Ten Years in the Philippines 



J 43 



language of business in the Orient, be- 

 cause it is the language of free institu- 

 tions, and because it is the language 

 which the Filipino children who do not 

 know Spanish are able more easily to 

 learn than they are to learn Span- 

 ish, and it is the language of the 

 present sovereign of the islands. The 

 education in English began with the sol- 

 diers of the American Army, one of 

 whom was detailed from each company to 

 teach schools in the villages which had 

 become peaceful. When the Commis- 

 sion assumed authority it sent to the 

 United States for 1,000 American teach- 

 ers, and after the arrival of these pioneers 

 in the islands a system of primary schools 

 was inaugurated together with normal 

 schools. 



There are engaged in the teaching of 

 these schools at present 717 permanent 

 American teachers and 109 temporary 

 appointees, and all of these are paid out 

 of the central treasury. 



6,000 FILIPINOS TEACHING ENGLISH 



The 6,000 Filipino teachers who are 

 now teaching English have received their 

 English education from our normal 

 schools or our American teachers. Their 

 number is growing, and they represent 

 and are the most valuable educational 

 asset we have acquired in working out 

 our school system. The Filipino insular 

 teachers are drawn from graduates of 

 normal schools and also from the students 

 sent by the government and at the ex- 

 pense of the government to the United 

 States to be educated there. Forty-six 

 of these students have recently returned 

 from the United States and have been 

 appointed as insular teachers at salaries 

 ranging from 840 to 960 pesos per an- 

 num. We are not able to educate as 

 they should be educated more than a 

 half of the youth of school age in the 

 islands. The government, while contrib- 

 uting to the maintenance of high schools 

 in each province, is devoting its chief at- 

 tention to the spread of primary educa- 

 tion, and in connection with primary edu- 

 cation, and, at its close in the interme- 

 diate schools, to industrial education. 

 Primary and industrial education carried 



on until the child is 14 or 15 years old is 

 thought to be the best means of develop- 

 ing the Filipino people into a self-sustain- 

 ing and self-governing people, and the 

 present government has done all that it 

 has been possible to do in developing and 

 maintaining a proper system for this 

 purpose. 



ALREADY MORE FILIPINOS SPEAK ENGLISH 

 THAN SPEAK SPANISH 



The influence of the primary instruc- 

 tion in English is shown throughout the 

 islands by the fact that today more 

 people throughout the islands, outside of 

 Manila and the large cities, speak Eng- 

 lish than speak Spanish. At times, as 

 already intimated, a discordant note is 

 heard in the suggestion that the American 

 government is seeking to deprive the 

 Filipino of his native language. As his 

 native language is really 15 or 16 differ- 

 ent dialects, this does not seem a great 

 deprivation. 



Should Congress be anxious to facili- 

 tate and hurry on the work of redeeming 

 the Philippine Islands and making the 

 Filipino people a self-governing commu- 

 nity, it could take no more effective step 

 than a permanent appropriation of two or 

 three millions of dollars for ten or fifteen 

 years to the primary and industrial edu- 

 cation of the Filipino people, making it 

 conditional on the continued appropria- 

 tion by the Philippine government of the 

 same amount to educational purposes 

 which it has devoted and is now devoting 

 annually to that purpose. The influence 

 of the educational system introduced has 

 not only been direct in the spread of edu- 

 cation among the younger of the present 

 generation, but it has also been an indi- 

 rect means of convincing the Filipino 

 people at large of the beneficent purpose 

 of the American government in its re- 

 maining in the Philippine Islands and of 

 the sincerity of its efforts in the interest 

 of their people. 



FILIPINO CADETS AT WEST POINT 



Section 36 of the act of Congress ap- 

 proved February 2, 1901, referring to 

 Philippine Scouts, provides that — 



"When, in the opinion of the President, 



