Rizal for educators and women

Rizal had a very full and rich life; so there is very much here to learn and be inspired with from its many dimensions.

Indio Bravo by Asuncion Lopez-Rizal Bantug and Sylvia Mendez Ventura with drawings by Bencab and edited by Nick Joaquin is part of Tahanan Books for Young Readers. Coming from Rizal’s descendant the book is both warm and very informative.

But besides being good reading for young people, it contains a wonderful description of Rizal as a teacher. About education, here is what it reveals.

Rizal responded to Dapitan’s need for a school for he had assessed what was available as quite limited. He was an intuitive and very resourceful educator who believed in enjoying the process of teaching. He made use of the surrounding natural world as his laboratory. And not only for the natural sciences but also for values clarification and the development of personal qualities like “courage, resourcefulness and self-reliance.”

He provided a well-rounded education which included: “reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, Spanish and English.”  The boys (preteen and teenage) had sessions in wrestling, boxin, and weightlifting.

Rizal believed it would be helpful for them to have vocational skills. The older boys were into planting and caring for vegetables and fruit trees; others were into carpentry making “lamps, ashtrays, chairs, wooden shoes.” With their teacher they created a waterfall and a swimming pool (which also served as a dam).

The youngsters “obtained firsthand knowledge of botany, zoology, entomology, conchology and ichthyology in a fascinating way” through their hunting expeditions.

Early Rizal showed that the entire community is a classroom.  He encouraged farmers in Dapitan to cultivate abaca and taught the Dapiteños abaca-weaving. He was an ideal educator!

They had a master teacher who had his own “collection of zoological specimens, and herbarium.” He was in communication with scientists in other parts of the world not only for science but also for history, literature and languages.

Rizal’s ideas about women can be seen in his “Message to the Young Women of Malolos.” The quotes here are from Encarnacion Alzona’s “Selected Essays and Letters of Jose Rizal.”

He had written to the women of Bulacan who were very persistent in their request for a school where they could learn Spanish. At the start he expressed disappointment over what he observed as women’s almost blind obedience to the friars during the Spanish Colonial Period.

He found hope for the country in the experience of these women who persevered, who insisted that that they have the opportunity to be educated.  He perceived the move to challenge an earlier refusal by Spanish authorities as an act of claiming freedom and equality.

Perhaps seeing the dominant influence of the friars on the lives of women, especially in their practice of Christianity, Rizal discusses the ritualistic, enslaving, practice of religion propagated at this time and says: “You have found that piety does not consist in prolonged kneeling, long prayers, large rosaries, soiled scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience, and upright thinking. You also have discovered that it is not goodness to be too obedient to every desire and request of those who pose as little gods, but to obey what is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is the origin of crooked orders and in this case, both parties sin. God, fountain of wisdom, does not expect man, created in his image to allow himself to be fooled and blinded. The gift of reason with which we are endowed must be brightened and utilized.”

But the most important aspect of his message was his discussion on the importance of the women’s becoming properly enlightened through education. He asserts that for the advancement of future generations it is imperative that women be educated correctly.

“Young womanhood, the nursery of fruitful flowers, ought to accumulate riches to bequeath to its descendents.”

“Consider that a good mother is different from the one created by the friars. Raise your children close to the image of the true God—the God who cannot be bribed, the God who is not avaricious, the God who is the Father of all, who is not partial, the God who does not fatten on the blood of the poor, who does not obfuscate the intelligent mind. Awaken and prepare the mind of the child for every good and desirable idea—love for honor, sincere and firm character, clear mind, clean conduct, noble action, love for one’s fellow men, respect for God—teach this to your children. And because life is full of sorrows and perils, fortify their character against any difficulty, strengthen their hearts against any danger.”

“Important indeed are the duties that women must fulfill in order to relieve the country of her sufferings, but they are not beyond the strength and character of the Filipino woman to perform.”

Mothers, women, educators let us celebrate the anniversary of Rizal’s birth by responding positively to the challenges he gave through his words, actions, his life.