Timeline of Rizal’s Childhood and Early Education

June 19- JOSE RIZAL, the seventh child of Francisco Mercado

Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos, was born in Calamba,
1861 Laguna.
June 22- He was baptized JOSE RIZAL MERCADO at the Catholic
of Calamba by the parish priest Rev. Rufino Collantes with Rev.
Pedro Casañas as the sponsor.

September 28- The parochial church of Calamba and the canonical

1862
books, including the book in which Rizal’s baptismal records were
entered, were burned.

1864 Barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet from his mother.

When he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child
1865 in the Rizal family, died at the age of three. It was on this occasion
that Rizal remembered having shed real tears for the first time.

During this time his mother taught him how to read and write. His
father hired a classmate by the name of Leon Monroy who, for five
months until his (Monroy) death, taught Rizal the rudiments of
Latin.
At about this time two of his mother’s cousin frequented Calamba.
1865 -1867 Uncle Manuel Alberto, seeing Rizal frail in body, concerned himself
with the physical development of his young nephew and taught the
latter love for the open air and developed in him a great admiration
for the beauty of nature, while Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, instilled
into the mind of the boy love for education. He advised Rizal: "Work
hard and perform every task very carefully; learn to be swift as well
as thorough; be independent in thinking and make visual pictures of
everything."

June 6- With his father, Rizal made a pilgrimage to Antipolo to fulfill

the vow made by his mother to take the child to the Shrine of the
1868 Virgin of Antipolo should she and her child survive the ordeal of
delivery which nearly caused his mother’s life.
From there they proceeded to Manila and visited his sister
Saturnina who was at the time studying in the La Concordia
College in Sta. Ana.
 At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem entitled "Sa Aking
Mga Kabata." The poem was written in tagalog and had for its
theme "Love of One’s Language."

1869 Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was 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. Knowledge was forced
into the minds of the pupils by means of the tedious memory
method aided by the teacher's whip.

His brother Paciano brought Rizal to Biñan, Laguna. He was placed

under the tutelage of Justiniano Aquino Cruz, studying Latin and
1870 Spanish. In this town he also learned the art of painting under the
tutorship of an old painter by the name of Juancho Carrera.
December 17- Having finished his studies in Biñan, Rizal returned
to Calamba on board the motorboat Talim. His parents planned to
transfer him to Manila where he could continue his studies.

His mother was imprisoned in Sta. Cruz, Laguna for allegedly

1871 poisoning the wife of her cousin Jose Alberto, a rich property owner
of Biñan and brother of Manuel and Gregorio.

For the first time, Rizal heard of the word filibustero which his father
forbid the members of his family to utter, including such names as
1872 Cavite and Burgos. (It must be remembered that because of the
Cavite Mutiny on January 20, 1872, Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose
Burgos and Jacinto Zamora were garroted at Bagumbayan Field on
February 17, 1872.)

Reference:
Jose Rizal application by Afterimage Designs