Chapter IV: What the Teachers DID

There is a remarkable sameness about the towns in the Philippines. They all have a large open square about the middle of the town, around three sides of which are Chinese stores, unless one side lies open to the sea, and on the fourth is the great stone _ecclesia_. The streets run at right angles to one another and divide up the town into creditable squares.

Everybody in the Philippines lives up-stairs, for the ground is so soaked with water during the rainy season that it is a menace to health to live upon the ground floor. So even the poorest _nippa_ hut is built upon stakes four or five feet above the ground.

Bacalod is a typical Philippine town. As we landed, a broad open square was spread out before us. Two sides of the square were lined with two-story houses in which were Chinese stores below and Filipino homes above. On the third side stood the great stone church in whose massive tower the clock was striking the hour of four, while the fourth lay open to the sea that had borne us thither.

We landed, but it was in a method new to us and one not usually employed by the traveling public.

When our sail boat ran aground on the sandy bottom a hundred yards or more from the shore, a crowd of Filipino men who were on the beach slowly rolled up their pantaloons and waded out to the rescue,--for the money that was in it. The boat's crew elevated their trousers' legs also and slided down into the water. Each of us then straddled the neck of a Filipino standing in the water and was held by ankles to be steadied while our biped mounts proceeded to the shore.

We were now on the ground and face to face with the situation. To give the reader an idea of the actual conditions met by the first teachers who went to the Islands, the following is copied from the instructions given us in Manila:

1. There shall be two sessions daily of all schools, and the
last hour of the morning session shall be devoted solely to
instructing the Filipino teachers.

2. In cases where teachers are sent to a town in which there
is no school-house, they are expected to secure the aid of the
people and have one built.

3. The American teacher is to see that all studying aloud is
stopped.

4. All supplies must be kept under lock and key. In towns
where there is no case or box to lock the supplies in, and it
is also impossible to get the town council to furnish a case,
a requisition may be sent to Manila, and, if an appropriation
can be secured, one will be made and sent out.

Thus it can be easily seen that we were indeed pioneers. In many places no school-house was to be found, and in some cases it was even difficult to get the town council to provide a case in which to keep the supplies.

The work of the teachers was, in short; to "make the English language the basis of instruction in the public schools." On our arrival at Bacalod two schools were found in progress, for some soldiers had been detailed for the work here previous to our coming. One of these was for boys and the other, for girls. Thus the work here had been in a measure simplified, but complications that had arisen at Talisay, one of the largest and richest towns on the island, demanded a change of teachers and the writer was assigned to the place as superintendent. Here an attempt had been made to start a school but it had failed ignominiously and a system of education was to be put into operation from the very start.

The Filipinos are not strong advocates of co-education, so separate schools were to be started for the boys and the girls. The one for the boys was gotten well in hand before the one for the girls was attempted at all.

A few days after reaching the town and securing a home the _presidente_ of the town had it publicly announced that the following Monday morning at eight o'clock a public school for boys would be opened in a building that had been rented for the purpose by the municipal council. About the middle of the afternoon of the same day a man beat a little drum throughout all the streets of the town to call the people out and the town clerk announced both in Spanish and in the native language that this public school would begin at the time and place mentioned above; that instruction would be free to all who came; that the government would furnish all supplies; and that instruction would be given in the English language. A native principal and assistants were employed and everything was ready to begin.

The official report of the result is as follows:

Boys' public school of Talisay, Negros, P. I., began November
4, 1901. Forty-three boys present at eight o'clock. Forty-one
of them knew "good morning" and "good afternoon" but do not
know the distinction between them. Two of them speak simple
Spanish. At eight forty-five, eight more, who had been
attending an early morning private school, came in together.

The books they brought were so varied and so different from
one another that it seemed impossible to bring any reasonable
degree of order out of such a chaos, and so, after struggling
vainly for about a week with the problem, the superintendent
by one fell stroke removed everything in use and put in a
uniform system, and from that day on the English language has
been the _basis_ of instruction in the public schools of
Talisay. The work was of necessity very slow at first, but by
the end of a year two schools were going nicely and a number
of the brightest boys and girls had made really excellent
progress.