The Legacy of Ignorantism Part 1

The Legacy of Ignorantism.

by T.H. Pardo de Tavera.

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered--Luke 11:52.

I have the honor to appear before you accepting with great pleasure an invitation which the a.s.sistant Director, Mr. Osias, kindly extended to me. Having left the choice of the subject to my discretion, I deemed it worth while to speak on the Lay Education which has been in operation in our public schools since the implantation of the new regime which rules the destiny of the Filipino people. I am going to confine myself to facts, and shall speak as frankly and as faithfully as the case requires, altho in so doing I may hurt the feelings of some.

Satisfying Movement

For some time in our society there has been a growing concern against immorality, against vice, against idleness; in short against those which can rightly be called social ills. Such a tendency is certainly good and satisfying; a sign of a notable social progress altho for the majority it is a cause of alarm and regret because of the seeming increase of such ills. Is there a positive increase of immorality? Is there real cause for alarm because of a moral retrogression of our society?

After having asked myself these questions and after having considered the bases for the public clamor and for the excited opinion before the sight of growing vice and immorality, I can say that this tendency of public opinion is satisfying--a sign of betterment, of progress of general morals. In other words, it is not immorality which is growing. Rather, it is the moral consciousness which is gaining ground in individual consciences, thus forming a public opinion which formerly did not exist, completely awake to existing social evils and which are combatted. Not that social morals has been decadent. On the contrary, a moral consciousness has been rapidly formed in our society, a consciousness which formerly was found only among an inconsiderable minority, and which resulted in the new movement against vice and immorality.

Public Opinion in Favor of Hygiene

To better understand this phenomenon and to explain it as it really is and not as it apparently exists, it is worth while to compare it with the appearance of a new sentiment which was formed since the implantation of the American regime: the hygienic consciousness. Formerly, hardly anybody spoke of the unsanitary conditions of Manila, and only a few in our society had a true idea of its deplorable state. Now that our individual education has enabled us to understand what hygiene is and its importance has been demonstrated, we have not only improved our sanitary condition but a collective sentiment equal to the sum total of the individual sentiments has been formed, and a public opinion in favor of hygiene has been established. Since this opinion grows more rapidly than sanitation itself in Manila, we see that every once in a while the Bureau of Health is censured to the point of attributing to its fault the increase of anti-hygienic conditions, when in reality what increases is the clamor for hygiene by virtue of the increase of the individuals who understand hygiene and demand strict application of its laws and principles.

Now public opinion denounces hygienic shortcomings which are incomparably less harmful than formerly, but which we view not in a relative but absolute manner. An unsanitary condition is denounced absolutely as an intolerable evil; relatively speaking our censure would be less severe if we bore in mind that a similar ill is not close at hand; we suffered in silence when we were ignorant not of its existence but of its effects upon health, so then for us it existed in a latent state and we did not see, feel, or notice it because of lack of preparation. It is identical to what happens when at the foot of a post charged with electric current is placed the sign: "Danger to life." Such a sign is practically useless and is no means of safety to the individual who does not know how to read. The one who can read knows the danger; he who does not read does not avail himself of the hygienic value of the danger signal.

Anti-c.o.c.kpit Campaign

Against the c.o.c.kpit there is now a widespread campaign. This did not grow out of increased pa.s.sion for the vice but out of the increased number of its enemies. None can say that c.o.c.kfighting has increased; it is easy to prove that it has decreased; the number of days permitted by law is now insignificant compared with what it was a few years ago. Nevertheless, the campaign against c.o.c.kfighting has increased precisely because the number of c.o.c.kfighters has decreased. Exactly the same thing happened in card playing and horse-racing.

Nothing in particular would be said about this general movement in favor of social morality if the att.i.tude of public opinion would not have that mistaken and dangerous bias which is given it by certain elements which at all times have been an obstacle to the instruction of the Filipino people. These elements, taking advantage of the preoccupation of public opinion to combat vice and purify public morals, instead of simply supporting this movement and strengthening it justifying its usefulness by the good itself which it seeks to accomplish, launches a political campaign which consists in alarming the people making them believe that immorality increases, that the social ills are growing, that national life itself is endangered thru the fault of the reformers as a result of the new regime in vogue in the Philippines since the loss of the past sovereignty. They take advantage of the current of public opinion in favor of public morals, to make it appear that the democratic form of the Government, the English language, the lay schools, coeducation, and Anglo-Saxon civilization are the causes of the supposed growth of immorality: Such is the program of certain people!

Our Enemies

Those who in a great measure are guilty to their nation for the misfortunes that befell the Filipino people that resorted to revolution and rebellion to free themselves from a regime opposed to their progress and happiness, forgetting their incapacity to fulfill the obligations which, in the name of their country, they a.s.sumed here and which were the causes of the political failure of the past colonization, they to-day wish to defend their interests in our country pursuing their policy which would only produce dissension among the Filipinos. Under the pretext of interesting themselves more than we do in our own welfare, considering us to be blind and incapable to know and distinguish the good from the bad, deeming us eternal indios of inferior mentality, they seek to take us whithersoever they will, where it suits them, thru the dark path where none see but they, they who guide or wish to guide the indio, the eternal child who ought to allow himself to be led!

In a foreign weekly published in Manila, we read the following: "Dedicated to the search of the enemies of the progress of the Filipinos, we find them in every bucket, in every cabaret; in the peaceful invasion of j.a.panese in the Philippines; in "panguingue," in billiard games, in the prevailing immorality in the theaters, in the novel, in the cinematograph and in the postal card; and above all and over all, in the lay school." He who thus expresses himself seeking to arouse Filipino hatred against the j.a.panese, to create suspicion first and trouble afterwards, is a stranger, and in the language in which he himself writes are written the theatrical works and the immoral novels that come to the Philippines. [3] In his language, too, were promulgated those laws and regulations in our country inst.i.tuting c.o.c.kfighting, lottery, billiard, created as sources of revenue for the State--things which we the Filipinos could not oppose in the old political regime without at the same time opposing the government itself which made vice a source of revenue and which, to increase its funds, had to encourage such vices, similar to opium in official smoking-rooms. Of the lay school we shall now speak presently.

The Work of Calumny and Hatred

Considering the nature of this campaign against our present day inst.i.tutions, and painfully impressed by the great harm which this disastrous work of calumny, hatred, distrust and pessimism must have upon the progress and tranquillity of us, the Filipinos, I deem it my duty to speak when I am led to think that the limit has been reached by a doc.u.ment which came to my hands. It is no less than a circular which a high prelate directs to the curates of the parishes of his diocese, and which deals with public instruction. [4]

h.e.l.l Threat

The whole doc.u.ment is an attack against the Government schools, simply because in them the Catholic religion is not taught, threatening with h.e.l.l those parents who send their children to such schools. At the close it says as follows:

As a first step, after you have let the parents see the social evils which result from a G.o.dless school, such as crime against purity, murder, suicide, rapine and robbery, disobedience against civil and ecclesiastical authorities, in short, the corruption of customs, all the seasoned fruit of those lay schools, your reverences should influence them to declare, in writing or communications which they should address to us, to the government without euphemisms their irrevocable and decided will that Christian education be given them in the schools. We, for our part, will look after the sending of these pet.i.tions to the Legislature.

Machiavelic Accusation

"All the seasoned fruit of those lay schools" said the prelate referring to the crimes and the corruption of customs which he mentions! An accusation of such nature must be proven by him who accuses. The worst part of it is that such accusations are made and later with the recommendation that they be made to sink into heads of parents or heads of families. The faithful will consider as true the affirmations that come from the lips of their priests, so that such propaganda promotes in the worst manner a feeling against a government accused of fomenting criminality in its schools. The prelate does not enjoin violence; but at such times as these, violence naturally results from an adequate preparation of the popular conscience; and when a people believes that the Government, the educator no less, is the cause of the thieves, the murderers, the corruptors, a people is truly dead who does not seek to wipe out by any means such a government, especially if it is foreign, which corrupts its citizens.

Colossal Transformation

Fortunately, it can be said without fear of erring that such accusations are altogether false; and if there is anything in the Philippines which deserves the approval of all worthy conscience, something which merits not only the grat.i.tude but the admiration of the Filipino people, it is the organization of public education implanted by the American people. There is not a single Filipino capable of reasoning who does not see and understand the colossal transformation which our entire people experienced by virtue of that lay education. Not only did the Government organize an efficient educational system, but it extended it throughout the Archipelago in such a general way that some European nations which continually cite the annals of history, would very much like it for themselves; not only do we the Filipinos find in our lay schools those elements necessary for our instruction and our education so that we can be useful individuals to ourselves, and cooperate in the administration of our public affairs, but the private schools of the old regime have changed, have improved, have been transformed, have been placed to the level where they should, following the standard maintained by the Government. To deny this is sheer blindness.

A Dominican School in Formosa

Only he who is blinded by pa.s.sion is capable of making accusation against the lay school such as we have here reproduced, and against which the first to protest will likely be the Dominican friars in the Philippines whose mission in Formosa, has a girl's school for the Chinese and j.a.panese in the Capitol, Taihoku, which I visited on my trip to that island. Reverend Father Clemente Fernandez, a Dominican and the Apostolic Vicar of Formosa, did me the honor of accompanying me in visiting such a school, called Beata Imelda, situated in the barrio of Daitelei, in Taihoku. It is a beautiful school of which the Dominicans can justly be proud. But it was not the material or educational organization of the inst.i.tution that impressed me so much as the absence of all religious images in the rooms, cla.s.ses, halls, and other rooms used for and by the girls.

On my noticing the existence of so singular a case, Reverend Clemente Fernandez made it known to me that, among the conditions stipulated by the law of public instruction of Formosa, both for the government as well as the private schools, is the absolute prohibition of religious education and the presentation of images and objects of worship. This is therefore a lay school, a G.o.dless school, upon which should also fall the surprising accusation of a prelate who makes use of the liberty afforded him by our government to teach his religion in our schools, but abusing such right and attempting furthermore to impose his will upon the Government, accusing it of teaching homicide, theft, immorality, and corruption of customs in our schools.

Were We To Use the Same Procedure

There is no doubt that even under the Spanish regime we already knew of the existence in the Philippines of criminals condemned to death and imprisonment for murder, theft, rape, sacrilege, and all kinds of crimes, and that the corruption of customs was neither unknown nor rare. Since under the entire period of Spanish domination, instruction was under the exclusive care of the friars of the Roman Church, if we utilize the same procedure of the above-mentioned prelate, we could also accuse all the priests of having instructed the Filipinos, thru their education, in murder and in theft, and that the corruption of customs was "all the seasoned fruit of the Catholic schools." I do not propose such an accusation; I only content myself with presenting it as a logical consequence which could be deduced following the method used by the prelate in speaking to no less than his priests in a circular designed to orient the mentality of his clergy and of his parishioners. Pondering over the accusation of the Bishop, it occurred to me that it would be beneficial to recall the public instruction that was formerly given in the Philippines by the "G.o.dly schools" and consider the results obtained. Confident in the respectable character, and, to many, the sacred character of the priests, I must resort to their testimony to know what that education was and what results it gave to the Filipino people.

We should not conceal the truth when the truth portrays things that may not be pleasing to us. None like those who are dedicated to instruction have such an interest in knowing the mentality of the society in which they live and which it is their duty to educate. An exact knowledge of the moral, intellectual, and physical defects of a people is the most important factor to orient its education, and it would be absurd to close one's eyes to what is bad, because the principle of correcting a certain thing is to know if it is a mistake or not. One cannot correct an evil of which he is ignorant.

The Education of the Filipino People under Religious Direction

Before attacking or defending the lay education of the public schools it would seem useful to know what the education of the Filipino people was under religious direction, and then know what results were obtained; that is to say, how a man subjected to such a system was transformed after more than three centuries of such a practice.

I must secure the data which I here present from ecclesiastical sources because, altho they contain a certain exaggeration, in speaking of its own work which, as it is natural, they defend, magnify, and praise, they are after all the most useful in knowing the defects themselves which, under the circ.u.mstances, const.i.tute real confessions.

Father Santiago Paya, Rector of the University of Santo Tomas, said among other things the following to the Philippine Commission on July 1, 1899:

All secondary instruction in the Philippine Islands was under the University of Santo Tomas. Besides the private schools in Manila there were also some in the provinces, but all the colleges of secondary instruction were subject to Santo Tomas.

There were primary schools in almost all the towns supported by the Government in which a very elementary instruction was given * * * reading, writing, catechism, and a little arithmetic.