Rizal

Jose Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan where he gained a typical schooling a son of an ilustrado family experienced during his time. Rizal, who was described as physically frail, grew to become an intellectual giant even with the archaic and backward system of learning and instruction obtained in the Philippines during the last decades of the Spanish regime.

Early EducationRizal’s first teacher was his mother, Teodora Alonso. As a tutor, Doña Teodora discovered that her son had a creative and in-depth talent for poetry so she encouraged him to write poems to reduce the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s imagination.

As Rizal grew older, his parents employed private tutors. His first private tutor was Maestro Celestino, followed by Maestro Lucas Paduaand later, an old man named Leon Monroy. Monroy lived at the Rizal residence and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, after 5 months of teaching, he passed away. After Monroy’s death, Rizal’s parents decided to send him to a private school in Biñan.

Rizal's Life in Biñan (1869-1870)As a young lad, Jose had a very colourful imagination and a keen sense of observation. At the age of 7, he was able to travel with his father for the first time to Antipolo to fulfil the promise of a pilgrimage made by his mother at the time of his birth. They went aboard on a casco, a ponderous vessel commonly used in the Philippines. It was the first trip on the lake that Jose could recollect. They went to Manila and visited his sister Saturnina in Santa Ana, who was then a boarding student in Concordia College, Manila.

June 1869, on a Sunday afternoon, Jose left Calamba for Biñan. He was accompanied by Paciano, his eldest brother who acted as his second father. The two brothers rode on a carromata. Upon reaching their destination, they proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was to lodge.

The next day, Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of Maestro...