﻿156 The Philippine Journal of Science 1914 



and more fully appreciate the work which it accomplished 

 by examining the following excerpt from a report of the sec- 

 retary. This report included a general review of the work of 

 the academy during the first two years of its existence. 



The director of the Superior Normal School, cognizant of the necessity 

 of providing some means by which the teachers who graduate from the 

 normal school may develop, proposed the establishment of a pedagogical 

 academy. This association was the means of impressing upon the teachers 

 the dignity and honor of their profession, inspiring them with the desire 

 to spread morality and culture among their pupils, to carry intelligence 

 from province to province and from town to town, to awaken the families 

 to the call of necessity knocking at their doors, and to enkindle in the 

 minds of the common people the sentiments of virtue, knowledge, patriotism, 

 and Christianity; as these things insure more and more the moral and 

 material enlargement of the Archipelago. 



Enough has been said to convince one of the utility and great impor- 

 tance of the pedagogical academy. It is filling a want which has been felt 

 throughout the history of these Islands, and is destined to remedy many of 

 the faults of the teaching profession. 



In corroboration of what I have just said, let us take a look into the past. 

 Not long ago, the schools of the Archipelago were rated as woefully defi- 

 cient. This condition of affairs resulted from a lack of schoolhouses and 

 equipment, a lack of interior organization, poor attendance, the inexperience 

 of the teachers, and the want of pedagogical knowledge. It is not my pur- 

 pose to censure the Spanish Government nor reprove the teachers, but, with 

 my hand upon my heart, I am constrained to lament the fact that in spite of 

 the ardent fondness and powerful means put forth by the government of His 

 Majesty and the diligence of those in charge of education in this distant 

 region the results up to date cannot be compared with those achieved else- 

 where in the same time and with the same labor. 



The academy tends to dissipate these difficulties. At first the effect may 

 be small, but it will become constantly greater as the fight goes on against 

 those things which restrain or annul teaching. 



The academy has already given palpable proof of its vitality and use- 

 fulness in disentangling the difficulties that are opposing the instruction 

 and education of the Filipino youth. Evident proof of this truth lies in 

 the good results reported by the teachers who took part in the literary 

 sessions held periodically in the academy. In these meetings, they acquired 

 useful knowledge which was entirely new. Even the teachers in the prov- 

 inces who did not attend the sessions were benefited by those meetings, 

 accounts of which were published in the Official Bulletin for Filipino 

 Teachers. 



Our academy has other effective means of instruction. These are the 

 pedagogical library and the museum which the academy has been forming 

 little by little from the beginning, in order to refresh and enrich the knowl- 

 edge of the teachers. 35 



The following may further serve to show the character of the 

 work undertaken by the pedagogical academy. 



" See No. 5 in the bibliography. 



