ABSTRACT
In 1898, the Philippines was ceded by Spain to the United States. Under American rule, the colonial government built rapport with the people of the Philippine Islands through the Thomasites –the frontliners of the new colonizers. Like the friars during the Spanish colonial rule, the Thomasites were seen as representatives of the Americans whose role was so vital in the success of the colonial government between 1901 and 1935. The word “Thomasite” was derived from the ship –the U.S. Army Transport Thomas or USAT Thomas or simply “Thomas”. This paper argues that the Thomasites have brought so many social changes to Philippine society; the most significant of which was their progress in education. Before American occupation, Bacolod was a thriving provincial capital. When the Bureau of Education (now the Department of Education) was established in 1901, Bacolod became the administrative center of the Division of Occidental Negros. Hence, it became a significant outpost for the Thomasites from then on. In 1902, the Thomasites firmly rooted themselves in Bacolod with the establishment of the Instituto Rizal (now Negros Occidental High School). Private schools later emerged in Bacolod as partners of the Thomasites in education, many had affiliations with American-founded schools in Iloilo, Dumaguete, Roxas, Cebu, and Manila.
Keywords: Thomasites, American Teachers, Education, Bacolod, American Period
1.0 INTRODUCTION
On the 10th of December 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, involving a compensation of $20 million. (Tan, 2008:78) The defeat of Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War dealt a devastating blow to its colonial supremacy, leading to the loss of control over territories like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The decline of Spanish power towards these colonies and the victory of the United States as supported by the Treaty of Paris paved the way for the rise of the US over Spain as a global power. (Jose, 2000:32)
After the Spanish-American War, William Howard Taft became the first civilian governor-general of the Philippine Islands in 1901. This was during the Filipino-American War, and despite the ongoing conflict, the Americans continued their efforts to assimilate the people of the Philippines. (Jose, 2000:12) With the purpose of establishing an educational system that would assimilate the people of the newly occupied territory, teachers were sent from the United States to the Philippine Islands in the early days of American colonial rule. (Barrows, 1907:80-82) A total of 600 American teachers traveled from the United States to the Philippine Islands but initially nearly 500 American teachers arrived in Manila on August 21, 1901. These American teachers were eventually called “Thomasites” –after the name of the ship that transported the group of teachers to the Philippine Islands from the United States. The ship is called the U.S. Army Transport Thomas or USAT Thomas. The term “Thomasites” was later used to include any teacher who arrived in the first few years of American colonial rule (Casambre, 1982: 7-14). Although “The Thomas” was the largest group of pioneer American teachers to the Filipinos, they were not the first to be deployed by the American government. Before the arrival of USAT Thomas, both the Schurman and Taft commissions had already sent batches of American teachers. Also, it is important to remember that the U.S. Army soldiers took the first-ever steps in teaching the Filipinos as early as 1898. (Sianturi, 2009: 20) The person behind the management of the pioneering batch of teachers was Fred W. Atkinson. In 1900, he was appointed as the first American General Superintendent in the Philippine Islands. The General Superintendent divided the archipelago into divisions and appointed an assistant superintendent for each division coming from the United States. (Eaton, 1902: 62-63) One of the assistant superintendents at that time was David P. Barrows, who was appointed as superintendent of schools for Manila. Atkinson and Barrows were among the pioneering administrators of the Philippine public school system. Their contributions laid the foundation of the Bureau of Education (now the Department of Education) which would later prepare the way for the Thomasites (Ezzell, n.d).
The United States commissioned the Thomasites to establish a new public school system in the Philippine Islands. Decades before the coming of the Americans, for the first time, a public school system was introduced by Spain in 1863. (Hunt, 1988: 352) However, Barrows mentioned how he personally as an anthropologist described Filipino society at that time based on rigid observation and available written sources. He said that out of a total population of less than eight million, as determined by the census of 1903, about seven million were Christianized. Though westernized by the Spaniards, a huge number of Filipinos were still illiterate and didn’t have access to education. (Barrows, 1907:30) The Spanish colonial education system failed to reach the general population. Although compulsory, the system reached only a few Filipino children, with an estimated 200,000 elementary students at its peak in 1898. Hence in 1900, only thirty (30) percent of men and ten (10) percent of women in the islands were literate. (Prieto, 2014:381)
The public education system during the Spanish regime was limited only to the so-called upper-class men (elite) or those they called gente illustrada. The gente illustrada is one of the two social divisions of Spanish colonial society, the other one is the gente baja, or the poor illiterate class. In terms of proportion among these two social divisions, the gente ilustrada is by far the most literate plus socially and economically regarded. But this group constitutes a very small fraction of the overall population compared to the number of gente baja. As described by David P. Barrows, out of the 26,000 people who live in the pueblo, only about a dozen families belong to the gente ilustrada. These few elites often ruled the remaining majority; their literacy and access to “education” gave them a further advantage over the other social divisions, thus paving the way for further widening the gap between the rich and the poor. When the Spanish government organized the public schools, the upper class mainly benefited while the great mass of the population remained in benighted ignorance as before. When Atkinson left the Philippines in 1903, Barrows became the next general superintendent of education in the Philippine Islands. He was instrumental in the total reorganization of the Philippine educational system during the American period. (Barrows, 1907:30)
With the guidance of Barrows and with the indisputable support of the civilian governor-general – William Howard Taft, the American teachers made so many relevant reforms, improvements, and expansions in the new public school system. (Clymer, 1976:496) The impact of which can still be felt today, the usage of English as the medium of instruction is an undeniable remnant of the American—sponsored public school system making our country today among the most English-speaking countries in Asia. (Cabigon, 2015)
The American teachers did not all come at the same time. They were transported in different shiploads. The largest group of American teachers to have ever sailed to the Philippine Islands was carried out by the U.S. Army Transport Thomas ship, or simply “The Thomas”. According to a study conducted by Lardizabal, some of the Thomasites never returned home. In the early 1900s, some of them died of smallpox, cholera, dysentery, and even in the hands of bandits. Others died from natural causes and were buried in the Philippine Islands. The Thomasites were referred to as “America's second army in the Philippines”, they have done many reforms to the Filipino nation that were assimilated to Filipino culture and have been valuable elements of contemporary Filipino identity. (Lardizabal, 1956:5-6)
After the arrival of the Thomas on August 21st of 1901, they were quarantined for two days, after disembarkation, they traveled and stayed in the walled city of Intramuros before being given their province of assignment. (Gabriel, 1999:30-35) This study recounted the experiences of the Thomasites assigned in Bacolod, their progress in education, and their social significance in the lives of the townspeople from 1901 to 1935. The following were some of the Thomasites assigned in Bacolod, organized in alphabetical order: Bachelder, W.K., Chapman, W.I, Cheesborough, J.W., Crabtree, Carl B., Hasting Byron F., Hasting, Hellen, Howell, R, B, Montgomery, D. C., Putnam, Charles E., Sandy, Lott, and Warren, James F. They were assigned in the initial years of the American-sponsored public school in Bacolod. The names were retrieved from an online document entitled Filipinos and Americans in the Bureau of Education (1901-1906).
Generally, the study aims to determine the social significance of the Thomasites and the progress they brought to education, specifically in Bacolod from 1901 to 1935. This study sought to answer the following questions:
1. What were the experiences, aspirations, and common practices of the Thomasites assigned in Bacolod?
2. From a social perspective, how significant are the Thomasites to the people of Bacolod in their progress to education?
3. How did the people of Bacolod approach the Thomasites and deal with the religious and philosophical ideals they brought?
The study provides valuable information to the Philippine Historical Commission, local historical commissions in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, college history instructors and professors, social studies teachers, and future researchers.
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