Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
1, No. 2 (Oct., 1910), pp. 156-168 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29737855 . Accessed: 04/10/2013 02:06
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recently that for the fiscal year ending June 30th, the sum of imports and exports exceeds by $17,000,000 the commerce
of the previous year. Everywhere there is increased indus?
trial activity. The present administration is laying great emphasis on the material development of the islands; many millions of pesos have been spent for roads; other millions
for permanent beautification operating. pression continues buildings, of Manila. Added of human unbroken. for harbor Newly are for the improvements, are railroads constructed sup? has of
exertions
for the being made The peace which disease. is not a solution
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PHILIPPINE
EDUCATION
157
legitimate outlet for the restlessness and ambition of an awakened and passionate people; something else far harder
to preserve than business prosperity, and that is under?
sions. The future is full of trouble and will tax the capaci? ties of the white race as perhaps they have never been taxed
before. Toward the close of the last century there was a
general feeling that the dependent peoples were to remain indefinitely dependent, their just treatment and material well-being assured by the control of the colonial nations of Europe. The marked success of the British Empire at the end of the century had much to do with establishing this
confidence in scientific and at least terms remain was one attempt to state this expectation a made British Ben? by writer, Mr. and that be ever they would of the white man's
jamin Kidd.
races would content rule. under
That
rare but
and of that
now after where of its is an
countries
rebellion.
The Mohammedan
and
world which
seemed politi?
enfeebled
that seemed on a now no cer? of have success, securely planted century are few advocates tain future. There of repression. Lord recent Indian the wiser reflect attitude Morley's Speeches to concede, that seeks it sees that because is concession necessary, just and generous.
of recovery, has hopes is pregnant with great change. consciousness colonial that policies
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158
DAVID
P. BARROWS
It is this present shifting of policies, that makes the history of the European administration of the Philippines signifi? cant. The Spanish failure has its lesson and that lesson must
be seen by other colonial nations or the failure will be re?
peated
elsewhere.
What
Spain
of her the last decades during ent peoples must face also present century. with a high degree
oppression. The occupation of the Philippines came at the close of the active period of Spanish conquest and it had the
benefit Two of more than of generations and covery conquest, in America. years of experience had borne the costs of dis? Spaniards when in and they had learned much, seventy
for the Philippines. 1565, Legazpi set sail from Mexico There had been a reaction against the brutality that marked
of and occasioned of the Antilles the conquest Innumerable the Indians. passages troubled. Las Casas was still alive the extermination in the laws of the
order in Valladolid. This, and the different attitude of the natives, freed the conquest of the Philippines from the vio?
lence ble and misfortune the early This witnessed treated establishment policy and made possi? a paternal and beneficent as a ward and for the native of status for him. and on The natives in were the whole the relation? who ideal to many were before inadequate. even when in America
contemplated in numbers,
no other
in civilization
near the middle Until well-being. and the natives between ship their writers 1850. It had native a closed But immediate who Then
governors well-nigh as they the Philippines described became suddenly Spain's policy the education hostile of the native,
seemed
neglected leadership;
admitted
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PHILIPPINE
EDUCATION
159
of Spaniards of secular pursuits, the reverberation in the Philippines of the clamorous revolutions in Spain, then the
opening the friars, of the and Suez Canal failed as and in the the entrance of a host of
disturbing
ideas made
Spain
through a policy
liberal last have Public measure policy" statesmen, of her decades been
of reform.
creditable rule show,
lack
the to
was
Spain's authority. of material that no amount shows experience advantage, will hold the alle? and no sense of past benefits conferred a with liberal ideas and of permeated giance subject people
conscious
following
from
When in 1898, the government of the Philippines passed to our hand we inherited a revolution that had been in progress for many years; Filipino leaders were flushed with their
successes, end until British cedents different has been confident their that nationality could be won and reso?
to Filipino friendliness had any hope aspirations were in the elements of such a policy found Fortunately the plan to which the American turned?native instinctively This national education. feeling for schools was shown strik? ingly in the attitude of the army even while engaged in the
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160
DAVID
P. BARROWS
work of subjugation. Schools were reopened in every part of the archipelago and their work cared for with intelligence and solicitude by military men. During those dreadful and perplexing months of 1900 and the early part of 1901,
officers ciliation commanding by the garrisons support was Bureau made of towns in all parts of the
archipelago manifested
the warmest education The was
With
the organization
of civil government
of Education to the
by the Taft
feature was of the organised of Fili?
pinos who appeared before the Commission in public dis? cussion of the bill and pleaded for native enlightenment. It is its attitude toward schools and the intellectual develop?
ment of the natives the Taft Nor that actually determines established ever had the character a new stan?
In its emphasis on
repent of its attitude toward education. When in 1903, Mr. Taft leftManila for Washington, he declared that above all other efforts that had contributed to the success of his
policy, Ten was years the work have and influence since of the American the educational teacher. policy now passed
of the United
some of its results and to decide to begin to estimate possible now stands can be said for its where that policy and what future. No him. been Towns schools of schools school one can deny From and have and that the Filipino has made a most magni?
indispensable is the basis of many support usefulness. The application has more than once
is an almost
and pre-election pledge, a town officials claim of of the proceeds of taxa? saved the government's
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PHILIPPINE
EDUCATION
161
in one financial legislation from complete unpopularity; year over 265,000 pesos was voluntarily contributed to sup? plement the public revenue of the schools. The Philippine Assembly inaugurated in 1907 has further expressed the wide popular support of education. Of the 75 bills passed at the first sessions of the first Legislature, 9 had for their object
the aid and encouragement of education. One of these was acts one
established
act to be
the University
passed or
of the Philippines,
by the Assembly
appropriating
"barrio"
or hamlet
It is this fine spirit and eager desire for schools that has made the work of the American educator in the Philippines a
comparatively simple problem. The work has grown under
his hands with great rapidity and its extension has been limited by only one thing, the inadequacy of the revenue
provided first, was complete object, attained. by to government. reach the entire the The Christian and 1200 a distant aim almost from with This nearly the a population industrial schools. goal, has or been
"pueblos"
townships
of the Spanish r?gime, probably not one is now without a well organized and carefully supervised system of public
schools. than Of the more cent than at 12,000 barrios time or villages are without in which
their instruction in English giving for the last year to be 8210. All pri? by reports is done The creation mary teaching by these Filipinos. and training of this great native men and corps of young as a them in instructors women, qualifying foreign language, them preparing by schools and assemblies not only the common vacation courses, institutes, and by daily training classes to teach, but industrial work, primary branches, normal
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162
DAVID
P. BARROWS
hygiene,
simple
domestic
science,
local
government
and
village improvement, gardening and agriculture is the most All of notable achievement of the Bureau of Education.
the above branches are taught in the primary tasks and schools and the to
Nearly
specialized the primary
200
intermediate
of three
schools with
years carry school
vocational
the work
and
of
courses schools
further system
is completed
these
spring. in favor of general tell immensely years may enlightenment, of ten years, the the progress and to one who has watched seems will be the entire archipelago united close when day and by a native tongue journalism by a common an active of public factor in the formation opinion) (already express?
few more
and intelligible
of this public remarkable advantages
to be very striking.
tion and confined in culture, to a small town. controls civil and
in the
been It in
of the population?only a great middle class through class families. the of the
telephones, are filled by the class of young people schools since the American occupation.
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PHILIPPINE man
EDUCATION
and woman,
physician,
engineer
of the
classes ten
were
exploited
and economy will come with knowledge of accounts, savings banks andindependent production taught them. Thrift
in the primary tem of education schools. the great
This government which is being tried in the Philippines. modern principle (not yet fully established among Euro? pean peoples) now runs through all the political institutions of the Philippines. The municipal councils and presidents
are elective, cial boards, so are including two of the three members governor, the provincial of the provin? and so is the
Philippine Assembly which now, with the Philippine Commis? sion, is the supreme legislative body in the islands. Suffrage is still restricted, only about 150,000 electors in a population of 7,000,000. But one of the qualifications by which the franchise is obtainable is a knowledge of the English lan? guage, and while the voting age is high (twenty-three), in
less than a decade the majority of electors will be young will
in their
or fail? that are involved The consequences in the success ure of America's in native great experiment government, alone justify all the emphasis would that can be placed upon the education of the Filipino. from the attitude Judging men of those young who have already attained the franchise the schools, it may be supposed that the coming more electorate is to far be criti? Filipino going alert, more cal of mistakes, and more of restrictions and of impatient through
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164
DAVID
P. BARROWS
arbitrary government than the generation of Filipinos who first opposed and at last cooperated in the establishment of
American government. These young men are going to make
the task of future governors general of the Philippines in? creasingly difficult, unless these officials be men fully in sympathy with native development and resolute to guard its every privilege and opportunity. Their appearance in political life will mean the final passing of the standards of political conduct inherited from the Spanish r?gime, the end of those vestiges of arbitrary and irresponsible authority that still tempt the American official from the straight path of his legal powers; it will mean the disuse of Spanish in
courts and legislature, in schools and popular journalism.
It will mean the actual extension to the soil of Malaysia, of the principles of American government and civil liberty.
In view of all the circumstances The They the greatest schools have them have task before a and
the American
is the training of
undertaken native primary arts
teaching
schools;
they have provided shops, laboratories and facilities for industrial training that probably cannot be paralleled in any
state disease tation in America; and and taken up the campaign against a knowledge are of sani? epidemic diffusing are the archipelago. These nursing throughout they and have
important practical ends, but they are less important than to give to the Filipino people leaders who will be equal to the
tasks and trials which over plague, lie before general them. Industrial these progress, (though triumph but moral well-being?all
education,
never. man? Civilized political leadership, has always been controlled and directed by his scholarly can hope to class; he always will be and no backward people own in the control of their or to make destinies participate their and their until progress truly own, fundamentally and disciplined trained leaders of their own race and kind exist in sufficient to make numbers them of self capable direction. schools It is this that makes of the Philippines such the forty important or more factors secondary in the edu
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PHILIPPINE
EDUCATION
165
cation of the islands and justifies the comparatively large expenditures for their equipment and conduct. This justifies also the liberal and humanistic courses which are offered in
these tional schools branches in science and voca? the training together with to the option of the student. that are allowed
Anyone who has considered deeply the needs of the Filipino people will see that the greatest need is for an upright and broadly educated leadership. The responsibilities which our liberal policy has trusted to them are enormous; they may be productive of an influence and benefit that will far surpass or they the boundaries of the Philippines or of Malaysia,
may ress end in complete and retard the prog? disappointment, of the races toward a better understanding and a higher one for another. At and social present respect political
their country and future generations will regard them with gratitude, but at its best their education was superficial and illiberal and wholly inadequate for the generation of men to whom must be entrusted the future of the Philippines. This
generation cannot have too liberal a culture. It cannot
know too much of the history of the race, of the spirit of the western civilization which it participates in but imper?
fectly The higher tical" leaders not be understands. rather character common criticism education of the Filipino and would still probably people less the against so called "unprac? agree that the present are not an over-informed and its and less mentally dis? that is directed
over-disciplined
ciplined. Perhaps of public
has been said to indicate the importance enough in the American instruction ideal of colonial gov? as that ideal was expressed laid the ernment, by those who of our policy foundations in the Orient. This is the original in America's has not been to do for a dependent attempt done before. It is its distinctive people feature
element what
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166
DAVID
P. BARROWS
and if our example is to have value for other colonial peoples, it will be in the complete success of the system of schools.
Commercial the advan? development, a of free hand tage capitalized having undertakings among things have been demonstrated subject people?these success may be measured in a vast number Their elsewhere. exploitation, industrial to large in the will and up and down Western tropics of receive no new ideas, the problems our own and other races will not be economic success of An erica in the
Philippines, because it will be but a repetition of what has been equally well done elsewhere. It will be but following
a European and quacy cause leading disaster. which This trend to end in inade? already promises view needs fresh realization be? in the Philip? on education by An erican offi? those who have succeeded by
of the recent
of the administration
The early emphasis pines. cials has not been sustained Taft But nor was
Mr.
plan;
he placed
since
interested especially its large plans. Education has si; cceeded in the Philippines as a moral because of its strength force ?it has been advocated the insistently by Filipinos?not of any marked because of the Commission. What support has been done financial since equate to add
to make the educational organiza? for the Archipelago. At the present time the complete revenues of the government a to have promise great augn en tation through the rapid growth of foreign commerce and in? ternal production. Now to be the time to appropriate ought for schools, to raise the n eagre con pensaticn generously tion of the native every great struggled teachers, settlement and which to place a scheel afford the means the enlightenn within the reach of to acccx ent the push has consistently of a whole people,
1903, has been done in spite of very inad? and the refusal of the government means, cent to the revenues for education is alone
objects
the Bureau
of Education
for, namely,
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PHILIPPINE
EDUCATION
167
the elimination of illiteracy, ignorance, credulity and help? lessness, and the complete diffusion of the English tongue.
All term this could of years. success be done, now, with But unfortunately in a short proper support, for the prospects of com? administration the present is
of the attitude plete an In his inaugural achievement. not sympathetic to such General after last November, Governor Forbes, address, of material the every practically importance emphasizing
effort of the administration and promising it his support, spoke as follows of public instruction: "The thought is grievous that any boy or girl in the Philippine Islands want?
ing to get resources an education should be unable to do so because to a point of
to provide facilities?and
not developed
yet the
where
have
spiritual achievement,
life and make rial people concerns? must be it generous, Ideals
in the accomplishments
in the self-control have than
that dignify
and wisdom
that make states just and effective, by placing first its mate?
set higher general a place. The aims of a this. No state can be estab? which must
cannot
economic effort. is not by purely production Enlarged so difficult, but the problem of distribution will not arrange the operation of natural itself under laws. For the peasant to profit and to share in that widening of prosperity which all hope be made able to keep literate, in his This is the work accounts, rights?freed. of the schools, and it will not be accomplished until the schools reach the entire population. To postpone that day to is at hand, instructed he must
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168
DAVID
P. BARROWS
some future time when the coffers of the government shall overflow, is to postpone the chances of the great majority
of natives until their opportunities are gone.
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