School Life at Ateneo and the University of Sto.

Tomas
Chapter 3

Jose, accompanied by his brother, Paciano, the eleven year-old from Calamba
went to Manila on June 10, 1872 to take the entrance examinations and enrolled in the
Ateneo Municipal, a college under the supervision of Spanish Jesuits. This college was a
rival of the Dominican-owned College of San Juan de Letran, formerly the Escuela Pia
(Charity School), an educational institutions established by the City government in 1917
for poor boys in Manila. When the Jesuits returned to the Philippines in 1768 after a
century of exile, the management of the Escuela Pia whose name was changed to Ateneo
Municipal, and later on became the Ateneo de Manila.

It should be noted that, at the outset, Jose took he entrance examinations on

Christian doctrine, arithmetic, and reading at the College of San Juan de Letran and
passed them all. He returned contentedly to Calamba after having undergone for the
first time the trial of examinations and stayed a few days with his family. At first, Don
Francisco, wished him to study at Letran, but later, changed his mind and decided to
send Jose to the Ateneo de Manila.

The Jesuits opened the Ateneo to everyone without any racial or financial
discrimination. However, screening of applicants was strictly observed. Rizal reminisced
in his Memorias de un estudiante de Manila that he was almost denied admission
because of poor health and short stature.

At the time Jose studied in the Ateneo, this educational institution was located in
Intramuros, within the walls of old Manila.

Rizal’s First day in Ateneo. When the school year 1871-1872, opened in
June, Rizal like any other neophytes in a new school environment was fill of excitement
and joy. He was dressed like the others with coat and tie. He went to the school chapel to
hear Mass and prayed fervently to God for guidance. When the Mass was finished, he
went to his class, where he saw a great number of boys, Spaniards, mestizos, and
Filipinos.

His first professor in the Ateneo was Father Jose Beach. Rizal related how he
became “emperor” at the Ateneo. In Jesuits College, two empires were established to
stimulate the students, a Roman “empire” and a Carthaginian or Greek “empire”
constantly at war for supremacy in the class, whose leading posts are won by means of
challenges which are successful if the opponent committed three mistakes. Rizal was
placd at the tail-end of the line because he was a newcomer and knew little Spanish,
although he could already make some sense of it.
After a week, he improved his class standing. After a month, he was already
“emperor,” because he was the brightest in the class. Because of his excellent
performance, he was awarded a saint’s picture as his prize.

To improve the Spanish at that time, he spent the noon recesses in Sta. Isabel
College where he spent three pesos for Spanish lessons.

“My First Inspiration.” This poem was written by Rizal in Ateneo as a

expression of good wishes which was full of endearing filial affection on his mother’s
birthday. The transition from Spanish to English was by Leon Ma Guerrero, Jr.

Being a brilliant student, Rizal obtained excellent grades and received many
prizes offered by the school. He was very active in co-curricular activities. He
participated in literary and religious affairs, took lessons in solfegio and in drawing and
painting under Don Agustin Saez. He read many good books like Aleixandre Dumas’ The
Count of Monte Cristo and Caesar Cantus’ University History. His prize-winning pieces
were “To the Filipino Youth” (a poem) and “The Council of God’s (an alligatory). He also
wrote a melodrama entitled “Along the Pasig” which was staged at the Ateneo
auditorium on December 8, 1880.

Rizal’s Poem on Education. Rizal wrote this poem when he was only
fifteen years old. At an early age, he was already aware of the value of Education and its
significant role in the intellectual, physical and moral development of an individual in
particular and the progress and welfare of a nation in general.

He believed that the ultimate goal of education is the effective participation of

thew individual in the total progress of social interaction in its society. This
interpersonal relation maybe the improvement of basic knowledge, intellectual and
manual skills, power of reasons and criticism, acquisition of desirable values and
attributes, power of creativity and innovation, cultural appreciation, sense of
responsibility and understanding of the modern world.

Rizal developed an insatiable appetite in reading books fiction and non-fiction.

He read romantic novels and lives of great men who had left remarkable achievements
with interest and fervor.

One of his professors that inspired him to study with seal and enthusiasm and
write poetry was Father Francisco Sanchez which he described, “a great educator and
scholar.” Young Jose was deeply impressed with the fine qualities of this professor who
possessed an acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of mind. Rizal had the
deepest affection and esteem for this professor whom he considered a consummate
teacher.
“To the Filipino Youth” was written by Rizal when was eighteen years old at the
University of Santo Tomas in conncection with literary contest sponsored by Liceo
Artistico Literario, a society of men interested in literature and arts. This literary contest
was participated in by Filipinos and Spanish-mestizos. The board of judges were
composed of Spaniards who were impressed by Rizal’s poem and awarded the first prize.

The prize winneing poem. A La Juventud Filipina (To the Filipino Youth) is an
open explicit expression of love of country. Rizal appealed to the youth to rise from
apathy and enjoyed them to create beautiful verses with art and science “to break the
chain has long bound the poetic genius of the country.’

The classic poem gives a nationalistic and eloguent manifestation that the
Philippines is the “fatherland of the Filipinos” and not the Spaniards who were born in
our country.

Artistic Skill in Sculpture. Sculpture is the art of curving: modeling,

welding or producing works of art in three dimensions. Young Rizal impressed his
professors and classmates when he curved the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of
Philippine hardwood-batikuling with a pocket-knife. The professors were amazed at the
proportion, the beauty and the finish of the image. Because of his sculptural talent,
Father Leonardo requested Rizal to curve for him the image of the sacred heart of Jesus.
The old Jesuit priest was very much pleased and expressed his profound appreciation to
the young sculpture. his intention was to take with him the image when he went back to
Spain, but unfortunately he forgot. This image was placed on the door of the dormitory
of the Ateneo and remained there for almost twenty years.

Education under the Jesuits. The system of education under the Jesuits
in the Ateneo was probably more advance from that of other colleges in that period. The
students were trained by rigid discipline and character development. Religious
instruction was given emphasis to acquire the manners and morals of Christian
gentlemen. The students heard Mass in the morning before classes begun and classes in
all subjects were opened and closed with prayers. Prizes were given for outstanding and
impeccable department. Penalties were meted out for disorderly conduct.

The government subsidized the school from the municipal treasury. Students
who belong to the wealthy group paid a monthly fee P 2.00; and those who are classified
poor, paid nothing.

The curriculum includes Christian doctrine, Spanish, Latin, Greek and French;
world geography and history, the history of Spain and the Philippines; arithmetic,
algebra and geometry, mineralogy, chemistry, physics, botany and zoology, poetry and
rethpric and philosophy. Jose constantly received the grade of excellent.
Rizal started Medical Studies at Sto. Tomas . At the outset. Dona
Teodora believed that her son had enough education after graduating with highest
honors from Ateneo and so she opposed Jose’s going back to Manila for further studies.
However, Don Francisco through otherwise. so his son enrolled in the University of Sto.
Tomas, taking the first course of philosophy in June 1877. Simultaneously he studies at
the Ateneo those subjects that would entitles him to a diploma in surveying. Dona
Teodora did not approve his son to acquire more knowledge because she had
apprehension that this might endanger Jose’s life, like the fate of Filipino intellectuals,
e.g. Father Burgos, Dr. Antonio Regador and other Filipino exiles and executed by the
Spanish authorities. But in spite of the objection, Don Francisco and Paciano were able
to persuade Dona Teodora about Jose’s further studies.

Rizal’s First Day at the Pontifical University . Riza; who was

sixteen years old enroll in the university taking Philosophy and Letters. The following
school year, 1878-1879, he begun his medical studies. He studied medicine because he
wanted to be a physician so that he could look after her mother’s failing eyesight.
Besides, Father Pablo Ramon, Rector of Ateneo, whom he consulted for advice on the
choice of career, recommended medical course.

Even if he was now at Sto. Tomas, he still frequented the Ateneo because there,
he was the president of the Literary Academy, secretary of the Natural Sciences,
secretary of the Marian Congregation, and Celador of the Apostolado dela Oracion.

Rizal’s Days at Sto. Tomas. The academic climate at the University of Sto. Tomas
was quite different from the Ateneo. Rizal’s impression was not like that of Ateneo
because most Dominican professors seemed hostile to him. The methods of instruction
were traditional and in some cases repressive.

In his novel. El Filibusterismo, Rizal described how some Dominican professors

insulted Filipino students and mockingly called them “Indio”. Because of unfriendly
attitude of his professors, this most brilliant graduate of Ateneo, virtually failed to
maintain high scholastic honors. While some of his scholastic grades in medical
education were not excellent, however, they were all passing.

After five years in the University of Sto. Tomas, the oldest university in the
Philippines and even older than Harvard University, Rizal decided to quit and continued
his medical education abroad.

Rizal’s First Love. Rizal like other teen-agers also experienced the “pleasure and
pains of first love.” The girl who captured his heart was the fourteen year old Segunda
Katigbak, who was a boarder at La Concordia College, where his elder sisters were
studying. Unfortunately, she was already engaged to another young man, thus ending, at
an early stage of his life, his first love.
Rizal’s nect feeling of passionate personal affection happened in 1880, while
boarding in the home of his uncle, Antonio Rivera. He felt in love with his beautiful
daughter Leonor.

Rafael Palma’s pen portrait of this lovely young lass says: :Leonor was a beauty:
light skin almost white: wavy hair, almost blond; small and gracious mouth; large, dark
eyes shaded by long eyelashes; nose of correct profile, neither; sharp nor too flat; a smile
tinged with two glad dimples in the cheeks; agreeable conversation; sweet voice and
harmonious laughter.

Between the young lovers, Jose and Leonor grew feeling of warm personal
attachment and a tenderly beautiful romance. They became sweetheart for eleven years.

The Council of Gods. His prize-winning poem, La Juventud Filipina (To

the Filipino Youth) whom Rizal explored urgently the Filipino youth to “rise from
lethargy, to let his genus fly swifter than the wind descend with art and science to break
the chain that has long bound the poetic genius of the country,” inspired him to submit
an allegatory in prose entitled El Consejo delos Dioses (The Council of Gods) in another
literary contest sponsored by the Liceo Artistico-Literario (Artistic-Literary Lyceum).
This was in connection with the fourth centennial commemoration of the death of
Miguel de Cervantes, a noted Spanish novelist and famous author of Don Quixote (a
person who is inspired by lofty and chivalrous but empirical ideals).

The contrast was opened to both Filipinos that is why many participated –
priests, newspapermen, scholars, and professors of the University of Sto. Tomas. The
board of judges of the contest was all Spaniards. After a long, deliberate and critical
evaluation of the entries based on the criteria, the first prize was awarded to Rizal. The
prize was a gold ring on which the bust of Cervantes was engraved. In spite of the
objection of the Spaniards, because the winning author was an Indio, the Board of
Judges was firm in their decision and declared; “The idea and pot bof the work are of
great originality to which should be added the circumstances that throughout the same
strive to the utmost a correct style, an admirable richness of details, delicacy of thought,
and figures, and lastly, a taste so Hellenic that the reader imagines himself relishing
some delicious passage of Homer which with such frequency the Olympic sessions
describe to us in their works. “it may be interesting to know, that probably, that was the
first time in history, that an Indio – a young Filipino medical student excelled in a
national literary contest and participated in by the best writers at that time and defeated
the best Spanish writers. Rizal was indeed happy, because he proved, that, Filipinos
given the fair chance and opportunities to demonstrate their talents cn be equal to all
races of the world.

This winning allegaroy-literary masterpiece of Riza; based on classics which has a

figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another was a result of the kind
assistance of Father Rector of Ateneo who provided the needed reference materials.
“The allegatory established a parallel among Homer (Greek epic poet and author of Iliad
and Odyssey), Vigil (most famous poet of Ancient Rome) and Cervantes, a noted
Spanish novelist. The gods discuss the comparative merits of these different bards and
finally decide to give the trumpet of Homer, the lyrew to Vigil, and the laurel to
Cervantes. The allegatory fittingly and gloriously closes with the naiads, nymphs, satyra,
and other mythological characters dancing and gathering myrrh and laurel for
Cervantes.”