Ateneo

• Jesuit system of education

  • Unique
  • Empowered native people
  • Developed critical and independent thinking
• The Jesuits were a highly disciplined military-religious order called "Sociedad de Jesus" during the Counter-Reformation by Ignacio Loyola, a Spanish knight (1491-1556)
• The Jesuits were the third religious order to come to the Philippines in 1581 and pioneered towns mainly in the Visayas and Mindanao
• The Jesuits were generally exempted from charges of "frailocracy" hurled on the colonial Spanish religious orders
• In the 18th century, the Jesuits were expelled from the Philippines from 1768 to 1859 as part of their persecution in European countries and colonies
• In 1859, the Jesuits returned to the Philippines, and their missions were handed back to them
• When the Jesuits returned to Manila, they were given a school for orphan boys. Ten Jesuit Spanish friars began to operate the school on December 10, 1859. They changed its name to "Ateneo Municipal," and later to "Ateneo de Manila"
• Ateneo method of education

  • Trained the character of the student by rigid discipline and religious instruction
  • Promoted physical education, language, culture, humanities, math and science
  • Offered technical and vocational courses in agriculture, commerce mechanics, and surveying
• Ateneo student ranking system

  1. Students divided into "Roman Empire" (boarders) and "Carthaginian Empire" (non-boarders)

  2. Best student is emperor, second best is tribune, third best is decurion, fourth best is centurion, fifth best is standard-bearer

  3. Students can challenge and replace officers in their empire
• The Ateneo students in Rizal's time wore a uniform made of hemp-fabric trousers and striped cotton coat
• Rizal and the Jesuits

  • Both were persecuted, yet they excelled in their work
  • Rizal bloomed in character and talent and received a more advanced formal education than others at that time
• Rizal began his first day of formal schooling at Ateneo in June, 1872
• Rizal's first professor in Ateneo was Fr. Jose Bech, whom he described as a "tall, thin man, with a body slightly bent forward, a harried walk, an ascetic face, severe and inspired, small deep-sunken eyes, a sharp nose that was almost Greek, and thin lips forming an arc whose ends fell toward the chin"
• After the first week, the frail Calamba boy progressed rapidly. At the end of the month, he became "emperor" and was the brightest pupil in the whole class, and was awarded a prize
• Rizal took private lessons at Santa Isabel College during the noon recess to improve his Spanish, paying three pesos for those extra Spanish lessons
• Rizal lost his rank in the next semester because he was offended by some remarks of a professor, although all his grades were still marked "Excellent"
• During his second term at the Ateneo, Rizal was now more comfortable and performed better. Once more he became "emperor" and received excellent grades in all subjects and a gold medal
• Rizal's melancholy persisted because he missed his mother
• Without telling his father, he went to Laguna and visited his mother at the Santa Cruz, provincial jail
• This cheered up both of them
• He told her of his brilliant grades at the Ateneo
• She was very glad and embraced her favorite son
• Rizal boarded inside Intramuros at No. 6 Magallanes Street
• His landlady was an old widow named Doña Pepay, who had a widowed daughter and four sons
• Rizal had new friends — three boys from Biñan who had been his classmates in the school of Maestro Justiniano
• At the end of the school year, Rizal received excellent grades in all subjects and a gold medal
• Rizal visited his mother at the Santa Cruz provincial jail
• He cheered up Teodora with news of his scholastic triumphs in Ateneo and his funny stories about his professors and fellow students
• His mother was very happy to know that her favorite child was making splendid progress in school
• Teodora mentioned a dream she had the night before
• Rizal interpreted the dream to mean that she would be released from prison in three month's time
• Barely three months after their meeting, the Supreme Court acquitted and set her free
• Doña Teodora happily returned home to Calamba, even more proud of her son
• Rizal began to take an interest in novels during the summer vacation in 1874 in Calamba
• His first favorite novel was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
• Rizal persuaded his father to buy him a costly set of Cesar Cantu's historical work entitled Universal History
• Rizal read Travels in the Philippines by Dr. Feodor Jago, a German scientist-traveler who visited the Philippines in 1859-1860
• Rizal was impressed by Dr. Jago's keen observations of the defects of Spanish colonization and his prophecy that someday Spain would lose the Philippines and that America would come to succeed it as colonizer
• Rizal's mother came to visit him in Manila to personally tell him that she was a free woman again, just as he had prophesied from the dream
• Rizal did not make an excellent showing in his studies because his spoken Spanish was not fluent