RIZAL’S FORMAL EDUCATION

SS038 The Life and Works of Jose Rizal

Learning Objectives
1. Outline Rizal’s early education.

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Overview
Rizal throughout his lifetime always
indicated that proper education
should always be prioritized to succeed
as an individual and as a nation. In this
lesson we will investigate Jose Rizal’s
formal education.

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Hometown Education
• Doña Teodora became Rizal’s First Teacher.
• The typical schooling given to a student from a
family of Illustrados was reading, writing,
arithmetic, and religion.
• He was employed with private tutors as his
parents grew older: Maesto Celestino, Lucas
Paduca, and Leon Monroy.
• At the age of 9, he was sent to study in Biñan for
one and a half years under Maestro Justiniano
Aquino Cruz.
• He acquired formal lessons in Latin and Spanish
and learned drawing and painting skills under a
local painter named Old Juancho.
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Education at Ateneo
Rizal went to Ateneo Municipal from
1872-1877 where he obtained a Bachelor
of Arts degree, equivalent to a high
school diploma, with highest honors. It
entitled him to enter any university.

It was during his Ateneo days where he

used the surname “Rizal” instead of
Mercado to avoid the wrath and suspicion
of Spanish authorities.

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Education at Ateneo
Rizal’s Jesuit Professors

• Fr. Jose Bech - Rizal’s first Professor whom he

described as “a tall man, thin, with a body slightly bent
forward, with hurried walk, an ascetic, severe and
inspired face, small, deep-sunken eyes, a sharp
Grecian nose, with thin lips forming an arc whose ends
turned toward his chin”

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Education at Ateneo
Rizal’s Jesuit Professors

• Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez - One of Rizal’s best

professors, “ a model of uprightness, earnestness, and
devotion to the progress of his pupils; and such was
his zeal that I, who scarcely spoke middling Spanish,
was able after a short time to write it fairly well.”
• With his aid Rizal studied mathematics, rhetoric, and
Greek to some advantage.
• He was fondly called a “dark spirit,” and the students
nicknamed him Paniki.

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Education at Ateneo
Jesuits’ Method of Education

• It trained the characters of the students by rigid discipline

and religious instruction.
• It also promoted physical culture, humanities and scientific
studies
• Aside academic courses leading to Bachiller in Artes, it also
offered vocational courses such as agriculture, surveying,
commerce and mechanics.
• Students wore the uniform called “hemp-fabric trousers”
and striped cotton coat, which was called Rayadillo.
• Students were divided into two groups: the Roman Empire
composed of the internos (boarding students) and the
Carthaginian Empire that comprised the externos
(nonboarding students).

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Education at Ateneo
Reading Interests as a Teenager

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas – Rizal’s

first favorite novel, which left a deep impression on his
young mind.

• Universal History by Cesar Cantu – Rizal persuaded his

father to purchase this costly set of historical work that was
a great aid in his studies and for winning prizes in Ateneo.

• Travels in the Philippines – written by Dr. Feogor Jagor a

German scientist traveler who visited the Philippines in
1859-1860. It presented his keen observation about the
defects of the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines and
his prophesy about the end of Spanish domination and the
coming of the Americans.
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Education at Ateneo
His formal education in the Ateneo also refined his
artistic sensibility which resulted to his development
in writing and sculpture.

Mi Primera Inspiracion (My first inspiration) –

first poem written by Rizal in 1874 while in Ateneo. It
was dedicated by Rizal to Doña Teodora on his
birthday. The poem was full of ecstasy and joy after
the release of her mother from prison.

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Education at Ateneo
Literary Works

• Por La Educacion Recibe Lustre la Patria (Through education

the country receives light) – Expressed the potential benefits
derived from educating the masses. It emphasized that “Learning
infuses truth and discipline brings peace, glory and tranquility to the
nation”
• Alianza Intima Entre La Religion y la Buena Educacion
(Intimate Alliance between Religion and Good Education)- in this
poem, Rizal explained the concept that faith and belief in truth and
love of God are discovered in dedicated study and cultivation of the
mind.

The academic excellence of Rizal and his literary prowess qualified

him for membership in two exclusive societies in Ateneo: Academy of
Spanish Literature and Academy of Natural Sciences

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Education at Ateneo
Literary Works

Religious Poems:
1. Al Niño Jesus (To The Child Jesus)
2. La Virgen Maria (To the Virgin Mary)

Rizal as a Painter and a Sculptor

• Studied painting under Augusto Saez, a famous Spanish painter
and under Romualdo de Jesus, a noted Filipino sculptor.

• Carved the Image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of Batikuling, a

hardwood, using a pocketknife.

• Made the image of the Sacred Heart as a gift to his Jesuit

Professor Fr. Leonart. (During his final hours in Fort Santiago in
1896, it was presented to him by his Jesuit mentor Fr. Villaclara)

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Education at University of Santo Tomas
After graduating at the Ateneo, Rizal
enrolled in courses in Philosophy and
letters at the University of Santo Tomas
and took up vocational courses in
agriculture and surveying at the Ateneo.

Doña Teodora, afraid of what had

happened to the Gomburza priest,
opposed his son’s decision to pursue
higher studies in Manila, because “if he
gets to know more, the Spaniards would
cut his head.”

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Education at University of Santo Tomas
At 17, he finished his surveying course but
the degree of Perito Agrimensor (expert
surveyor) and the license to practice was
only conferred to him when he was 21.

He finally decided to take up medicine,

with the advised of Fr. Pablo Ramon, after
a year of taking Philosophy and Letters
because he wanted to treat the failing
eyesight of her mother.

The prevailing racial discrimination was

among his greatest resentments during his
student days in UST.

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Education at University of Santo Tomas
Rizal's two prize winning works during his UST days proved
that an Indio could write well as a Spaniard, or even better:

A La Juventud Filipina (To the Filipino Youth)

• Written in 1879 as Rizal’s entry to a literary contest sponsored
by the Liceo Artistico Literario de Manila
• The poem evoked ideas of freedom and independence for one
nation and one people.
• His prize was a silver quilt (pen), feathered shaped
• and decorated with a gold ribbon.

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Education at University of Santo Tomas
Rizal's two prize winning works during his UST days proved
that an Indio could write well as a Spaniard, or even better:

El Consejo De los Dioses ( The Council of the Gods)

• An allegory written by Rizal in 1880 in commemoration of the
400th death anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes, Spain’s
greatest poet and writer of Don Quixote.
• It was open for students and professionals alike, and for
Spaniards and Indios.
• It was based on Greek Classics which presented a discussion
who among the Olympian gods and goddess as to who the
greatest was- Homer, Virgil or Cervantes.
• Rizal won again the first prize. His prize was a gold ring on
which engraved the bust of Cervantes. But because he was an
Indio, the Spanish community in Manila was against the
decision of the board of judges.

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Departure to Europe
• After finishing his 4 year in medicine in UST,
Rizal decided to continue his studies in Spain
because of its liberal education. He could no
longer withstand the oppressive racial
discrimination against the Filipino students and
antiquated method of instruction of the
Dominicans professors.

• In the Chapter 8 of his El Filibusterismo entitled

“The Class in Physics”, Rizal illustrated the
obsolete teaching of subjects in natural sciences,
where microscopes were just displayed for the
visitors to see, but not for the students to touch.

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Departure to Europe
• Rizal did not ask permission of his parent, who
would disapprove his plans to study abroad.
Even his sweetheart Leonora never knew of his
plans.

• It was his brother Paciano, and elder sisters

Saturnina and Lucia, Uncle Antonio Rivera, the
Valenzuela family, and some friends who knew
his departure.

• He used the name Jose Mercado to silently slip

out of the country.

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Departure to Europe
• Rizal’s motivation to go to Spain was not just to
continue his studies medicine, but to keenly
observe the life and culture, language and
customs, industries and commerce, government
and laws of the European nations in preparation
to liberate his oppressed countrymen from the
yoke off Spanish colonial rule.

• Before his secret departure he sent a telegram to

his parents in Calamba and another to his
sweetheart Leonora Rivera, all delivered shortly
after he sailed away.

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