Chapter 3 Early Education in Calamba and Biñan

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was a typical schooling that a son of an ilustrado
family received during his time, characterized by the four R's-reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.
Instruction was rigid and strict. Know. ledge was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the
todius memory method aided by the teacher's whip. Despite the defects of the Spanish system of
elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction preparatory for college work
in Manila and abroad. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a physical weakling, rose to become an
intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, the outmoded and backward system of
instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last decades of Spanish regime.

The Hero's First Teacher. The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of
good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers.
"My mother," wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, "taught me how to read and to say haltingly the
humble prayers which I raised fervently to God."

As a tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she who first discovered
that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the
monotony of memorizing the ABCs and to stimulate her son's imagination, she related many stories.

As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home. The first was
Maestro Celestino and the second, Morsi Last Leer, and assamed Leon Monroy, a former classmate of
Rist's father, being the boy's tutur. This nåd teacher ved at the Rindu and instructed Jose in Spanish and
Latin. Unfarturanty, he did live long. He died five months later

After Moncoy's death, the herd's parents decided to send their gifted son to a private school in Ban

Jose Goes to Bioan. One Sunday afternoon in June, 1869 Jose, after kissing the hands of lus parents and
a tearfal parting from his sisters, left Calamba for Bitan. He was accompanied by Paciano, who acted as
his second father, The two brothers rode in a carromata, reaching their destination after one and one-
half hours drive. They proceeded to their sunt's house where Jose was to lodge. It was almost night
when they arrived. and the moon was about to rise

That same night, Jose, with his cousin named Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead of enjoying
the sights, Ione became depressed becaine of homesickness. "In the moonlight." he recounted, "I
remembered my home town, my solized mother, and my solicitous sisters. Ah, how sweet to me was
Calamba, my own town, in spite of the fact, that it was not as wealthy as Biñan
First Day in Biñan School. The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school
of Marstro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters from the home
of Jose's aunt.

Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He introduced Jose
to the teacher, after which he departed to return to Calamba

Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the class. The teacher asked him:

"Do you know Spanish?"

"A little, sir," replied the Calamba lad.

"Do you know Latin?"

"A little, sir."

The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher's son, laughed at Jose's answers.

The teacher sharply stopped all noise and began the lessons of the day.

Jose described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with a sharp nose and a
body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the
women of Batangas. He knew by heart the grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this his severity,
that in my judgment was exaggerated, and you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him,
but I remember only this.

First School Brawl. In the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was having his siesta,
Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of him during his conversation with
the teacher in the morning.

Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could easily beat the
Calamba boy who was smaller and younger.

The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates. Jose, having
learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger boy. For this feat, he
became popular among his classmates.

After the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged him to an arm-
wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms. Jose, having the
weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his bead on the sidewalk.
In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by nature, but he
never ran away from a fight.

Painting Lessons in Biñan. Near the school was the house of an old painter, called Juancho, who was the
father-in-law of the school teacher. Jose, lured by his love for painting, spent many leisure hours at the
painter's studio. Old Juancho freely gave him lessons in drawing and painting. He was impressed

painting, became apprentices of the old painter. They improved their art, so that in due time they
became "the favorite painters of the class".

Daily Life in Biñan. Jose led a methodical life in Binan, almost Spartan in simplicity. Such a life
contributed much to his future development. It strengthened his body and soul,

Speaking of his daily life in Biñan, he recorded in his memoirs:

Here was my life. I heard the four o'clock Mans, if there was any, or I studied my lesson at that hour and
1 went to Mass afterwards. I returned home and I went to the orchard to look for a mahuic to eat. Then
I took breakfast, which consisted generally of a dish of rice and two dried small fish, and I went to class
from which I came out at ten o'clock. I went home at once. If there was some special dish, Leandro and I
took some of it to the house of his children (which I never did at home nor would 1 ever do it), and I
returned without saying a word. I ate with them and afterwards I studied. I went to school at two and
came out at five. I prayed a short while with some nice cousins and I returned home. I studied my
lesson. I drew a little, and afterwards I took my supper consisting of one or two dishes of rice with an
ayungin. We prayed and if there was a moon, my nieces invited me to play in the street together with
others. Thank God that I never got sick away from my parents.

Best Student in School. In academic studies, Jose beat all Biñan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish,
Latin, and other subjects.

Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly squealed to the
teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and even told lies to discredit him before the
teacher's eyes. Consequently the teacher had to punish Jose. Thus Rizal said that "in spite of the
reputation 1 had of being a good boy, the day was unusual when I was not laid out on a bench and given
five or six blows.

End of Biñan Schooling. Before the Christmas season in 1870, Jose received a letter from his sister
Saturnina, informing

him of the arrival of the steamer Talim which would take him from Biñan to Calamba. Upon reading the
letter, he had a premonition that he would not return to Biñan, so that he became sad. He prayed in the
town church, collected pebbles in the river for souvenirs, and regretfully bade farewell to his teacher
and classmates.
He left Biñan on Saturday afternoon, December 17, 1870 after one year and a half of schooling in that
town. He was thrilled to take passage on the steamer Talim, for it was the first time he ever rode on a
steamer. On board was a Frenchman named Arturo Camps, a friend of his father, who took care of him.

Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za. On the night of January 20, 1872, about 200 Filipino soldiers and workmen
of the Cavite arsenal under the leadership of Lamadrid, Filipino sergeant, rose in violent mutiny because
of the abolition of their usual privileges, including exemption from tribute and polo (forced labor) by the
reactionary Governor Rafael de Izquierdo. Unfortunately, this Cavite Mutiny was suppressed two days
later by troop reinforce ments from Manila. The Spanish authorities, in order to liquidate Fathers
Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, leaders of the secutar movement to Filipinize the
Philippine parishes, and their supporters (Jose Ma. Basa, Attorneys Joaquin Pardo de Tavera and Antonio
Ma. Regidor, etc.) magnified the failed mutiny into a "revolt" for Philippine independence.

Accordingly, Gom-Bur-Za (Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora), despite the archbishop's plea for clemency
because of their innocence, were executed at sunrise, February 17, 1872, by order of Governor General
Izquierdo. Their martyrdom was deeply mourned by the Rizal family and many other patriotic families in
the Philippines.

Paciano, enraged by the execution of Burgos, his beloved friend, teacher, and housemate, quit his
studies at the College of San Jose and returned to Calamba, where he told the heroic story of Burgos to
his younger brother Jose, who was then nearly eleven years old.

The martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za in 1872 truly inspired Rizal to fight the evils of Spanish tyranny and
redeem his oppressed

people. Seventeen years later, in his letter written in Paris, April 18, 1889, to Mariano Ponce, he said:

Without 1872 there would not be now either a Plaridel or Jaena, or Sanciangco, nor would there anist
brave and generous Filipino colonies in Europe; without 1872 Rizal would be a Jesuit now and, instead of
writing Noli Me Tangere, would have written the opposite. At the sight of those injustices and cruelties
while still a child my imagina tion was awakened and I swore to devote myself to avenge one day so
many victims and with this idea in mind I have been studying, and this can be read in all my worka and
writings. God will someday give me an opportunity to carry out my promise."

And later, in 1891, he dedicated his second navel, El Filibus terismo, to Gom-Bur-Za.

Injustice to Hero's Mother. Before June of 1872, tragedy struck the Rizal family, Doña Teodora was
suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that she and her brother, Jose Alberto, tried to poison the
latter's perfidious wife. Jose Alberto, a rich Biñan ilustrado, had just returned from a business trip in
Europe. During his absence his wife abandoned their home and children. When he arrived in Biñan, he
found her living with another man. Infuriated by her infidelity, he planned to divorce her. Doña Teodora,
to avert family scandal, persuaded him to forgive his wife. The family trouble was amicably settled, and
Jose Alberto lived again with his wife. However, the evil wife, with. the connivance of the Spanish
lieutenant of the Guardia Civil, filed a case in court accusing her husband and Doña Teodora of
attempting to poison her.

This lieutenant happened to have an ax to grind against the Rizal family, because at one time Don
Francisco (Rizal's father) refused to give him fodder for his horse. Taking the opportunity to avenge
himself, he arrested Doña Teodora, with the help of Calamba's gobernadorcillo, Antonio Vivencio del
Rosario, a menial of the friars. These two ungrateful men had been frequent guests at the Rizal home.

After arresting Doña Teodora, the sadistic Spanish lieuten ant forced her to walk from Calamba to Santa
Cruz (capital of Laguna Province), a distance of 50 kilometers. Upon arrival in