CHAPTER IX
ADVENTURES OF A SCHOOL TEACHER.
Laguna de Bay, surrounded by mountains, sleeps tranquilly in thestillness of the elements, as if it had not joined the chorus ofthe tempest on the night before. As first rays of dawn appear in theeastern sky and awaken the phosphorescent myriads in the water, long,grey shadows appear in the dim distance, almost on the border of thehorizon. They are shadows of fishermen's boats at work drawing inthe nets.
Two men, dressed in deep mourning, from a lofty height contemplatethe scene in silence. One is Ibarra, and the other is a young,meek-looking man with a melancholy countenance.
"Here is the place!" said the latter. "Here is where your father'sbody was thrown into the water! The grave-digger brought LieutenantGuevara and me here and pointed out the spot."
Ibarra, with emotion, warmly grasped the young man's hand.
"You need not thank me!" replied the latter. "I owed your father formany favors he did me. The only thing I could ever do for him wasto accompany his body to the grave. I had come to the town withoutknowing anybody, without any recommendations, without a reputation,without money, just as I am now. Your father protected me, procured ahouse for me, helped secure whatever was needed to advance education;he used to come to the school and distribute pennies among the poorand diligent pupils; he provided them with books and papers. But that,like all good things, did not last long."
Ibarra took off his hat and seemed to pray for a short time. Thenhe turned to his companion and said: "Did you tell me that my fatherused to help the poor children? How is it now?"
"Oh, now they do the best they can."
"And don't they come to school regularly?"
"No, for their shirts are ragged and they are ashamed."
Ibarra kept silent for a few moments.
"How many pupils have you now?" he asked, with a certain interest.
"There are more than two hundred on the register, but only twenty-fivein the class."
"How does that happen?"
The school teacher sadly smiled.
"It is a long and tedious story," said he.
"Don't think that I am asking out of vain curiosity," replied Ibarra,looking seriously at the distant horizon. "I have been meditating agreat deal on the matter, and I believe that it is far better to try tocarry out the ideas of my father than to try to avenge him. His tombis sacred Nature; and his enemies were the people and the priest. Ican forgive the people for their ignorance, and as to the priest,I will pardon his character because I wish to respect the religionwhich he represents. I wish to be inspired with the spirit of theone who gave me life, and, that I may lend my help, I wish to knowwhat are the obstacles here in the way of education."
"The country will bless your memory, Senor, if you can carry outthe beautiful and noble ideas of your dead father," said the schoolteacher. "You wish to know what the obstacles are? Very well. We arenow in such circumstances that unless something powerful intervenes,there will never be any education here. First, because there is noincentive or stimulus to the children, and, secondly, even when thereis an incentive, lack of means and many prejudices kill it. They saythat the son of a German peasant studies eight years in the townschool. Who would want to spend half of that time in our schools,when the benefits to be derived are so small? Here the children read,and commit to memory verses and at times entire books in Spanish,but all without understanding a single word. What good can the sonsof our farmers get out of the school so long as this is the case?"
"And you see the evil; have you not thought out a remedy?"
"Ah, poor me!" replied the teacher, shaking his head, "a poorteacher cannot alone fight against prejudices, against existinginfluences. Above all, I would need to have a school house, so thatI would not, as I do now, have to teach from the priest's carriage,under the convent. There, when the children want to read aloud, theynaturally disturb the Father, who at times comes down and very nervous,especially when he has his attacks, finds fault with the children andinsults me. You know very well that under such conditions no one can doany teaching. The child does not respect the teacher from that momentwhen he sees him mistreated by some one else without maintaining hisrights. The teacher, if he is to be listened to, or if his authorityis not to be doubted, needs prestige, a good name, moral strength, anda certain amount of freedom. If you will allow me, I will give you anillustration. I wished to introduce some reforms and they laughed atme. In order to remedy the evil that I spoke of a moment ago, I triedto teach the children Spanish, because, not only does the Governmentorder it, but because it will be a great advantage for them to knowthe language. I employed the simplest method, used simple phrasesand nouns without making use of hard rules, with the expectation ofteaching them the grammar as soon as they had learned the language. Atthe end of several weeks, almost all the smarter ones in the schoolunderstood me and were able to compose phrases in Castellano."
The teacher stopped and seemed to be in doubt. Then, as if he hadmade up his mind, he began again.
"I ought not to be ashamed of the history of my grievances. If any onehad been in my place, he would have had the same story to tell. As Iwas saying, I began well. Several days later the priest, who was thenFather Damaso, sent the sacristan mayor to tell me that he wanted tosee me. As I knew his character and was afraid to make him wait forme, I went up immediately, saluted him and said good morning to him inSpanish. As was customary, when I saluted him, I advanced to kiss thehand which he held out, but just at that moment he withdrew it and,without replying to me, began to chuckle scoffingly. I was naturallydisconcerted, and it was all done in the presence of the sacristanmayor. At the moment, I did not know what to say. I stood and lookedat him while he went on laughing. I had already become impatientand saw that I was on the point of committing an indiscretion. Allof a sudden, he stopped laughing and added insult to injury. With acunning air, he said to me: 'So it is buenos dias, eh? buenos dias,ha, ha! How funny! Why, you know how to speak Spanish, do you?' Andthen he continued his laugh."
Ibarra could not keep back his smile.
"You laugh," replied the teacher, also smiling. "I confess that I didnot feel like smiling at that time. I felt the blood rush to my head,and a thunderbolt seemed to dazzle my brain. I saw the priest far off,very far from me. I started toward him to reply. The sacristan mayorinterposed and said very seriously, in Tagalog: 'You want to stopwearing borrowed clothes. Be content to speak in your own language anddo not spoil Spanish, which is not meant for you. You have heard aboutCiruela? Well, Ciruela was a teacher who did not know how to read,but he taught school.' I wanted to detain him for a moment, but hewent quickly into his room and closed the door violently. What was Ito do? In order to collect my salary I have to have the approval ofthe priest on my bill, and have to make a journey to the capital ofthe province. What could I do to him--the moral, political and civilauthority of the town, sustained by his corporation, feared by theGovernment, rich, powerful, always consulting, advising, listening,believing and attending to everything--what could I do to him? Ifhe insulted me, I had to keep my mouth closed. If I talked back,he would throw me out of work, spoiling my career. And what goodwould it do--education? On the contrary, everybody would take up thepriest's side of the matter; they would criticise me, they would callme vain, proud, arrogant, a poor Christian, poorly educated, and whennot this, they would call me an anti-Spaniard and an agitator. Theschool teacher should have no authority. He should only be lazy,humble, and resigned to his low position. May God pardon me if I do notspeak conscientiously and truthfully, but I was born in this country,I have to live, I have a mother to support and I have to be resignedto my lot."
"And have you continued to be discouraged on account of thistrouble? Have you attempted nothing since?"
"Would to God that it had ended there!" he replied. "Would to God thatthat had been the end of my misfortunes. The truth is that from thatday I began to take a dislike to my profession. Every day the schoolbrought to my mind my disgrace and mad
e every hour a bitter one forme. But what could I do? I could not disappoint my mother. I had totell her that the three years of sacrifices which she had made for mein order that I might learn the profession now made me happy. I hadto make her believe that the profession was a most honorable one, thatthe work was most pleasant, that the road was strewn with flowers andthat the fulfillment of my duty produced nothing but friendships. IfI had told her the contrary, I myself would still be as unhappy andwould only make another unhappy, which was not only useless but asin. So, I kept at my work and tried not to be discouraged. I triedto fight it down."
The school teacher made a short pause and then began again.
"You know that the books in most of the schools are in Spanish,excepting the Tagalog catechism, which varies according to thecorporation which appoints the priest of the parish. The booksgenerally used in the school are novenaries, the 'Doxology' andFather Astete's catechism, which are no more edifying than thebooks of heretics. On account of the fact that it was impossible toteach the children Spanish, as I wanted to do, and owing to the factthat I could not translate so many books into the native language,I decided to try to substitute for them gradually, short verses,extracts from the best Tagalog books, such as the 'Treatise onUrbanity' by Hortensio y Feliza, and some of the little pamphlets onagriculture. Sometimes I myself translated small works, such as the'History of the Philippines,' by Father Barranera, and afterwarddictated to the pupils for their note books, adding at times someof my own observations. As I had no maps to teach them geography,I copied one of those of the province which I saw in the capital,and with this reproduction and, by the aid of the tiles on the floor,I was able to give them some ideas about the country. The new priestsent for me. Although he did not reprimand me severely, he told me,however, that my first duty was to teach religion, and that before Ibegan to teach any such things I must prove by an examination that allthe children knew by heart the 'Mysteries,' the 'Doxology,' and the'Catechism of the Christian Doctrine.'
"So, in the meantime, I am endeavoring to convert the children intoparrots so that they will know by heart all of these things of whichthey do not understand a single word. Many of the pupils alreadyknow the 'Mysteries' and the 'Doxology,' but I fear that I am makingFather Astete's efforts useless, inasmuch as my pupils do not evendistinguish between the questions and the answers, or what eitherof them signifies. Thus we shall die and thus shall do those who areyet to be born; yet in Europe they talk about Progress!"
"Let us not be so pessimistic," replied Ibarra, rising to hisfeet. "The teniente mayor has invited me to attend a town meeting tobe held in the tribunal. Who knows but that some plan for improvementmay there be adopted!"
The school teacher arose to go, shaking his head in token of doubt.