The Thomasites, Before and After
They were called thus not due to St. Thomas of Aquinas but because they came in a cattle cargo vessel called the “S/S Thomas”.
And they came to teach English as part of the “policy of attraction” after the 1898 Rep�blica de Filipinas was blown up to smithereens by a superior invading military force.
It was obvious that the main content of the so-called policy of attraction was to compulsorily impose English as the only medium of instruction. Benevolent assimilation was to be advanced by “education in English”. If no working knowledge of English was acquired by the native Filipinos, education was unilaterally deemed not to have taken place among them. Without English, a Filipino is deemed illiterate even if he can correctly write and speak in Tagalog or any of his major native languages.
Indeed, before the benevolent Thomasites did come, native children had for their English teachers the McKinley soldiers that claimed to educate “them Injuns with the crank and the kragg”. This claim dovetailed the Mckinleyan motto “to christianize, to educate and to uplift” the Filipino.
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*** Guillermo Gomez Rivera is a Premio Zobel awardee, a member of the Academia Filipina and former National Language Committee Secretary, Philippine Constitutional Convention 1971-73.
[tab: Other interesting posts by the author]
The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 7 of 7 Parts The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 6 The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 5 The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 4 The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 3 The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Parts 1-2
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But were the Filipinos of the 1900s who were already drinking real potable water; who knew what cheap electricity and silk was; who called friends by note, postcard, phone and telegram, and who grandly celebrated Christmas and Lent, really asking the Thomasites to “educate” them in the English language?
An American linguist of the time, Mary I. Bresnahan, answered that question in the following manner:
“In any case, it continues to be speculative if the Filipino’s purported desire to learn English was genuine or not. Documents tell us about Filipinos trembling with fear inside their huts built on stilts as they expected the intrusion of the cruel Americans reputed to be blood thirsty giants bent on killing even the most trusting among them. Unsure about the real motives of the invaders, the Filipinos did what they thought would please the Americans the most. And that was to learn their language, —English.” (See “The Americanization of the Philippines, The Imposition of English during the 1898-1901 Period” by Alfonso L Garcia Martinez, Law College of Puerto Rico, Vol. 43, pages 237 to 270, May 1982).
Other articles by Guillermo Gomez Rivera
- A national language lesson from Puerto Rico - December 10, 2008
- Ang Pinanggalingan ng 'Tatarin' - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 7 of 7 Parts - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 6 - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 5 - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 4 - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 3 - April 18, 2008
- The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Parts 1-2 - April 18, 2008
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