SUMMARY OF MISEDUCATION OF FILIPINOS

EDUCATION

● It is a vital weapon of a people striving for economic emancipation, political independence and
cultural renaissance.
● Produce Filipinos who are aware of their country's problems, who understand the basic solution
to these problems, and who care enough to have courage to work and sacrifice for country's
salvation.

NATIONALISM IN EDUCATION

● In recent years, in various sectors of our society, there have been nationalist stirrings which
were crystallized and articulated by the late Claro M. Recto, some are;
● correction of the iniquitous economic relations between the Philippines and the United States.

● Filipino First Policy- our goal: economic emancipation

● No comprehensive educational program has been advanced as a corollary to the programs only
techniques and tools for improved instruction
● Effect: a citizenry ignorant of our basic ills and apathetic to our national welfare

NEW PERSPECTIVE

● Economic and political leaders have gained a new perception of our relations with the United
States, the reaction, which has to revise the iniquities of the past and to complete the
movement started by our revolutionary leaders of 1896.
● The educational system introduced by the Americans had to correspond and was designed to
correspond to economic and political reality of American conquest.

CAPTURING MINDS

● It is the most effective means of subjugating a people.

● Military victory does not necessarily signify conquest, as long as feelings of resistance remain in
the hearts of the vanquished, no conqueror is secure.
● (Japanese Occupation) if they had stayed longer, Filipino children would have grown into strong
pillars and their minds would have been conditioned to suit the policies of the Japanese
Imperialists.
● Education serves as a weapon in colonial conquest, which prevents subjugation of mind and
limits influence and oppressors.
 ● America launched a rational large-scale reopening of schools to start their influence and
remodeling of the Filipinos as well as to calm their struggle.

BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL EDUCATION

● The educational system of the Philippines was a means of pacifying a people.

● Education under Americans was an instrument of colonial policy.

● Young minds had to be shaped to conform to American ideas.

● Indigenous Filipino ideals were slowly eroded in order to remove the last vestiges of resistance.

● Education served to attract the people to the new masters and at the same time to dilute their
nationalism which had just succeeded in overthrowing a foreign power.
● Dissolved Nationalism as it attracted Filipinos to adapt to other cultures (acculturation) and
made an image that Americans are our Allies, our heroes who saved us from the wicked Spain.
● Since English was used as a medium of instruction, America really pushed Filipinos to learn a
new way of learning and adapting new ideas which the locals and leaders won’t understand,
which made inception more easy.

THE AMERICAN VICE-GOVERNOR

● Jones Act which granted the Filipinos more autonomy

● Though the government was 'Filipinized' for the nation was being prepared for self-government,
the Department of Education was never entrusted to any Filipinos.
● Supported by Article 23 of Jones Act, which makes the American Vice-Governor the head of the
department in case of seat vacancy or late appointment of the Governor-general.
● The Jones Law also known as the Jones Act, the Philippine Autonomy Act or the Act of Congress
of August 29, 1916, was an organic act passed by the United States congress which replaced the
Philippine Organic Act of 1902 the Jones law acted like a constitution for the Philippines until
1934 when the Tydings-McDuffie Act creating of the Commonwealth of the Philippines is
established for the first time an elected upper house which would eventually become the
Philippine Senate.
● It was until 1935, where the Commonwealth and the new generation of "Filipino Americans"
emerged. They, of course, have already been influenced by the Americans so they act, think and
live like them.

GOALS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

● The American educational system is not for the sole purpose of saving the Filipinos from
illiteracy and ignorance.
 ● The Filipinos had to be trained as citizens of an American colony.

● Philippine education was shaped by the overriding factor of preserving and expanding American
control. All separatist tendencies were discouraged.

 AN UPROOTED RACE

● The decision of using English as the medium of instruction in education as an instrument of

colonial policy.

● This is the beginning of their education, and the beginning of their miseducation.

● Filipinos had to be disoriented from their nationalist goals because they had to become good
colonials.

● The lives of Philippine heroes were taught but their nationalist teachings were glossed over.

ECONOMIC ATTITUDES

● Control of the economic life of a colony is basic to colonial control.

● Strengthens the belief that the Philippines is essentially meant to be an agricultural country.

● Interest is limited to artesian wells and handicraft projects.

● The Pastoral economy was extolled because this conformed with the colonial economy that was
being fostered.

● American ways were slowly being adopted.

TRANSPLANTATION OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

● American education in effect transplanted American political institutions and ideas into the
Philippines.

● Indigenous institutions which could have led to the evolution of native democratic ideas and
institutions were disregarded.

● We have been made to believe in certain political doctrines as absolute and the same for all
people.

RE-EXAMINATION DEMANDED
 ● New demands for economic emancipation and the assertion of our political sovereignty leave
our educators no other choice but to re-examine their philosophy, their values, and their
general approach to the making of the Filipino who will institute, support and preserve the
nationalist aims.

● What then are the nationalist tasks for Philippine education? Education must be seen as the
making of man so that he may function most effectively and usefully within his own society.

● FALLACY: Education goals should be the same everywhere (unless same political, cultural,
economic level and goals).

ADOPTION OF WESTERN VALUES

● Economically, the United States is a fully developed, industrial nation.

● Politically, it is only not master of its own house, its control and influence extends to many

● other countries all over the world.

● Culturally, the U.S. has a vigorous and distinct American culture, it is a nation whose

● cultural institutions have developed freely.

● By virtue of its leadership and its economic interests in many parts of the world, the United

● States has an internationalist orientation based securely on a well grounded, long held
nationalistic viewpoint.

UNFILIPINO FILIPINOS

● We complacently allow aliens to gain control of our economy.

● There is no nationalism in our hearts which will spur us to protect and help our countrymen first.

● We are well nigh unique in our generally non-nationalistic outlook.

● The pathetic results of this failure of Philippine education is a citizen amazingly naive and
trusting in its relations with foreigners.

THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM

 ● The most vital problem that has plagued Philippine education has been the question of
language.

● Filipinos believe they cannot survive without America, so in education we believe no education
can be true education unless it is based on proficiency in English.

● The deleterious effects of using English as the medium of instruction are many and serious.

BARRIER TO DEMOCRACY

● Under the system maintained by Spain in the Philippines, educational opportunities were so
limited that learning became the possession of a chosen few.

● One of the ostensible reason for imposing English as the medium of instruction was the fact that
English was the language of democracy, that through this tongue the Filipinos would imbibe the
American way of life which makes no distinction between rich and poor and which gives equal
opportunities.

● English has created a barrier between the monopolists of power and the people. English has
become a status symbol, while the native tongues are looked down upon.

●  A clear evidence of the failure of English education is the fact that politicians address the
masses in their dialects. Lacking mastery of the dialect, the politician merely deals in
generalities.

● This is a barrier to democracy. Because of the language barrier, therefore, they are content to
leave everything to their leaders.

IMPEDIMENTS TO THOUGHT

● A foreign language is an impediment to instruction. Instead of learning directly through the

native tongue, a child has first to master a foreign tongue, memorize its vocabulary, get
accustomed to its sounds, intonations, accents, just to discard the language later when he is out
of school.

● Resulted in the denial of education to a vast number of children who after the primary grades no
longer continue schooling.

● A foreign tongue as a medium of instruction constitutes an impediment to learning and to

thinking because a student first has to master new sounds, new inflections, and new sentence
constructions.
 ● Language is a tool of the thinking process. But when a language becomes a barrier of thought,
the thinking process is impeded or retarded and we have the resultant cultural stagnation.

● Language is the main problem, therefore. Experience has shown that children who are taught in
their native tongue learn more easily and better than those taught in English

THE PRIVATE SECTOR

● Before the Second World War, products of the Philippine public school system looked down
upon their counterparts in the private schools.

● Today, public schools are looked down upon. Only the poor send their children to these schools.
Those who can afford it, or those who have social pretensions, send their children to private
institutions.

● There were two concomitant tendencies that went with this trend:

1. Commercialization of education

2. Some private schools which are owned and operated by foreigners and whose social science
courses are handled by aliens flourished.

● The proliferation of private schools and the simultaneous deterioration of public schools have
resulted not only in lower standards but also in a definitely un-Filipino education.

● Autonomy of private institutions would only dilute nationalist sentiments either by foreign sub-
versions or by commercialization.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL MEDIA

● The almost unilateral source of news, films and other cultural materials tends to distort our
perspective.

● American films and comics, American press services, fellowships in America, have all contributed
to the almost total Americanization of our attitudes.

● A distinct Filipino culture can not prevail if an avalanche of western cultural materials suffocates
our relatively puny efforts in this direction.

SALIENT POINTS

● Education was established based on the American framework by the Americans not just for the
purpose of educating the Filipinos but also to preserve and control their control to our country.
 ● The American-instituted educational system is geared towards subjugating the minds of Filipinos
for colonial mentality while promoting passivity to inhibit the contestation of American
hegemony in the Philippines.

● The new economic emancipation and assertion of political sovereignty pushed our educators to
reexamine education's general approach, values and philosophy

CONCLUSION

● The education of the Filipino must be a FILIPINO EDUCATION. It must be based on the needs and
goals of the nation.