CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION

Rizal had good memories of childhood in Calamba. As a family, they prayed together during the Angelus. There were times
when they would stay in the garden exchanging stories. It was in this garden where he learned to appreciate nature. Rizal’s
childhood was full of love & care shown to him by his parents & siblings. Due to his poor health, Rizal had a personal servant who,
after the daily Angelus, would tell him legends and fairy tales. These stories made him become interested in myths and folklores.
As a young boy, Rizal demonstrated intelligence and learned easily. His first teacher was Dona Teodora who taught him how
to pray. He was only three years old when he learned the alphabet. At a very young age, he already showed a great interest in
reading books. He enjoyed staying in their library at home with his mother. Eventually, Dona Teodora would notice Rizal’s skills in
poetry. She would ask him to write verses. Later, she felt the need for a private tutor for the young Rizal.
Just like the other children from the principalia class, Rizal experienced education under private tutors. His first private tutor
was Maestro Celestino followed by Maestro Lucas Padua. But it was Leon Monroy, his third tutor, who honed his skills in basic Latin,
reading and writing. This home education from private tutors prepared Rizal to formal schooling which he first experienced in Binan.
At the age of nine, Rizal left Calamba with his brother to study in Binan. After one-and-a-half hour of travel, they reached the
town on board a carromata. They went to the house of their aunt where Rizal stayed for more than a year. Before leaving his brother,
Paciano introduced Rizal to the teacher, Justiniano Aquino Cruz, who was also Paciano’s former teacher.
The class as described by Rizal (P. Jacinto, 1879), was in a nipa house, about thirty meters away from his aunt’s house.
Every day, Rizal would wake up early and either hear mass at four o’clock in the morning or study is lesson first and go to mass after.
After returning home, he would take breakfast and go to class from which he would come out at ten o’clock. He would then again go
to school at two o’clock and come out at five. He would pray with his cousins at six and then study for a while before going to sleep.
In Binan, he excelled in Latin and Spanish. He also had painting lessons under Maestro Cruz’ father-in-law, Juancho, an old
painter. Rizal’s leisure hours were mostly spent in Juancho’s studio where he was given free lessons in painting and drawing.
After receiving a letter from his sister, Saturnina, Rizal returned to Calamba on December 17, 1870 after one-and-a-half year
of schooling in Binan. He went home on board the steamship Talim and was accompanied by Arturo Camps, a Frenchman and friend
of his father (P.Jacinto, 1879).
STUDENT OF MANILA
Rizal was sent by his father to Ateneo Municipal, formerly known as Escuela Pia, for a six-year program, Bachiller en Artes.
He took the entrance exam on June 10, 1872, four months after the execution of Gomburza. He followed the advice of his brother,
Paciano, to use the name Jose Rizal instead of Jose Mercado. He feared that Rizal might run into trouble if it was known openly that
they were brothers since Paciano was known to have links to Jose Burgos, one of the leaders of the secularization movement and
one of three priests executed.
During this time, Ateneo Municipal was known to offer the best education for boys. Like all colleges in Manila, Ateneo was
managed by priests, but with an important difference in the sense that these religious were not friars but Jesuit Fathers. Students in
Ateneo were required to attend masses in the morning before the start of classes. Ateneo was also known for its rigid discipline and
religious instruction that trained students’ character.
Students in Ateneo were divided into two groups, the Romans and the Carthaginians. The Roman Empire was composed of
students boarding at Ateneo while the Carthaginian Empire was composed of non-boarding students. This grouping was done to
stimulate the spirit of competition among the students. At the start, Rizal lagged behind his classmates but because of his
perseverance and seriousness in studies, he became the ‘’emperor”, a title given to the most outstanding student in class, in just a
month’s time. (Zaide & Zaide, 1999)
Rizal studied at Ateneo from 1872-1877. In those years, he consistently showed excellence in his academic performance. He
passed the oral examination on March 14, 1877 and graduated with a degree Bachiller en Artes, with the highest honors.
After finishing Bachiller en Artes, Rizal was sent by Don Francisco to the University of Santo Tomas. Initially, Dona Teodora
opposed the idea for fear of what had happened to Gomburza. Despite this, Rizal still pursued university education and enrolled at
UST. During his freshmen year, (1877-1878), he attended the course Philosophy and Letters. Also in the same year, he took up a
vocational course in Ateneo that gave him the title perito agrimensor (expert surveyor) issued on November 25, 1881.
In his second year at UST, Rizal shifted his course Medicine. He felt the need to take up this course after learning about his
mother’s failing eyesight.
Rizal’s academic performance at UST was not as impressive as that in Ateneo. He was a good student in Medicine but not as
gifted as he was in Arts and Letters. Despite this, he was still one of the seven students who remained in the course in his last year
at UST out of the original batch of twenty-four (Jose, 2011).
In 1882, Rizal and Paciano made a secret pact- Rizal would go to Europe to complete his medical studies there and prepare
himself for the great task of liberating the country from Spanish tyranny.
RIZAL IN EUROPE
On May 3, 1882, Rizal left the Philippines for Spain. In his first trip abroad, Rizal was very excited to learn new things. He was
only twenty years old and as a young man, he was very observant and eager to interact with foreign nationals. He made sketches of
his fellow passengers and of the things that he saw during his travels.
Rizal reached Barcelona on June 16, 1882. He arrived during the summer vacation so he was able to meet up with former
classmates in Ateneo. These classmates organized a welcome party for Rizal at a coffee house in Plaza de Cataluna. They toured
Rizal around the city and brought him to the famous historical sites in Barcelona. In this city, Rizal found time to write an essay
entitled “El Amor Patrio” (Love of Country). This essay was published on August 20, 1882. In Diariong Tagalog where he used the
pen name Laong Laan.
After the summer vacation, Rizal decided to move to Madrid where he enrolled in Medicine and Philosophy and Letters at the
Universidad Central de Madrid (presently the Universidad Complutense de Madrid) on November 3, 1882. He also took lessons in
painting and sculpture at the Academia de San Fernando, and classes in French, English, and German at the Madrid Ateneo. Not
content with these activities, he still managed to enroll in fencing class at the schools of Sanz and Carbonell. In January of 1883,
Rizal wrote to his family and informed them that: “I am now studying Italian and have made a bet that I shall be able to speak it in two
months.” (Guerrero, 2010).
Rizal was awarded with the degree and title of Licentiate in Medicine for passing the medical examinations in June 1884. With
this title, Rizal was able to practice medicine. He continued enrolling in courses that would have led to a Doctorate in Medicine but
the degree was not given to him because he failed to pay the fee required to defend his thesis. It is important to note that at this time,
Rizal was already feeling the effect of the difficult economic situations in Calamba. His family faced financial problems brought about
by low crop productions because of drought and locusts aggravated by the hike in rentals on the haciendas by the Dominicans.
Consequently, there were delays in his monthly allowance from the Philippines.
Rizal also took examinations in Greek, Latin, and world history. He won the first prize in Greek and a grade of “excellent” in
history. He also obtained the degree Licenciado en Filosofia y Letras (lLicentiate in Philosophy and Letters) from the Universidad
Central de Madrid on June 19, 1885 with a rating of sobresaliente.
In between his studies, Rizal made time for meeting fellow Filipinos in Madrid. Known as ilustrados, these Filipinos
(enlightened ones) formed the Circulo Hispano-Filipino which held informal programs with activities like poetry-reading and debates.
As a prolific writer and poet, Rizal was asked to write a poem. As a result, Mi Piden Versos (They Ask Me for Verses).
 In one of the Filipino reunions at the house of Pedro Paterno in Madrid on January 2, 1884, Rizal proposed the writing of a
novel about the Philippine society. The group approved the project but his plan did not materialize. His fellow Filipinos who agreed to
help him did not write anything so he drafted the novel alone. It was in Madrid that he was able to write the first half of his novel, Noli
Me Tangere.
While in Madrid, Rizal was exposed to liberal ideas through the masons that he met. He was impressed with the masons’
view about knowledge and reasoning and how they value brotherhood. He joined the Masonry and became a Master Mason at the
Lodge Solidaridad on November 15, 1890.
Filipinos in Madrid occasionally visited Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey, the former city mayor of Manila under the term of Governor-
General Carlos Maria dela Torre. Rizal joined his fellow Filipinos at Don Pablo’s house where he met and became attracted to
Consuelo, Don Pablo’s daughter. However, Rizal did not pursue her because of his commitment to Leonor Rivera. His friend,
Eduardo de Lete, was also in love with Consuelo but did not want to ruin their friendship. In 1883, Rizal wrote a poem for Consuelo
entitled A Senorita C.O.y R.
Rizal specialized in ophthalmology and trained under the leading ophthalmologists in Europe Like Dr. Louis de Weckett of
Paris for whom he worked as an assistant from October 1885 to March 1886. In Germany, he also worked with expert
ophthalmologists Dr. Javier Galezosky and Dr. Otto Becker in Heidelberg in 1886 and Dr. R. Schulzer and Dr. Schwiegger in 1887
(De Viana, 2011).
During his stay in Germany, Rizal befriended different scholars like Fredrich Ratzel, a German historian. Through his friend,
Ferdinand Blumentritt, Rizal was able to meet Feodor Jagor and Hans Virchow, anthropologists who were doing studies on Philippine
culture. Rizal mastered the German language and wrote a paper entitled Tagalische Verkunst (Tagalog Metrical Art). He also
translated Schiller’s William Tell into Tagalog in 1886. It was also in Berlin where he finished Noli Me Tangere which was published
on March 21, 1887 with financial help from his friend Maximo Viola.
After five years in Europe, Rizal went home to Calamba on August 8, 1887. He spent time with the members of his family who
were delighted to see him again. He also kept himself busy by opening a medical clinic and curing the sick. He came to be known as
Doctor Uliman as he was mistaken for a German. His vacation, however, was cut short because he was targeted by the friars who
were portrayed negatively in his novel Noli Me Tangere. He left the country for the second time on February 16, 1888.
RIZAL’S SECOND TRIP TO EUROPE
In his second trip, Rizal became more active in the Propaganda Movement with fellow ilustrados like Marcelo H. del Pilar,
Graciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Mariano Ponce, and Trinidad Pardo de Tavera. The Propaganda Movement campaigned for
reforms such as: (1) for the Philippines to be made a province of Spain so that native Filipinos would have equal rights accorded to
Spaniards; (2) representation of the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes; and (3) secularizations of parishes.
Rizal became preoccupied with writing articles and essays which were published in the Propaganda Movement’s newspaper
La Solidaridad. Among his intellectual works in Europe is his annotation of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1890)
in which Rizal showed that even before the coming of the Spaniards, the Filipinos already had a developed culture. He also wrote an
essay entitle “Sobre de la Indolencia de los Filipinas” (On the Indolence of the Filipinos) published in 1890 in which he attributed the
Filipinos “indolence’ to different factors such as climate and social disorders. Another essay he wrote strongly called for reforms; it
was called “Filipinas Dentro de Cien Anos” (The Philippines a Century Hence) published in parts from 1889 to 1890.
By July 1891, while in Brussels, Rizal completed his second novel, El Filibusterismo, which was published on September 18,
1891 through the help of his friend, Valentin Ventura. Compared with his Noli, Rizal’s El Fili was more radical with its narrative
portrayed of a society on the verge of a revolution.
In 1892, Rizal decided to return to the Philippines thinking that the real struggle was in his homeland. In spite of warnings and
his family’s disapproval, Rizal arrived in the Philippines on June 26, 1892. Immediately, he visited his friends in Central Luzon and
encouraged them to join the La Liga Filipina, a socio-civic organization that Rizal established on July 3, 1892. Unfortunately, just a
few days after the Liga’s formation, Rizal was arrested and brought to Fort Santiago on July 6, 1892. He was charged with bringing
with him from Hong Kong leaflets entitled Pobres Frailes (Poor Friars), a satire against the rich Dominican friars and their
accumulation of wealth which was against their vow of poverty. In spite of his protests and denial of having those materials, Rizal
was exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao.
OUTLINE OF RIZAL’s CHILDHOOD & EDUCATION
Direction: Create an outline of the article by writing important details under each topic (column). Format the details in bullet and avoid
writing in sentence form.

Childhood & Early Education Student of Manila Rizal in Europe Rizal’s 2nd Trip to Europe

   
   
  `  
 