EDUCATE THE MASSES

Sir Joe,

Very well done Sir. What a delight to hear a kindred spirit expound on this vital subject. I have spent so very many hours (with limited success I must admit) in debate/discussion (and frustration) with Filipino and Rizalist groups trying to push the reality that Dr. Rizal was referring to the core reality of the concept of education (from the original Latin root 'educere' and meaning 'to draw out', or 'develop from within') and NOT a SYSTEM of national or state education.

This obviously included recognising the intrinsic value of every human being and their potential, regardless of what that was, the complete elimination of 'elitism' in all its negative aspects and the recognition that 'academic attainment' (identified via Certificates, Diplomas and Degrees and other such pieces of wall decorations) does not correlate to any significant degree with intelligence or the capacity to make use of it. The development of each individual's true potential and the recognition of their true personal independence was the ideal he strove for. He may, indeed, have gone a little too far in his development of this concept when, in his further writings, he suggested that in the future there would be no nations, no borders and nationalists/patriots would be looked on as subversives.

Yours in Rizal,

Don Brennock, KCR
Dublin

On 8 January 2011 08:37, Jose Sison Luzadas ...@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Exits and Entrances
Reviewing the NOLI & FILI novels
by
Jose Sison Luzadas, KGOR
CANADA

”All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts…."
Shakespeare

The lines are from Shakespeare’s “As you Like It”. We are all familiar with Dr. Rizal’s characters in the NOLI and FILI and there is no doubt, that the manwhoin his time plays many parts,must be Crisostomo Ibarra!

Rizal introduced Ibarra at the beginning of the NOLI as a promising young man who after seven years abroad returned to the Philippines . He was preoccupied with his plans to educate the native Filipinos by building schools. His plans, however, were thwarted by Father Damaso. Moreover, he failed to avenge his father's death and worst he lost Maria Clara to the nunnery!

Like the fading sunset of San Diego , he disappeared and no where to find him after the long chase in the lake where Elias, the mysterious native and protector died of bullet wounds inflicted by the pursuing Civil Guards.

The vanishing Ibarra made his comeback appearance in the FILI as Simoun sporting disguises like moustache and dark glasses. Completely a different man so obsessed of starting a native uprising to topple the government. However, his plan failed.

Rizal assigned a native priest to rationalize a bungled revolution. Father Florentino lectured to a dying Simoun that his revolution from the beginning is doomed to fail because the people are not READY and because they are not READY they don’t deserve it! “What good is independence if the SLAVES of today are the TYRANTS of tomorrow?

Back to the “drawing board”……….EDUCATE THE MASSES!

Rizal's theory of education he tailored to his people did not include "spoon feed curriculum" or obtaining academic degrees from schools and universities perating as "diploma grinding machines!"