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Chapter 3 School Life in Ateneo and The University of Sto Tomas
Chapter 3 School Life in Ateneo and The University of Sto Tomas
SCHOOL LIFE AT
ATENEO AND THE
UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS
RIZ411 – LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL
SCHOOL LIFE AT ATENEO AND THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS
Jose, accompanied by his brother; Paciano the eleven-year old boy from
Calamba went to Manila on June 10, 1872 to take the entrance examinations
and enrolled in the Ateneo Municipal, a college under the supervision of
Spanish Jesuits. This college was a rival of the Dominican-owned College of San
Juan de Letran, formerly the Escuela Pia (Charity School), an educational
institution established by the City government in 1917 for poor boys in Manila.
When the Jesuits returned to the Philippines in 1768 after almost a century of
exile, the management of the Escuela Pia whose name was changed to Ateneo
Municipal, and later on became the Ateneo de Manila.
SCHOOL LIFE AT ATENEO AND THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS
It should be noted that, at the outset, Jose took the entrance examinations on
Christian doctrine, arithmetic, and reading at the College of San Juan de Letran and
passed them all. He returned contentedly to Calamba after having undergone for the
first time the trial of examinations and stayed a few days with his family. At first, Don
Francisco, wished him to study at Letran, but later, changed his mind and decided to
send Jose to the Ateneo de Manila.
The Jesuits opened the Ateneo tov everyone without any racial or financial
discrimination. However, screening of applicants was strictly observed. Rizal reminisced
in his Memories de un estudiante de Manila that he was almost denied admission
because of poor health and short stature. At the time Jose studied in the Ateneo, this
educational institution was located in Intramuros, within the walls of old Manila.
RIZAL’S FIRST DAY IN ATENEO
When the school year 1871 – 1872, opened in June, Rizal like any other neophytes in a new
school environment was fill of excitement and joy. He was dressed like the others with coat
and tie. He went to the school chapel to hear Mass and preyed fervently to God for guidance.
When the Mass finished, he went to his class, where he saw a great number of boys,
Spaniards, mestizo, and Filipinos, and a Jesuits who was the professor.
His first professor in the Ateneo was Father Jose Bech. Rizal related how he became
“emperor” at the Ateneo. In Jesuit colleges, two empires were established to stimulate the
students, a Roman “emperor” and a Carthaginian or Greek “empire” constantly at war for
supremacy in the class, whose leading posts are won by means of challenges which are
successful if the opponent committed three mistakes. Rizal was placed at the tail-end of the
line because he was a newcomer and knew little Spanish, although he could already make
some sense of it.
RIZAL’S FIRST DAY IN ATENEO
After a week, he improved his class standing. After a month, he was already
“emperor” because he was the brightest in the class. Because of his excellent
performance, he was awarded a saint’s picture as his prize.
To improve his Spanish at that time, he spent the noon recesses in Sta. Isabel
College where he spent three pesos for Spanish lessons.
“MY FIRST INSPIRATION”
Why do the scented bowers And why does the crystal spring
In fragnant fray Run among the flowers
Rival each other’s flowers While lullaby zephyrs sing
This festive day? Like its crystal showers?
Why is sweet melody bruited
I see the dawn in the East
In the sylvan dale,
Harmony sweet and fluted With beauty endowed.
Like the nightingale? Why goes she to a feast
In a carmine cloud?
Why do the birds sing so
In the tender grass, Sweet mother, they celebrate
Flitting from bough to bough Your natal day
With the winds that pass? The rose with her scent innate,
The bird with his lay.
MY FIRST INSPIRATION
Rizal wrote this poem when he was only fifteen years old. At an early age, he was already aware of the
value of education and its significant role in the intellectual, physical and moral development of an
individual in particular and the progress and welfare of a nation in general.
He believed that the ultimate goal of education is the effective participation of the individual in the total
process of social interaction in its society. This interpersonal relation maybe the improvement of basic
knowledge, intellectual and manual skills, power of reasons and criticism, acquisition of desirable values
and attitudes, power of creativity and innovation, cultural appreciation, sense of responsibility and
understanding of the modern world.
For her a mortal man will gladly part And as the spring doth sustenance bestow
With all he has, will give his calm repose, On all the plants, on bushes in the mead,
For her are bom all sciences and all arts,
Its placid plenty goes to overflow
That brews of men with laurel fair enclose
And endlessly with lavish love to feed
As from the towering mountain's lofty heart.
The purest current of the stremlet flows, The banks by which it wanders, gliding slow,
So education without stint or measure gives Supplying beauteous nature's every need.
Security and peace to lands in which she lives So he who prudent Education doth procure
The towering heights of honor will secure.
THROUGH EDUCATION OUR MOTHERLAND RECEIVES
LIGHT
One of his professors that inspired him to study with seal and enthusiasm and write poetry was
Father Francisco Sanchez which he described,”a great educator and scholar.”Young Jose was deeply
impressed with fine qualities of this professor who possessed an acuteness of mental discernment
and soundness of mind. Rizal had the deepest affection and esteem for this professor whom he
considered a consummate teacher.
“To the Filipino Youth” was written by Rizal when he was eighteen years old at the University of
Santo Tomas in connection with literary contest sponsored by Liceo Artistico-Literario, a
society of men interested in literature and arts. This literary contest was participated in by Filipinos
and Spanish-mestizos. The board of judges were composed of Spaniards who were impressed by
Rizal’s poem and awarded the first prize.
The prize-winning poem, A La Juventud Filipina (To the Filipino Youth) is an poem and
explixit expression of love of country. Rizal appealed to the youth to rise from apathy and
enjoined them to create beautiful verses with art and science “to break the chain that has long
bound the poetic genius of the country.”
The classic poem gives a nationalistic and eloquent manifestation that the Philippines is the
“fatherland of the Filipinos” and not the Spaniards who were born in our country.
Sculpture is the art of curving; molding; welding or producing works of art in three
dimensions. Young Rizal impressed his professors and classmates when he curved the
image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of Philippine hardwood—batikuling with a
pocket-knife. The professors were amazed at the proportion, the beauty and the finish
of the image. Because of his sculptural talent, Father Leonard requested Rizal to curve
for him the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The old Jesuit priest was very much
pleased and expressed his profound appreciation to the young sculptor. His intention
was to take with him the image when he went back to Spain, but unfortunately he
forgot. This image was placed on th door of the dormitory of the Ateneo and remained
there for almost twenty years.
EDUCATION UNDER THE JESUITS
The system of education under the Jesuits in the Ateneo was probably more advanced from that
of other colleges in that period. The students t trained by rigid discipline and character development.
were Religious instruction was given emphasis to acquire the manners and morals of Christian
gentlemen. The students heard Mass in the morning before classes begun and classes in all subjects
were opened and closed with prayers. Prizes were given for outstanding and impeccable
department. Penalties were meted out for disorderly conduct.
The government subsidized the school from the municipal treasury. Students who belonged to
the wealthy group paid a monthly fee of P2.00; and those who are classified poor, paid nothing.
The curriculum includes Christian doctrine, Spanish, Latin, Greek and French; world geography
and history, the history of Spain and the Philippines; arithmetic, algebra and geometry, mineralogy,
chemistry, physics, botany and zoology, poetry and rhetoric and philosophy. Jose consistently
received the grade of excellent.
RIZAL STARTED MEDICAL STUDIES AT STO.
TOMAS
At the outset, Doña Teodora believed that her son had enough education after graduating
with highest honors from Ateneo and so she opposed Jose's going back to Manila for further
studies. However, Don Francisco thought otherwise., so his son enrolled in the University of Sto.
Tomas, taking the first course of philosophy in June 1877. Simultaneously he studied at the
Ateneo those subjects that would entitles him to a diploma in surveying. Doña Teodora did not
approve his son To acquire more knowledge because she had apprehension hat this might
endanger Jose's life, like the fate of Filipino intellectuals, e.g. Father Burgos, Dr. Antonio Regidor
and other Filipino exiles and executed by the Spanish authorities. But inspite of her objection,
Don Francisco and Paciano were able to persuade Doña Teodora about Jose's further studies.
RIZAL’S FIRST DAY AT THE PONTIFICAL
UNIVERSITY
Rizal who was sixteen years old enroll in the university taking Philosophy and Letters. The
following school year, 1878-1879 he begun his medical studies. He studied medicine because
he wanted to be a physician so that he could look after her mother's failing eyesight. Besides,
Father Pablo Ramon, Rector of Ateneo, whom he consulted for advice on the choice of career,
recommended medical course.
Even if he was now at Sto. Tomas, he still frequented the Ateneo because there, he was the
president of the Literary Academy, secretary of the Natural Sciences, secretary of the Marian
Congregation, and Celador of the Apostolado dela Oracion.
RIZAL’S DAYS AT STO. TOMAS
The academic climate at the University of Sto. Tomas was quite different from the Ateneo.
Rizal's impression was not like that of Ateneo because most Dominican professors seemed
hostile to him. The methods of instruction were traditional and in some cases repressive.
In his novel, El Filibusterismo, Rizal described how Dominican professors insulted Filipino
students and mockingly called them "Indio." Because of unfriendly attitude of his professors,
this most brilliant graduate of Ateneo, virtually failed to maintain high scholastic honors. While
some of his scholastic grades in medical education were not excellent, however, they were all
passing.
After five years in the University of Sto. Tomas, the oldest university in the Philippines and
even older than Harvard University, Rizal decided to quit and continued his medical education
abroad.
RIZAL’S FIRST LOVE
Rizal like other teen-agers also experienced the "pleasure and pains of first love." The girl who captured his
heart was the fourteen-year-old Segundiwa
Katigbak, who was a boarder at La Concordia College, where his elder sisters were studying. Unfortunately,
she was a engaged to another young man, thus ending, at an early stage of his life, his first love.
Rizal's next feeling of passionate personal affection happened in 1880, while boarding in the home of his
uncle, Antonio Rivera. He fell in love with his beautiful daughter Leonor
Rafael Palma's pen-portrait of this lovely young lass says: "Leonor was a beauty: light skin almost white;
wavy hair, almost blond; small and gracious mouth; large, dark eyes shaded by long eyelashes; nose of correct
profile, neither too sharp nor too flat; a smile tinged with two glad dimples in the cheeks; agreeable
conversation; sweet voice and harmonious laughter.
Between the young lovers, Jose and Leonor grew a feeling of warm personal attachment and a tenderly beautiful
romance. They became sweethearts for eleven years.
THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS
His prize-winning poem, A La Juventud Filipina (To the Filipino Youth) whom Rizal
emplored urgently the Filipino youth to "rise from lethargy, to let his genius fly swifter
than the wind and descend with art and science to break the chain that has long bound
the poetic genius of the country," inspired him to submit an allegory in prose entitled
El Consejo delos Dioses (The Council of Gods) in another literary contest sponsored by
the Liceo Artistico-Literario (Artistic-Literary Lyceum). This was in connection with the
fourth centennial commemoration of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, a noted
Spanish novelist and famous author of Don Quixote (a person who is inspired by lofty
and chivalrous but impractical ideals).
THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS
The contest was opened to both Filipinos that is why many participated - priests,
newspapermen, scholars, and professors of the University of Sto. Tomas. The board of judges of the
contest were all Spaniards. After a long, deliberate and critical evaluation of the entries based on the
criteria, the first prize was awarded to Rizal. The prize was a gold ring on which the bust of Cervantes
was engraved. Inspite of the objections of the Spaniards, because the winning author was an Indio,
the Board of Judges was firm in their decision and declared: "The idea and plot of the work are of
great originality to which should be added the circumstances that throughout the same strive to the
utmost a correct style, an admirable richness of details, delicacy of thought, and figures, and lastly, a
taste so Hellenic that the reader imagines himself relishing some delicious passage of Homer which
with such frequency the Olympic sessions describe to us in their works." It may be interesting to
know, that probably, that was the first time in history, that an Indio- - a young Filipino medical
student excelled in a national literary contest and participated in by the best writers at that time and
defeated the best Spanish writers. Rizal was indeed happy, because he proved, that, Filipinos given
the fair chance and opportunity to demonstrate their talents can be equal to all races of the world.
THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS
THANKYOUJ!!!
Quiz Time:
7. Father Francisco Sanchez inspired Rizal to study with sealer enthusiasm write poetry.
True False
8. Is Leonor Rivera was Rizal’s first love?
True False
9. Is Segunda Katigbak the one Rizal loved the most?
True False
10. Who were Rizal’s board of judge when he participated in University of Sto. Tomas?
a. Filipino b. Indio c. Spaniards