the Commission on Censorship, through Augustinian Fr.
Salvador Font, concludes with the following word;

“Most Excellent Sir, the undersigned, based on the text, literally copied, that he has just presented
to the strict and patriotic consideration of your excellency, is of the opinion that the importation,
reproduction, and circulation of this pernicious book should be prohibited absolutely by your
authority.”

“… the book is vitiated with foreign teachings and doctrines, and its general synthesis is to instill
deep and cruel hatred of the mother country (Spain) in the minds of the submissive and loyal sons of
Spain in these distant Islands, placing her behind foreign countries, especially German for which the
author of the Noli Me Tangere seems to have pre-eminent predilection.”

The Philippine monasticism cannot bear Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere despite the favorable reception
it has received in the literary and political world of Spain and other countries in Europe. In the
Philippines, the censors wished the Noli Me Tangere (touch me not) to be Noli Me Legere. Despite
this strong objection and condemnation, the Noli became a very significant book because of the
impact it had upon the developing nationalistic feeling. It was an important reflection on the
illustrado political mentality. The Noli is rich enough to build a modern nationalism.

When the hero dies in Noli Me Tangere, Rizal made a serious nationalistic point. It was a literary
device designated to call attention to the free-thinking political attitudes that Crisostomo Ibarra
possesses and how he influences the rising state of Philippine nationalism. The Noli is called the
bridge between the Propaganda movement and the Revolution of 1896. The world had known
through Rizal’s novels the conditions that the Filipino faced at home. The novel inspired the indios to
become more critical of the Spanish domination in the Philippines and to create a strong sense of a
new democratic feeling.
PRAISERS AND DEFENDERS OF THE NOLI
 The Filipinos adored Jose Rizal for the Book Noli Me Tangere, which had reached the Island
before him and found eager buyers. People said that all the characters in the Book were real
people, as in point of fact, they were.
 Those who knew Rizal’s home well realized that he had seen or heard of the incidents which
he had related, and that only the names were new.

CRISOSTOMO IBARRA as Rizal

 A youth who goes to Europe to study and to find out how to bless his country.
 His Father has trouble with the friars, is thrown into prison and dies. This is a composite of
Rizal’s father and mother.

MARIA CLARA as Leonor Rivera

 Is Ibarra’s sweetheart and fiancé, but because he has trouble with the friars, the girl’s father,
Kapitan Tiago, breaks off the engagement and marries her to another man (Linares), which
break her heart and result in her death.

TASYO
 as the philosopher is Jose’s brother Paciano.

FR. DAMASO
 The cruel Dominican friar
 who claimed most of the land about Calamba

SISA
 a victim of the unjust system
 who does not have enough to eat and goes hungry while her boys (Crispin and Basillo) have
a little food

Retana says the principal conclusions of Noli Me Tangere are:

1. The enlightened liberal Filipino cannot live in the Philippines because he and the friars are
uncongenial. He is persecuted in every way, false conspiracies are invented to implicate him,
and then is imprisoned, exiled, or shot.

2. The country is not for us but for Spaniards, especially the friars.

3. The Civil Guard is so abusive that it makes more bandits(outlaws) than it captures.

4. The Spaniards in the Philippines have no high ideals, but many of them have degenerated into
ruffians.

5. The Catholic religion has been employed as an instrument of domination.

6. The pure Filipinos are condemned to perpetual ignorance

7. The woman cannot marry a Spaniard but gives herself to the friar if her parents obligue her
to do so to protect themselves.
 8. With the present bad government, the Filipinos cannot remain united with Spain, and with
all courtesy we ask for the rights we deserve.

9. The chief cause of insurrection is desperation. When a man loses all he has, he fights

The decree had no effect excepting to advertise the book and to enhance the popularity of its writer.
Copies were smuggled into the Islands to be read secretly. They were buried in fields at the approach
of officers and dug up when the officers had gone. Not until some five months had passed, Rizal was
called to Malacañang, the Governor’s, now Presidential palace, for an interview with Governador
General Emilio Terrero, who told him that the Dominican Committee had found Noli Me Tangere very
dangerous. Rizal assured Terrero that the books was innocent of the slightest slander against the
government, though it did reveal some friar injustice, and asked him to read it before passing
judgement. The Governor General agreed to read the book and was secretly pleased at its exposure
of the friars. At his next interview he was very friendly, and being solicitous for Rizal’s welfare, gave
him a bodyguard, Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade, a Spaniard, who became one of Rizal’s warmest
admirers and friends and remained so to the end of his life.

The Fili, Subversive?

 Before Rizal left Europe, he had to edit and publish El Filibusterismo, the last chapters of
which he had finished in Biarritz.
 Paris being expensive, was out of the question for the printing of his second novel; and so,
Rizal hurried back to Brussels, and later to Ghent, in search of cheap printers. Rizal sailed
from Marseilles on October 18, 1891. With him were 600 copies of El Filibusterismo
 El Fili was published 1891
 Rizal continued to argue for reform. Rizal argued that the young are aware of the need to take
political action and pursue social justice. Young people, Rizal maintained, create a strong
sense of reform.
 El fili is a book about revolution, posting it clearly as an alternative to reform efforts that lead
nowhere. But in making Simoun, its principal character, fai0l and die, Rizal also pointed out
the dangers of taking an alternative based on hate and vengeance.
 The age of filibustering took place after terror of 1872.
The Cavite mutiny of 1872 was an uprising of military personnel of For San Felipe,
the Spanish arsenal in Cavite, Philippines on January 20, 1872. Around 200 soldiers
and laborers rose up in the belief that it would elevate to a national uprising. The
mutiny was unsuccessful, and government soldiers executed many of the participants
and began to crack down on a burgeoning nationalist movement.

 And for twenty years there was a demand for reform then the revolutionary society, the
Katipunan, was founded to further Philippine independence.
 From his vantage point, Rizal argued that the Spanish needed to rethink their political,
religious, and economic direction.
 Rizal urged his people not to accept Spanish myths and look themselves for an inner freedom
and national direction.
 El Filibusterismo was dedicated to three friars, Don Mariano Gomez, Don Jose Burgos, and
Don Jacinto Zamora who were executed on the scaffold at Bagumbayan on February 28, 1872.
 What sets Rizal’s novels apart from other Philippine fiction is his commitment to a sense of
independent nationalism.
 A sense pride and a celebration of Filipino values permeate his work.
  There was a worldwide audience for his books as they were published in Europe, read in
United States, and debated throughout Southeast Asia.
 In Madrid, Spain and Ghent, Belgium, Rizal’s Novels had a strong local sale.

The Fili’s Theme

 Rizal’s main contribution as a novelist was to exposed the malevolent white colonial attitudes
that permeated the world in the late 19th century.

 These self-servicing policies, the innate prejudices, and the racial attitudes of Spanish
governmental and church enraged local Filipinos.

 One of Rizal’s subthemes is Rizal dissection of colonialism. He talks about the civilizing
mission of Spanish officials and then demonstrates how colonial government over 300
centuries degraded the Philippine life. The pretentious and often arrogant attitude of local
Spanish leader.

 Simoun, the main character in El Filibusterismo, is an important symbol because he argues

that by accepting the Spanish way of the life, Philippine nationalism is in danger of being lost.

 The Fili demonstrates that conflicting nationalism cannot exist side by side, and revolution is
inevitable.

Simoun’s Advocacy
 The arguments for a separate’s nationalism are put forth by simoun when questions the
Spanish wat of life and the discretion of his own national identity.

“ A people without a soul, a nation without freedom, everything in you will be

borrowed even your defects,"

“ You ask the parity of rights, the Spanish way of life and you not realize that what you
are asking is death, the destruction of your national identity, the dis appearance of
your homeland”

 But in the conclusion of fili, simoun is visited on his deathbed by a native who informs him
that the revolution will fail because Filipinos are not ready for independence. Although his
plans for revolution are failed ones, this dying patriot gives hope for the future.
 His message is that revolution and subsequent independence provide the future political
direction.

The Fili, Dedicated to the Three Martyrs

 El Filibusterismo was dedicated to Gomburza, who had been martyred in Rizal’s childhood.
 The Fili’s first page reads:

“Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don
Jacinto Zamora (35 years old), executed in Bagumbayan Field, February 28, 1872. I
have a right to dedicate my book to you as victims expectantly for Spain someday to
restore your good name and cease to be answerable for your death, let these pages
serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your unknown Thombs, and let it be
understood every one that without clear proof attacks your memory stains his hands
in your blood.”
  El Filibusterismo was dedicated to Gomburza, who had been martyred in Rizal’s childhood.

In Praise of the Fili

“Like a new Moses, with your immortal books you have given to the Philippines the Decalogue
of her political redemption and her honor before mankind. If she knew how to obey the commands,
precepts, and counsels so beautifully written in your novel, then, instead of a country in abject
slavery, she would soon become great, free prosperous and master her destiny”

Like the Noli this new book drew every character from real life. Manuel Camus wrote from Singapore:

“I want to thank you for the exactness of the type of Capitan Tino of the steamship. He was my
uncle!”

Men are able to realize that in that last chapter are the noblest words he ever wrote. Indeed, is that
infinitely sad closing that is most often quoted. The book was a tremendous, if painful, sermon to
those Rizal’s own countrymen who believed they could defraud their fellow countrymen, lived
double-faced lives, and still expected that good would come.
 Rizal as a Political Philosopher
Rizal would Criticize Today’s Society

RIZAL AS AN ILLUSTRADOIN 19TH CENTURY

What does Illustrado means?
 It means the enlightened one
 Anti-friar
 They were the middle class who were educated in Spanish and exposed to Spanish liberal and
European nationalist ideas.
 Was exposed of native-born intellectuals and cut across ethnolinguistic and racial lines-
Indios, Insulares, and Mestizos.
RIZAL’S CONCEPT OF GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Max Weber defines government as the rise of an institution which has “monopoly of the
legitimate use of physical power.” He complains that the government is an institution that could
legally take people’s property by taxing them, imprisoning them, and even executing them.
Rizal’s definition of government and politics focused on Spanish influences. One of his
criticisms of Spanish colonialism was the corruption of the bureaucracy. In describing a typical
Spanish bureaucrat, Rizal wrote: “in order to govern peoples he those not know or understand, he
ought to possess the talent of a genius and extraordinary knowledge. Rizal argue that it this was
necessary because the Filipinos were gaining a new political sophistication.
In his letter to other Filipino leaders, Rizal commented at length about government. In a letter
to Mariano Ponce, Rizal marked that one-day Filipino political leaders would finish their “arduous
mission which is the formation of the Filipino nation”
THE KEY INGREDIENTS OF POLITICS IN THE NOLI ME TANGERE
Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, discusses the key ingredients of political science. The plot of
the novel centers around a returning native son named Crisostomo Ibarra, who finds an alien nation
and becomes a stranger in his own land. He studied abroad and in his absence his father killed a
Spanish tax collector. In this portion of the novel art imitates life. This was Rizal’s way of exonerating
his own family. Their wealth reduced due to the conflict with the local authorities. In the novel, Rizal
had his revenge by savaging the friars and the corrupt officials. He fictionalizes the problems of his
family with the government in the novel. He uses it to discuss the key ingredients of political science.
But there are other significant points made in the Noli Me Tangere. Rizal extracts a strange sort of
revenge against hid Spanish conquerors. His main concern is to demonstrate how the Philippines has
been bastardized. Leon Ma. Guerrero, one of Rizal’s most prominent biographers, argue that Noli Me
Tangere, “denies the friars even the dignity of their convictions.” In a series of letter to Blumentritt,
Rizal critically dissected the failures of the Spanish rule. Guerrero’s biography suggest that Rizal was
influenced by his studies in Spain and he became an adherent of Spanish anti-clericalism. This
conclusion ignores the degree od Rizal’s hostility to the church prior to his European studies.
The best analysis of Rizal’s political contribution is Raul J. Bonoan who argues that Rizal was
caught between faith and reason. Tasio, the philosopher, projects some important lesson in the novel.
He was the wise man from the city of San Diego. He was a wise man. He is contemptuous of the
superstition foisted upon the people by the church and he is particularly critical of the notion that
hell is a possibility. What Tasio represent is the freedom that Rizal experienced when he studied in
Europe. He is a man of wisdom who is able to counsel and direct the novels main characters.
RIZAL’S DEFINITION OF BASIC POLITICAL TERMS
Political Culture
 Is a set of ideas and values about the government and the political process held by a
community or nation.
In Rizal’s essay, “the indolence of the Filipinos”, Rizal observed that “without education
and liberty, no reform is possible.” Rizal exclaimed that, political culture could not thrive in
the Philippines because of the inability of the Spanish to recognize local political values. Only
education could Filipinos overcome this deficiency.
Political Socialization
 Is one of the main elements of political science.
 Process in which people, at various stages in their lives, acquire views and orientation
about politics.
By emphasizing the importance of being a Filipino, Rizal accelerated the process of local
nationalism. His criticism of the friars and the church helped to change attitudes toward local
nationalism.
Political Ideology
 Is a comprehensive and logically ordered set of beliefs about nature of people and
about the nature of people and about the institutions and role of government.
In Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere, he writes, “we are speaking of the present condition of
the Philippines. Yes, we are entering upon a period of strife. The strife is between the past,
which seizes and strives with curses to cling to the tottering feudal castles. And the future,
whose song of triumph maybe heard from afar. Bring the message of good news from other
land.” As a passionate supporter of the new Philippine nation, Rizal introduced a fierce brand
of ideology which had made Filipinos among the most political people in the world. Filipinos
have carefully defined political ideology.
Nationalism
 Is the idea of oneness by group of people who possess common traditions, a shared
history, a set of goals, and a belief in a specific future.
Rizal argued that Filipinos could only foster their own sense of nationalism by studying
history. Rizal wrote to Blumentritt, “I would stimulate these Philippine studies,” and
concluded that history provided “the true concept of one’s sled and drove nation to the great
things”. Foremost in that he is the dominant national hero who, unlike other heroes, had a
firm vision of the future of the Philippines. He glorifies life in the Philippines. Onofre D. Corpuz
concludes that Rizal’s life suggests he is the “father of his country”.
Representative Government
 Is the notion that the people have an inherit right to sit in the chamber that
determines their future.
 Spain had granted Filipinos representation in the Spanish Cortes from 1809 until the
privilege was removed by Queen Maria Cristina in 1836. Rizal believed that the
representation was essential to the governing process. Rizal contented that the
representation removed the spirit of revolution.
Democracy
 A government in which all power is shared by citizens.
 Demos is derived from a Greek word which means people.
In Rizal’s view the best government was a mixture between representative democracy
and responsible model of democracy. He believed that it would take some time for Filipinos
to actively participate in local government. The definition of democracy is found in Rizal’s
mind. He employed such definition in his writing, his public speeches and his advocacy of
Philippine democracy.
RIZAL WOULD CRITICIZE TODAY’S SOCIETY
If Jose Rizal were alive today, “he would write two novels, be imprisoned again and be
criticized by government and society” so said lawyer Pedro Rosito, Cebu Chapter Commander of the
knights of Rizal. Today Rizal would stand out in the midst of the confusion brought about by
allegations of electoral fraud and cheating. Maybe this time “Filipinos and not Spanish soldiers would
shoot him or give him lethal injection”.
During Spanish times, filibustering referred to a Filipino or any person who would rebel or
utter words against the Spanish and was thus considered dangerous so he would have to be
imprisoned. Today, filibustering according to Rosito, is used to describe the long speech of some
lawmakers, or some senators including one of the speeches of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel which lasted
for several hours which just consumed and wasted precious time. Rizal was famous of criticizing and
exposing the abuses of Spanish friars and officials. “If Rizal was alive today, he too would questioned
the way the priests are spending the money of the church and would be checking whether these are
used to build more school for the poor; he would be vigilant on the maladministration of justice for
the people; he would have criticized the prevailing graft and corruption practicesin the bureau; he
would criticized the “gambling lords” who resemble the landlords and those receiving “jueteng
payola” who resembles “tax collectors” during his times.
 RIZAL AS AN EDUCATOR
EDUCATION AS A STRATEGY FOR LIBERATION

Even if Rizal did not graduate as a teacher, he is still a true teacher, educator or maestro
because of his ideas, knowledge, wisdom and others that can be learned and can be discover more.‖
He believes that a good teacher or professor must have an honorable personality in order to
command respect from the students. He also has an Educational Philosophy that in order to heeded
and to maintain authority, the teacher needs prestige, reputation, moral strength, and some freedom
of action. A teacher should be virtuous in character because a teacher serves as a role model to a
student.
Rizal did not write educational method or a book on how to be a teacher. Therefore, we get
the ideas of Rizal from this so many writings. No hero writes as much as Rizal. Dr. Austin of Oxford
University said Jose Rizal is one of the most documented heroes in the world because Rizal kept
writing and writing and writing. He decided that education was the hope of salvation for his country,
and from this faith he did not swerve to the end of his life. When in later years he was surrounded by
revolutionists in Europe and in the Philippines, he resolutely opposed the pathway of violence and
clung to education not only in theory but by his example. He became not only the best educated Malay,
but one of the most astonishingly versatile scholars of his day in any race. The following poem,
written at the age of fifteen, is a clue to the inner motive of Rizal's intense life. In praise of education
he wrote poems on "The Close Relationship between Religion and Good Education" (1876), "Through
Education the Country Receives Light" (1876) and Reading, a Great Consolation in Severe
Misfortunes.
The Ideas and principles of Rizal can see in his letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, Rizal’s closest
friend. The exchange of their letters was almost 9 years. And it stops when Rizal died in 1896. The
languages that they used were mostly German, French, and Spanish. In one of his letters, Rizal said
the backwardness of his country during the Spanish ear was not due to the Filipinos’ indifference,
apathy or indolence as claimed by the rulers, but to the neglect of the Spanish authorities in the
islands. For Rizal, the mission of education is to elevate the country to the highest seat of glory and
to develop the people’s mentality. Since education is the foundation of society and a prerequisite for
social progress, Rizal claimed that only through education could the country be saved from
domination.
El Filibusterismo, the second novel written by Dr. Jose Rizal and was first published in 1891
in Ghent, Belgium. He pointed out that besides the duty of every one to seek his own perfection. There
is the desire innate in man to cultivate his intellect, a desire the more powerful here in that it is
repressed. In the Pilipino, to cultivate the intellect, we have to improve through the education and
that is the gift of God. In its chapter 13, The Class of Physics, "The visitors and high officials, after
being handsomely entertained, would then write in their Travels or Memoirs; "The Royal and
Pontifical University of Santo Tomas of Manila, in charge of the enlightened Dominican Order, possess
a magnificent physical laboratory for the instruction of youth. Some two hundred and fifty students
annually study this subject, but whether from apathy, indolence, the limited capacity of the Indian, or
some other ethnological or incomprehensible reason, up to now there has not developed a Lavoisier,
a Secchi, or a Tyndall, not even in miniature, in the Malay-Filipino race." This was a lesson from
history. In "The Class in Physics", Jose Rizal made it clear that an assessment of education involves
looking at the goals. There are two goals: knowledge construction and knowledge acquisition. There
is content and there are skills. Although "The Class in Physics" may be a good reading, I do hope that
we are no longer facing the same problem of using education to oppress and degrade people. I think
this was the main issue during that time. Our issue now is to address problems in basic education
that hopefully have nothing to do with intentionally keeping people out of education.
In his poetry, He insists the right for the education. He writes Education is the best guide of
the youth‖. In the letter to his sister, it is written that she has to study, study and study. It is necessary
to study by reading and writing. Even Paciano, Rizal’s older brother, was concerned about education,
asking Rizal in July 1886: Furnish me with information of the best schools there. We have many
nephews, most of them promising. It is a pity that these ones should fall into the hands of teachers
who teach unwillingly and do so only for show. It is true that they inculcate in children very sane
principles, such as fear and humility, the first being the beginning of wisdom and the second of
apostolic and civic virtue, but it is also true that fear and humility lead to dullness. Rizal replied that
children are not allowed to be themselves, to make noise or to play. Instead, they are made to recite
the rosary and novena until the poor youngsters become very sleepy and understand nothing of what
is going on. Consequently, when they reach the age of reason, they pray just as they have prayed when
they were children without understanding what they are saying; they fall asleep or think of nonsense.
Nothing can destroy a thing more than the abuse of it, and praying can also be abused. This is evidence
that Rizal or Mercado’s family give a high importance to education. But now, the problem for the
youth is where to find the time to study. So, is it so irony? At that time, they want to study even if it’s
hard because of the Spanish System. But now, there’s many schools, a public, a private, an expensive
and inexpensive school but why not just find time? Someone said “A computer professional is still
illiterate if they don’t know something about literature.”
Back to the letter of Rizal to Blumentritt, Rizal mentioned “All our efforts tend to educate our
people education, education, education, education of our people education and enlightenment. He
mentioned education many times, Rizal is really a teacher. Rizal was aware of 22 languages. Not just
one, two or three but 22 languages. If Rizal can do it, thus, every Filipino can do it too. The only thing
you have to do is to study, study and study. We can do it because were the same Pilipino, we have the
same ability to learn and study.
He recognized the importance of education in the development of a nation and its people.
Crisostomo Ibarra, the principal character of his novel Noli Me Tangere possesses a desire to
establish a suitable school. Ibarra mentioned in the novel what he considered a modern school.
According to him the building should be spacious and hygienic, the site should be large and provided
with playground and garden. Rizal himself dreamed of founding a school in accordance with the
demands of modern times and circumstances. According to Austin Craig, Rizal ambitioned to make
education accessible to all, the teaching instinct that led him to act as mentor to the Filipino students
in Spain and made him the inspiration of a mutual improvement club of his young countrymen in
London, suggested the foundation of a school in Paris. Later a Pampangeño youth offered him
$40,000 with which to found a Filipino college in Hong Kong, where many young men from the
Philippines had obtained an education better than their own land could afford but not entirely
adapted to their needs. The scheme attracted Rizal and a prospectus for such an institution which
was later found among his papers not only proves how deeply he was interested, but reveals the fact
that his idea of education was essentially like those carried out in the present public-school course
of instruction in the Philippines. He divided the subjects in several categories: In Morals - Religion,
Natural Law, Civil Law and Hygiene. Under the Mathematics were Physics, Chemistry, Natural
History, History, Geography and Economy. Under History were Philippine History, Logic, Rhetoric’s,
and Poetics Literature. Under Foreign Language were Spanish, English, French and German. He also
included gymnastics which include fencing, swimming, music, writing, drawing, dancing. The
curriculum shall be design to discipline the mind. Involve creative powers which build up moral
character and ethical plus physical exercises and recreational activities to strengthen their bodies.
Their time to be fun and there’s time to be serious. Vocational studies were also important to Rizal,
this include a recollection, gardening, carpentry, drawing, carving, designing and others.
Rizal believed that the nation's freedom and welfare was anchored on the enlightenment of
its people. Rizal responded to Dapitan’s need for a school for he had assessed what was available as
quite limited. He was an intuitive and very resourceful educator who believed in enjoying the process
of teaching. He made use of the surrounding natural world as his laboratory. And not only for the
natural sciences but also for values clarification and the development of personal qualities like
―courage, resourcefulness and self-reliance. He established an informal school for boys in January
1894. His pupils learned through an integrated and holistic approach, developing their aptitudes in
reading Spanish, English, mathematics, and geometry, and physical abilities through exercise, manual
labor, and even formal dancing. Classes were held from Monday to Saturday for two hours every
afternoon, with Rizal teaching on a hammock while his pupils sat on bamboo benches.
Rizal’s method of teaching is different compared from other schools of his time. He saw to it
that learning should be adaptable to the needs or actual life of the people. Rizal is not just a
conventional type of teacher; his visions were not just for himself but for the benefits of his
countrymen. In a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt in March 1895, Rizal elaborated on his method: "I
have now 16 boys studying with me, paying me with their labor. They all belong to the best families
in the town and one can see their eagerness to learn even if they have to work for me in order to
study. If I would ask them for money, I am sure they would pay with pleasure and more would come.
Ah, what a lack there is of a good school with good teachers who teach so that the children may learn
and not that they may waste their time, as it happens generally. If teaching were free here, it is very
probably that many good teachers from Spain and other countries would come."
Rizal’s ideas about women can be seen in his “Message to the Young Women of Malolos.” The
quotes here are from Encarnacion Alzona’s “Selected Essays and Letters of Jose Rizal.”
He had written to the women of Bulacan who were very persistent in their request for a
school where they could learn Spanish. At the start he expressed disappointment over what he
observed as women’s almost blind obedience to the friars during the Spanish Colonial Period.
He found hope for the country in the experience of these women who persevered, who
insisted that that they have the opportunity to be educated. He perceived the move to challenge an
earlier refusal by Spanish authorities as an act of claiming freedom and equality.
Perhaps seeing the dominant influence of the friars on the lives of women, especially in their
practice of Christianity, Rizal discusses the ritualistic, enslaving, practice of religion propagated at
this time and says: You have found that piety does not consist in prolonged kneeling, long prayers,
large rosaries, soiled scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience, and upright thinking. You also
have discovered that it is not goodness to be too obedient to every desire and request of those who
pose as little gods, but to obey what is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is the origin of
crooked orders and in this case, both parties’ sin. God, fountain of wisdom, does not expect man,
created in his image to allow himself to be fooled and blinded. The gift of reason with which we are
endowed must be brightened and utilized.
But the most important aspect of his message was his discussion on the importance of the
women’s becoming properly enlightened through education. He asserts that for the advancement of
future generations it is imperative that women be educated correctly. Young womanhood, the
nursery of fruitful flowers, ought to accumulate riches to bequeath to its descendants.
 “Consider that a good mother is different from the one created by the friars. Raise your
children close to the image of the true God the God who cannot be bribed, the God who is not
avaricious, the God who is the Father of all, who is not partial, the God who does not fatten on the
blood of the poor, who does not obfuscate the intelligent mind. Awaken and prepare the mind of the
child for every good and desirable idea love for honor, sincere and firm character, clear mind, clean
conduct, noble action, love for one’s fellow men, respect for God teach this to your children. And
because life is full of sorrows and perils, fortify their character against any difficulty, strengthen their
hearts against any danger.”
“Important indeed are the duties that women must fulfil in order to relieve the country of her
sufferings, but they are not beyond the strength and character of the Filipino woman to perform.”
Rizal believes that memorizing is not learning. “To learn is to acquire knowledge or skills
while to memorize is to commit something to memory. Over the years I have seen many cases where
one attends a class or spends time studying materials to “learn” something new and pass an exam to
earn credentials. For many, what they are in fact doing is memorizing the materials to pass the exam
but they do not always have an ability to put it all in context for application.” In my view, the most
important element of learning is to understand how what is taught applies. The fact that you have
memorized throughput formulas, taxonomic structure and any other information is good but until
you are able to put it in context and know how it applies to your situation, you have not learned
anything; you have merely stored it in memory for future recall. We must master the structure of
knowledge and how to mobilize this knowledge to our purpose and motives.
Rizal said that there should be training for a teacher to be dynamic, energetic, forceful,
spirited and compelling. Then, to have enthusiasm and dedication to work. The capacity of teachers
to teach is not in doubt. The fact that a teacher is also a learner is important and must be understood
in its right perspective. “When one teaches, two learn.” This is the spirit behind learning to teach.
There are schools everywhere promising excellent working conditions and growth prospects
for teachers. The work load of the teacher on joining an institution is constantly on the rise. This does
not provide them the necessary impetus to think of personal development. They get disgruntled. The
disgruntled teacher is unable to produce the best output. In the bargain, the loser is the student. This
can produce disastrous consequences for the institution, the teacher and the student. This is where
teacher training could play a key role. Teaching methods, practices, content delivery mechanisms,
effective and creative teaching techniques, effective classroom management, right and expert
content, are the few areas teachers have to be equipped with.
But why Rizal requires education? The importance of education is quite clear. Education is
the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. One can safely say that a human being is
not in the proper sense till he is educated. The training of a human mind is not complete without
education. Education makes man a right thinker. It tells man how to think and how to make decision.
Only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external
world; to acquaint himself with past history and receive all necessary information regarding the
present. Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself
in a room with all its windows open towards outside world. Every now and then my parents keep on
telling me that my education should be in the number one slot in my list of priorities. They keep on
telling me that I should put a great deal on finishing my studies. They say (like every parent say), it is
the only thing they could leave to us when they pass away.
JOSE Rizal’s famous message for the youth is that the youth is fair hope of the nation. What
he exactly said was the youth was “Bella esperanza de la Patria mia” or “fair hope of my fatherland”
(Rizal’s Poems, Centennial Edition, Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1962, p. 15).
 He did not say that the youth was the country’s sole hope. That he said so is misquoting him.
Fair hope is very different from being the only hope. This message was in his poem A laJuventud
Filipina (To the Filipino Youth), which won the first prize in a literary contest sponsored in 1879 by
the Artistic-Literary Lyceum of Manila, a society composed of the leading writers and artists in
Manila. He was given a feather shaped silver pen and a diploma during the awarding ceremonies held
on November 29, 1879. Only 18 years old, he bested both the indios (native Filipinos) and mestizos
(Filipinos with mixed races) who joined in this contest.
Some people misunderstand Rizal because they have not read the 25-volume Escritos de Jose
Rizal (Writings of Jose Rizal), which contains nearly all of his writings and philosophical thoughts. He
will be misquoted once he is interpreted through one poem only. Critics should first read him
thoroughly before attacking him.
They claim that Rizal was wrong because the youth cannot be the nation’s hope, for they are
still dependent on their parents, do not have a voice in national affairs, and are still struggling with
their lessons in schools. He was totally wrong, they add, because the young are delinquent, addicted
to illegal drugs, join violent and criminal gangs, suffer from unwanted pregnancies and abortion, or
give in to smoking, drinking, gambling, and other vices. For them, the faults of some young people
frame the general picture of today’s youth.
When Rizal wrote A la Juventud Filipina, it was already the 314th of the 333-year Spanish
colonization of the Philippines (1565-1898) – already the decadent era of Spain’s imperial glory.
Under Spain, Filipinos did not have freedom and security for their lives and properties. They were
forced to submit themselves and the fruits of their labor to the flag of Spain, the colonial government,
and the Roman Catholic Church.
Those who fought for their rights could be stripped of their belongings, arrested, tortured,
exiled, or executed. The government taxed them heavily, and the friars taxed them more. They were
also obliged to render labor without pay in building roads, highways, bridges, government buildings,
church edifices, galleons, and other public works.
Rizal saw the miseries of his people. He himself suffered cruelty one night when a Spanish
lieutenant attacked him because he failed to give him the mandatory salute. Rizal did not see him
because it was very dark. Despite the wound that he got, he was still imprisoned. Only 17, he appealed
to the governor general, but the highest Spanish official in the land only brushed him aside.
Rizal wanted an end to the oppression of his people. He would like to get the help of senior
Filipino citizens but could not do so because most of them were subservient to the government and
the church. He saw that they would rather spend lavishly on fiestas that afterward impoverished
them, and cast their fortunes into Masses and religious items like rosaries, scapulars, and statues.
Seeing that the elder generations of his time were hopeless against tyranny and were
submissive to the colonizers, Rizal turned to his fellow youth. A la Juventud Filipina was for the youth
of his time. It asked them to excel in the arts, sciences, and professions because it was, they, not the
elders, who would one day right the wrongs, free the country from Spanish colonization, build a new
and independent Filipino nation, and mold a better future. El Filibusterismo, offset printing of the
first edition published in Ghent, Belgium, in 1891, Centennial Edition, Manila.
During those times, the youth meant people in high school, college, and those in the early
years of their professions or those from 13 to 30 years old. Thus, when Rizal talked of the youth, he
meant those born from 1860 and above. In 1890, Rizal was 29 and he still considered himself a youth.
It is still the same today. People who are 13 to 30 years old are the ones considered the youth.
 Our educators should also follow and be motivated by the exemplar deeds of Rizal. If he were
living today, he would definitely continue his undertakings in molding the minds of our youth. Just as
what he had told “The youth is the hope of nation.”