Jose Rizal valued learning so much that the education of Filipinos emerged from being one of the dreams of his youth to become his supreme aspiration during his adulthood.

In 1876, when he was a 15-year-old student at the Ateneo Municipal of Manila, he wrote the poem Por la educación recibe lustre la Patria (Education Gives Luster to the Motherland), which affirmed that education was an instrument that “inspires an enchanting virtue and puts the country in the lofty seat of endless glory” and that whoever procured it may rise until the height of honor ? (Rizal’s Poems, Centennial Edition, Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1962, pp. 12, 13). Since he was only a teen-ager, his keen desires for his motherland’s education had always been in his mind.

His first novel, the Noli Me Tangere (Berlin, 1887) sought radical changes in the country’s educational system, such as new curricula that would suit the people’s needs; more schools, books, and instructional equipment; better teaching methods; and good teachers and good benefits to them. It sought the teaching of both local and Spanish languages in order that pupils would understand what were being taught to them. It also asked the removal of the lash as the severe punishment to students who could not memorize and recite a whole catechism book in Spanish (without even understanding a single word of it).

On March 31, 1890, while in Brussels, he told in a letter to his Austrian friend Ferdinand Blumentritt:? “Yes, I believe that the time is approaching when I can return to the Philippines. Then, when I am already there, you will come with your whole family and you will live with me. I have a large library. I shall order a little house built on a hill. Then I shall devote myself to the sciences, I shall read and write history, I shall establish a school, and if you can stand the climate, you will be its director. Then we shall rest and devote our strength to the education of the people, which is my supreme aspiration ? (The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence, Centennial Edition, Part 1, Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1961, pp. 343-344).

By that time, Rizal was already a matured 28-year-old young professional. His views on education had ripened too. It was now his supreme aspiration.

He knew where he would begin the education of the people. It would be in his hometown of Calamba, which had hills, plains, streams, and forests, and which was facing Laguna Lake. Its calm environment was very conducive to learning. The large library was their family library, which had more than 1,000 volumes of books, aside from scholarly journals and periodicals.

His writings revealed that his aspiration would:

English (Loose translation): If you gave life to somebody, you should also provide him/her a source of livelihood.

Explanation: One practical application of this saying is the case of a parent-child relationship. It is not enough that a child is born to the world. It also the responsibility of a parent to give that child the facility to survive ~ through food, clothing and shelter (while still young) as well as education to prepare the child for his/her future.

Do you agree with this saying?