The Miseducation of the Filipino

By Renato Constantino
 Renato Constantino
Renato Constantino was an influential Filipino Historian.
He was a great orator, debater and in The University of The Philippines he became
the youngest Philippine Collegian editor.
During the Japanese Occupation, his family struggled and from time to time
transferred to towns to hide from them.
Renato Constantino had several successful careers as a diplomat, a college
professor, a museum director, a journalist and an author of many books. He
was the Executive Secretary of the Philippine Mission to the United
Nations from 1946 to 1949 and Counsellor of the Department of Foreign
Affairs from 1949 to 1951. He published a book on the United Nations in 1950.
His career in the academe spans more than three decades during which time
(March 10, 1919- he taught in Far Eastern University, Adamson University, Arellano
September 15, 1999) University and University of the Philippines, Manila and Diliman.
Constantino was a prolific writer. He wrote around 30 books and numerous
pamphlets and monographs. Among his well-known books are A Past
Revisited and The Continuing Past (a two-volume history of the
Philippines), The Making of a Filipino (a biography of Claro M. Recto), Neo-
colonial Identity and Counter-Consciousness, and The Nationalist Alternative.
Several of his books have been translated into Japanese and The Nationalist
Alternative has a Malaysian translation.
Some related people...

Thomasites
Manuel L. Quezon Claro M. Recto
 Importance of Education
• ~> Education is a vital weapon of a people
striving for economic emancipation, Political
independence, and cultural renascence.
Philippine education, therefore, must produce
Filipinos who are aware of their country’s
problems, who understand the basic solution
to these problems and care enough to work
and sacrifice for their country’s salvation.
 Nationalism In Education
In recent years, in various sectors of our society, there have
been nationalist stirrings demanding for the recognition of
Philippine Sovereignty on the bases question. Some are:
-Correction of iniquitous economic relations between RP and US
-Filipino First Policy
-Appreciation of our own culture
-Nationalism in education
Though many educators participate in debate on techniques and
tools for improved instructions, not one major educational
leader has come out for a truly nationalist education.
 New perspectives
Economic and Political leaders gained a new
perception of our relations with the US, the
reaction, which has emerged as economic and
political nationalism is an attempt to revive
inequities of the past and to complete the
revolutionary movement of 1896.

The educational system introduced by the

Americans was designed to correspond to
economic and political reality of American
conquest.
 Capturing Minds

• Inception―the best way of subjugating a

people is to capture their minds. Planting an
idea to people to kill the old views, as well
as the resistance and expose them to a new
life governed by the colonizers, since
military and political victory does not signify
full conquest.
• -Erasing memories of deceit, harshness of the
colonizers to make anew, better perception of self
to the people being influenced.
• Education, therefore, serves as a weapon in
colonial conquest, which prevents subjugation of
mind and limits influence from oppressors.
• -Americans launched a rational large scale
reopening of schools to start their influence and
remoulding of the Filipinos as well as to calm
their struggle.
 Beginnings of Colonial Education

• -Education is the framework of American

colonization.
• -Pacifying people by introducing new kind of
education.
• -Education by Americans became instrument of
colonial policy
• -Filipinos ideals slowly eroded in order to remove
resistance.
• Dissolved Nationalism as it attracted
Filipinos to adapt other culture
(acculturation) and made an image that
Americans are our Allies, our heroes
who saved us from the wicked Spain.
• Since English was used as a medium of
instruction, America really pushed Filipinos to
learning a new way of learning and adapting new
ideas which the locals and leaders won’t
understand, which made inception more easy.

• July 1901, The Ship Thomas from San Francisco

came to the Philippines with 600 teachers who
were actually military veterans.
Thomasites
• is a group of about six hundred
pioneer American teachers sent by the U.S.
government to the Philippines in August 12 1901.
• stayed at the walled city Intramuros, Manila before
being given initial provincial assignments which
included Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Norte,
Camarines Sur Sorsogon, Masbate, Samar,
Zambales, Aparri, Jolo, Negros, Cebu, Dumaguete,
Bataan, Batangas, Pangasinan and Tarlac.
Thomasites
• The Thomasites built upon the contributions laid
down by the U.S. Army. They built elementary
schools and learning institutions such as the
Philippine Normal School (now Philippine Normal
University) and the Philippine School of Arts and
Trades (now Technological University of the
Philippines) in 1901, the Tarlac High School on
September 21, 1902 and the Quezon National High
School (now, Tayabas High School), also in 1902
 The role of the American Vice
Governor
• Though the government was ‘Filipinized” for the
nation is being prepared for self government, the
sector of education was never entrusted to
Filipinos.
• Supported by Article 23 of Jones Act, which
makes the American Vice-Governor the head of
the department in case of seat vacancy or late
appointment of the Governor-general.
 Jones Law
• The Jones Law also known as the Jones Act,
the Philippine Autonomy Act or the Act of Congress
of August 29, 1916, was an organic act passed by
the United States Congress which replaced
the Philippine Organic Act of 1902. The Jones Law
acted like a constitution for the Philippines until
1934 when the Tydings–McDuffie Act creating of
the Commonwealth of the Philippines. It
established for the first time an elected upper
house, which would eventually become
the Philippine Senate.
• -It was until 1935, where the
Commonwealth and the new
generation of “Filipino-Americans”
emerged. They, of course, have already
been influenced by the Americans so
the act, think and live like them.
 Goals of American Education

• Benevolent Assimilation (December 21, 1898)

- Proclamation about the Philippines by U.S.
President William McKinley during the Philippine-
American War saying that it is the mission of the
United States is to substitute the mild sway of
justice and right for arbitrary rule for every
Filipino and protect them from any further
political domination.
• The “White man’s Burden”
• Not only for “Saving Filipinos” from illiteracy and
ignorance but also to prepare them for self rule.
• Economic and Political objectives
• Philippines was US to protect and guide like a
mother-child relationship
• Subconsciously or even either conscious or not,
they invaded people and pattern them to the
way they like.
 Effects of American system of
education
• Positive effects
• - American Educational system has brought
peculiar benefits also, such as more conversant,
more knowledgeable Filipinos but has been a real
blessing if only it was not a colonial style one.

• -The Philippine Education system improved since

it has patterned and absorb many of the modern
educational techniques from the Americans
• Filipinos became the third largest English-
speaking country in the world since then, opening
more job opportunities and advantage of being
bilingual.

• It became easier for Filipinos to understand other

concepts that cannot be translated in our own
language, which English itself was used as a link
for our native languages (example: Ifugao-Tagalog
converse in English)
Negative effects
• Unfortunately, success of education as a colonial
weapon was concrete and permanent. We
became less nationalistic, adapting American
culture and history as if it was ours and let them
distort our future the way they wanted it to be.
- Gave way to “Colonial mentality” and Neo-
colonialism.
- Decreased Nationalism
- Language conflict
- Conflict on Medium of instruction
- Barrier to democracy
- “Degradation” of Public schools compared to
Private schools
 An Uprooted Race

• Use of the American Language became a

wedge that separated Filipinos from their past
and culture
• Filipinos as “ideal colonial”, carbon copy of
their conquerors
• Adoption of American culture and local heroes
regarded as brigands and outlaws
• Spain was the villain, America was the hero.
 Economic Attitudes
• United States used a unique approach of
economic policy needed to govern a colony
• Idealization of Philippines as a rural, agriculture
land, not foreseeing the possibilities of being
transformed into an industrialized nation
• Portraits of Country life strengthen this belief as
well as overlooking disease, poverty and cultural
vacuum the nation has and suggests that we
should not change that.
• Filipinos becoming a “new kind” of Americans
 Dalaga (with the carabao)
(1936) By Fernando Amorsolo
 Transplantation of Political institutions
• American Education in effect transplanted
American political institutions and ideas into the
Philippines.
• Filipinos are made to believe in certain political
doctrines as absolute for all peoples.
• Therefore, Filipinos were bound by western
political procedures (or even by other developed
countries) and thought they can’t carry out on
their own
 Re-examination demanded

• -New demands for economic emancipation

and assertion of Political Sovereignty leave our
educators no choice but to re-examine their
philosophy, their values, and their general
approach to the making of the Filipino who
will institute, support and preserve the
nationalist aims.
• - Education must both be seen not as an
acquisition of information but as the making of
man so that he may function most effectively and
and usefully within his own society.
• Not only do we imitate Western education, we
have patterned our education after the most
technologically advanced western nations. The gap
between the two societies is very large. In fact,
they are two entirely different societies with
different goals
 Description of Western Values
• Economically, the US is an industrial nation. It is a
fully developed nation, economically speaking.
Our country has a colonial economy with a tiny
industrial base -in other words, we are backward
and underdeveloped.
• American education, understandably lays little
emphasis on the kind of nationalism we Filipinos
need
• Filipinos try so hard to pattern themselves to how
Americans do themselves, which is wrong since
the gap in between the two nations is very great.
 Un-Filipino Filipinos

• We love Foreigners complementing about our

country, complacently allowing them to
control our economy but we ourselves don’t
see the beauty of our country and the
opportunity/potential we have to improve
ourselves with it.
• Little emphasis of Nationalism in Schools
• The concept of “Freedom” distorted by the
past Colonizers
 The Language Problem

• One of the most Vital problem of the Philippines

is about Language
• Native vs. Foreign language as the medium of
instruction
• The use of native is a bit controversial, and more
Filipinos are even in favour of using the foreign
one
 Barrier to Democracy
• English was supposed to be the “Language of
Democracy” but in the long run it also produced
privileged ‘Illustrados’ that were the products of
American education. These men like their
Hispanicized counterparts led the way of life of
the new colonizers.
• Though considered “language of democracy”,
English rather became a barrier since those who
knew it neglected the mother tounge and abide
using it.
• English became available only to these new group
of men which started a class, which composed
the nation’s leaders. Politics remained in vacuum
for the higher-ups can’ reach out easily to the
masses.
• English has became a status symbol, as the native
language was looked down upon
 Impediments to Thought

• Foreign language is an impediment to thought

• Foreign language is first taught and mastered
before the native language is taught.
• As a move to promote Native Language, the
Institute of National Language was organized in
1935.
• Started the stir in what language was to be used
as the medium of instruction.
 The Private sector
• Before World war II. Philippine public school
system looked down upon their counterparts in
the private schools.
• Today, public schools are looked down upon. Only
the poor send their children to these schools.
Those who can afford it, or those who have social
pretensions, send their children to private
institutions. The result has been a boon to private
education, a boon that unfortunately has seen
the proliferation of diploma mills
 Other Educational Media
• The almost unilateral source of news, films and
other cultural materialstends to distort our
perspective. American films and comics,
American press services,fellowships in America,
have all contributed to the almost total
Americanization of our attitudes.A distinct
Filipino culture can not prevail if an avalanche of
western cultural materials suffocatesour
relatively puny efforts in this direction.
 Needed: Filipinos
• The education of the Filipino must be a Filipino
Education―it must be based on the needs and
goals of the nation.
• The primary objective is not to make people who
can write, read, but citizenry that appreciates and
is conscious of its nationhood and has national
goals for the betterment of the country.
• Educations should first all assure national
survival.
 Weaknesses

- Focused on the American regime as the start of

the Philippines Miseducation instead of pointing
out Spaniards as the one who really started it
 Strengths

- Effectively stressed the points how Americans

miseducated the Filipinos
- Chronologically arranged order of thoughts
- Pointed out how Filipino nationalism was
degraded
- Discussed how Filipinos tried so hard to imitate
Americans and they failed, resulting to worse
consequences
 -END-
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