CHAPTER IV. A DISCUSSION OF EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. HE Century had taken on its load of TH ican agent at Nagasaki that the deception might be maintained that it was bought from an American, and we had sailed a day and a night toward the inland sea. As morning dawned we were entering the narrow strait of Shimonoseki, and when breakfast was over we were dodging here and there, threading our way among the green islands which dot the beautiful body of water lying between the islands of Nipon and Kinshu. But the chairman had become interested in the Filipino question and he called the passengers together on the deck for another discussion. Captain Bevans came up with a care-worn look and took his seat in silence. Private Smith-"As my profession at home is teaching 'the young idea how to US TRALIAN "Great Britain and her colonies are feeding and clothing our army and navy in the Philippines." shoot,' I have naturally tried to inform myself as to education in the Philippines. I was fortunate in becoming acquainted with Chaplain McKinnon, into whose charge General Otis gave the educational affairs of the territory occupied by our army. The chaplain is an unusually well educated man, and he made it a point to learn everything possible as to the schools and the percentage of illiteracy among the natives. To Agoncillo I am indebted for these facts: There are about 2,200 schools for children in the Philippines, there being two schools in each town of 5,000 inhabitants. Towns of 10,000 have three schools. In addition to these public schools there are many private schools for primary instruction. Primary teaching is widely extended and nearly all the Christian population can read and write. The primary schools teach reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, composition and histories of the saints. There are training schools of a polytechnic order in Manila, Iloilo and Bacolor. They will compare favorably with such schools anywhere. There are a number of colleges and univers ities, the annual attendance of which is esti at 20,000. mated by Agoncillo, a competent authority, The same authority estimates that about 800 girls study the higher branches in the convent schools of Manila each year. "General Charles King, who is an educator, a writer and a fighter, wrote to the New York Journal, June 3, 1899: 'They (Filipinos) are infinitely superior in point of education to the negroes of our Southern States. Nine-tenths of them can read and write and have some knowledge of geography and history.' It may be added that nearly every soldier of Aguinaldo's army could read both Tegalo and Spanish and that there are about 4,500 different books published in Tegalo, including text-books on law, medicine, astronomy, surveying and navigation, mental and moral science, and one Filipino, a dramatist, was shot by the Spaniards in San Isidro because he was the 'insolent' translator of Renan's Life of Christ,' from the French into Tegalo, and had it published for general circulation." There was a look of amusement on the face of the chairman when he asked Captain Bevans what he had to say about Filipino education. Captain Bevans-"All the education they have is an impractical sort gained in the Jesuit schools. To be able to govern themselves a people should have the broad, liberal education of the Anglo-Saxon." Private Smith--"When you find an education broad enough to turn out lawyers, physicians, dentists, machinists, navigators, meteorologists, metallurgists, and civil engineers, first-class in their lines, I think it is a rather practical sort of education. Not a great many of them are so well educated; but, when I come to think about it, I believe that there are several people in the United States who have not completed university courses.' Colonel Handy--"Captain Bevans knows the facts too well to tell us that old yarn about the Filipinos having conspired to massacre all Europeans, though both Secretary Long and Senator C. K. Davis have alleged it in public speeches. For the chairman's information I will quote what Lieutenant C. G. Calkins of the United States navy, says, after 5 |