IMPACT OF EDUCATION ON RIZAL'S NATIONALISTIC IDEALS

Rizal saw education not just as learning facts or practical skills, but also as an enlightenment of
human strength and spirit, a realization of our potential

It merits emphasis that Rizal had a special place in his heart for the Philippine youth. Indeed,
when he wrote Education Gives Luster to Motherland, Rizal was 15. But what education was he
talking about? Certainly, Rizal spoke of education in terms of the sciences and arts; but
education was not just a matter of becoming “smart” or of gaining a livelihood. Even at a young
age, as a youth himself, Rizal saw that an education was key to creating a class of Filipinos that
could lead the country to freedom and self-determination.

Education was thus key to knowing oneself. Shakespeare’s famous adage from Hamlet, “To
thyself be true,” rings true. Rizal was part of a larger anti-colonial movement that was
beginning to sweep across Asia at the turn of the 20th century as colonized peoples discovered
their own selves and histories from the ashes and sediment of imperialism. This was not a re-
discovery of a pre-Hispanic past. Rizal felt that there was much that could be learned from the
Spanish, and Western education more generally, but also that it must be adopted and adapted
by Filipinos. Around the same time, Chinese and Japanese intellectuals were coining phrases
such as borrowing “Western tricks to save China from the Westerners,” reflecting the idea of
taking Western learning and applying it to Asian struggles. Rizal was part of such a re-
interpretation that was occurring in the Philippines about what it meant to be Filipino in the
modern world.

Applying Rizal’s writings on education in a modern context in which migration is a reality for
many, education should include a continued and intensified preservation of heritage through
an emphasis on education and openness to critical enquiry. Not only will our youth then be
aware of their cultural identity, which is important in fitting into larger Canadian society, but
they will also be raised as global citizens capable of critical though. Furthermore, beyond
knowledge of one’s heritage, this education should include the means to produce and practice
one’s heritage. I think this was one of Rizal’s major projects in his writing, to emphasize that
education and self-awareness was key to the Philippines’ future self-determination and
freedom. And this is what it means to live in a multicultural society like Canada: not just to be
encouraged with empty words, but aided in this process of heritage preservation – in this case
through meaningful education.