The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
It is the results of the pre-American education that allows the
following to be said: "The party which follows the intellectual
leadership of Leon Guerrero (director of El Renacimiento) is quietly
resisting what they call the 'Anglo-Saxonization' of their people
through the schools. These men are really Spanish at heart (the older,
mostly so in blood), and they have a Spanish-Latin feeling of hostility
to the very name of 'Anglo-Saxon.' They prefer Latin education and
educational methods, and Latin molds of civilization. Where they
go astray is in their assumption, entirely gratuitous, that they
really represent the Filipino people and Filipino ways of thought,
desires and aspirations which are to be 'squelched' by this new
campaign of instruction in English. Now, superficially, there are
little evidences to corroborate this view, as would be inevitable,
as the results of three centuries of tutelage according to Spanish
models. But the man who looks beneath the surface sees at once that
the Filipinos are not 'Latins' and were not 'Latinized,' and that
these intellectual Latins, floating at the top of Filipino society
are as mistaken as can be in assuming that they are representative
of their people. The truth is, the Filipinos, in the mass, are, as
regards the purposes of any real education, virgin material to work
upon. Not only has their national and social life not been cast over
in Latin molds, but Spanish influence was just sufficient, added to
their undeveloped state at the time of the conquest, so that there
are no 'Filipino molds' of civilization. They are really just ready
to be worked upon, and whatever fundamental elements of 'Filipino
nationality' there are latent, whatever inherent or acquired social
traits properly constituting a 'Filipino soul,' will come to the
front with this new opportunity." [118]
It is impossible to give a comprehensive résumé of American efforts
toward the education of the Filipinos. The captious critic will
emphasize the mistakes which have been made and which will be made
in the future, and it is yet perhaps too early to make a pronounced
statement as to the results; but this much may be said, and in no
spirit of American self-congratulation, namely, that the Filipino
is at present enjoying the greatest opportunity that has ever been
offered to him to acquire an education. The chief problem of the
Philippines has well been said to be that of education. [119] Chief
among future developments must be industrial education, which will
not only train rightly the great dexterity of the Filipino, but also
teach him the dignity of work with the hands, whatever his rank or
station, and thus help to fit him for, and hasten the time when he
shall enjoy greater self-government than he enjoys at present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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