Early Education in Calamba and Biñan

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It a typical schooling that a
son of an ilustrado family received 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. Was 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."1 As a tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious,
and understanding. It was she who first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry.
Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of
memorizing the ABCs and to stimulate her son's imagination, she related many stories.
As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home.
The first was Maestro Celestino the second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man
named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal's father, became the boy's tutor. This
old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin.
Unfortunately, he did not live long. He died five months later. After Monroy's death, the
hero's parents decided to send their gifted son to a private school in Biñan.

Jose Goes to Biñan. One Sunday afternoon in June, 1869, Jose, after kissing the
hands of his parents and a tearful parting from his sisters, left Calamba for Biñan. 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. 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 Biñan."2 First Day in Biñan 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?"

The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher's son, laughed at Jose's
answers.
The teacher sharply stopped all noise and began the lessons of the day. Jose
described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-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 of him, but I remember only this. "3
First School Brawl. In the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was
having his siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of
him during his 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 to the glee of their
classmates. Jose, having learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel,
defeated the bigger boy. For this feat, he became popular among his classmates. After
the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged him to an
arm-wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms.
Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on the sidewalk. In
succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by
nature, but he never ran away from a fight. Painting Lessons in Biñan. Near the school
was the house of an old painter, called Juancho, who was the father-in-law of the school
teacher. Jose, lured by his love for painting, spent many leisure hours at the painter's
studio. Old Juancho freely gave him lessons in drawing and painting. He was impressed
by the artistic talent of the Calamba lad. Jose and his classmate, Jose Guevarra, who
also loved painting, became apprentices of the old painter. They improved their art, so
that in due time they became "the favorite painters of the class". Daily Life in Biñan.
Jose led a methodical life in Biñan, 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 Biñan, he recorded in his memoirs:4

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. 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 Biñan 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 Biñan Schooling. Before the
Christmas season in 1870, Jose received a letter from his sister Saturnina, informing
him of the arrival of the steamer Talim which would take him from Biñan to Calamba.
Upon reading the letter, he had a premonition that he would not return to Biñan, so that
he became sad. He prayed in the town church, collected pebbles in the river for
souvenirs, and regretfully bade farewell to his teacher and classmates. He left Biñan 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- ments 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 "revolt" for Philippine independence.

Accordingly, Gom-Bur-Za (Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora), despite the

archbishop's plea for clemency because of their innocence, were executed at sunrise,
February 17, 1872, by order of Governor General Izquierdo. Their martyrdom was
deeply mourned by the Rizal family and many other patriotic families in the Philippines.
Paciano, enraged by the execution of Burgos, his beloved friend, teacher, and
housemate, quit his studies at the College of San Jose and returned to Calamba, where
he told the heroic story of Burgos to his younger brother Jose, who was then nearly
eleven years old. The martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za in 1872 truly inspired Rizal to fight the
evils of Spanish tyranny and redeem his oppressed. 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.
Doña 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 Biñan
ilustrado, had just returned from a business trip in Europe. During his absence his wife
abandoned their home and children. When he arrived in Biñan, he found her living with
another man. Infuriated by her infidelity, he planned to divorce her. Doña 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, filed a case in court accusing
her husband and Doña Teodora of attempting to poison her. This lieutenant happened
to have an ax to grind against the Rizal family, because at one time Don Francisco
(Rizal's father) refused to give him fodder for his horse. Taking the opportunity to
avenge himself, he arrested Doña Teodora, with the help of Calamba's gobernadorcillo,
Antonio Vivencio del Rosario, a menial of the friars. These two ungrateful men had been
frequent guests at the Rizal home. After arresting Doña Teodora, the sadistic Spanish
lieuten- ant forced her to walk from Calamba to Santa Cruz (capital of Laguna
Province), a distance of 50 kilometers. Upon arrival in Santa Cruz, she was incarcerated
at the provincial prison, where she languished for two years and a half until the Manila
Royal Audiencia (Supreme Court) acquitted her of the alleged crime.

Recounting this incidence of his mother's imprisonment, Rizal said in his student
memoirs: "Our mother was unjustly snatched away from us and by whom? By some
men who had been our friends and whom we treated as honored guests. We learned
later that our mother got sick, far from us and at an advanced age. My mother was
defended by Messrs. Francisco de Marcaida and Manuel Marzan, the most famous
lawyers of Manila. She finally succeeded to be acquitted and vindicated in the eyes of
her judges, accusers, and even her enemies, but after how long? After two and a half
years.