Never will it be possible for a superst.i.tious man, especially if he is of the type that we have just a.n.a.lyzed, become a useful citizen. Such is the type which unfortunately is the product of an education of three centuries...!
The parochial schools (escuelas religiosas) have given their fruit; the lay schools (laicas) have also borne fruitage. The youths who graduate from the latter are undoubtedly not without defects; but they are not poisoned or forever led astray by that brutalizing superst.i.tion sown by native and foreign impostors. None of those youths will a.s.sail ruthlessly an ugly old woman mistaking her for a devil; he will not dream of flying in the air launched like a balloon by an army of devils. None shall believe that a piece of meat shall be transformed into arms, legs, and heads as a ma.s.s offered to a pintakasi progresses; much less can such youth conceive a Jesus Christ that would weaken at the sight of a chest that his mother Virgin Mary would show to remind him of his weak memory of G.o.d would forget; nor will he excuse himself of a wrong committed against a companion of the other s.e.x on the pretext that he does not have with him the girdle of the Angelic Militia; much less will he believe that, in spite of a criminal life, he will be able to secure eternal salvation provided only he has taken the precaution of repeating at every turn the invocation of the so-called Trinity on Earth.
That lay education will not produce individuals who trust in protection or recommendation to progress and triumph on earth. The lay education is wholly democratic and will not be capable of committing the same faults of those who, by not following their education, seek to employ in the affairs of life those means recommended in the Novenas in order to obtain what is desired by means of the help of the powerful, secured by means of requests, protestations of love, and promise of eternal devotion.
That mental conformation created by the diffusion of this superst.i.tious spirit is an obstacle, an insuperable barrier set up against the development of the moral sense. We shall sow principles of morality as the farmer who sows in the fields the seeds properly selected which will not grow unless the soil is adequate. Sane morals is founded upon the basis of reason; when this foundation is lacking, the moral taught will be like a tree that is rootless and lifeless. It is not possible that a school without G.o.d (escuela sin Dios) or the one with G.o.d can make the seed of morals grow upon a soil prepared by the school of superst.i.tion, of magic, and of sorcery. We have to prepare the soil cultivating reason and creating the logical sense.
I will only insist on things which only need to be presented before our common sense to be judged as they merit.
The Public School
Permit me now to express first of all my grat.i.tude to the a.s.sistant Director, Mr. Osias, who had the kindness to honor me with an invitation to speak at this conference. Now, I wish to express to you my thanks for your kind attention. Lastly, I desire to make one declaration: Every time I referred to the new generation, I did not want to mention only the youth educated in the lay schools of the Government, but all the youth educated in modern ideas, all the men and women of whatever age who, throwing aside the weighty burden of the Legacy of Ignorantism (Le gado del Ignorantismo), have accepted modern ideas, have modified their mentality, have been modernized, thanks to the example of, and the contact with, the representatives of American democracy. All the change, all the economic, moral, social, and political transformation effected in the Filipino people, and which none denies nor anyone can deny, reveals progress, and that progress is not the result of the Legacy of Ignorantism but the natural consequence of the regime of liberty, industry, work and logical mentality which governs our public schools and orients our social life.
To the Department of Education, to all the teachers of both s.e.xes--Americans and Filipinos--I express my profound grat.i.tude for the splendid manner in which they are complying with the duty entrusted to them by America and by the Philippines.
NOTES
[1] Ignorantism, the spirit of those who extol the advantage of ignorance; obscurantism.
[2] Translated from Spanish.
[3] Of the one hundred fifty-six books which the censorship of the Manila Customs refused entrance because they are obscene, five were printed in French and one hundred fifty-one in Spanish. In English, it is known, no obscene literature is found.
[4] From the Bishop of Cebu, dated November 19, 1919.
[5] This book was printed in 1844. Today, in the year 1920, the seventh edition of the Rueda is sold in Manila and is used in some of the private schools. This edition is a reprint of the original edition without any correction so that in history j.a.pan is not even mentioned, France is a kingdom, Prussian is separated from the rest of Germany; and in Spain, Isabela II is the one who still happily reigns. This is the famous book recommended by the priest who was interested in extending instruction in the Philippines.