UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS

AY 2018 - 2019

SUNGA, Clarissa Mae B. 1CW AUGUST 22, 2018

The (Mis)Education of the Filipino Writer: A reaction

The colonization of the Americans in the Philippines had a great impact in our country,

most especially in the field of education. Before education was a course of specialty and discipline

in the academe, it was, as Cruz had stated, first and foremost, “a military strategy” with General

Arthur MacArthur supporting the assessment of the new American System in the new colony and

when Edilberto K. Tiempo was given a scholarship to attend graduate school in America, followed

by his wife on the succeeding year, Creative Writing became an academic discipline in the

Philippines and this is how everything changed for our beloved country.

There are certain issues in “The (Mis)Education of the Filipino Writer” by Conchitina Cruz

that I would like to discuss in this paper. As aforementioned on the first paragraph, education

started with the Americans after the Spanish had failed to colonize the Philippines. According to

Renato Constantino’s essay “The Mis-education of the Filipino,” the Filipino people continued to

be “good colonials,” having the willingness to obey others with no questions asked. This, I think,

was the motive of the Americans when they implemented “education” in the Philippines: to lure

in Filipino people, who remained illiterate under the hands of the Spaniards, into their hands by

bribing them a new system of learning, but only in their language which was the English language

– this was just the beginning of our miseducation; don’t even get me started with the Tiempos.

The Tiempos, as Cruz had stated, brought Creative Writing as an academic discipline in

the Philippines. As a first-year creative writing student, at first I loved this, adored even but
halfway through the reading, tables have completely turned. Having been influenced by Paul

Engle, the Tiempos’ mentor, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, they established the Silliman

Workshop in the Silliman University, having English as the new language of creative writing.

Before getting to point of the English language used in the new institution, I would like to mention

how the Tiempos’ taught their students how to write aesthetically, meaning, writing literature

freely and with no limitations, or in other words, writing just for “art’s sakes,” just like the

Americans rather than writing politically which, for me, is writing for freedom against the

Americans, creating a social movement, having the motivation to change the society. This became

a central predicament amongst Filipino writers and I am also convinced that this dilemma lead to

Silliman University’s Workshop’s apolitical and ahistorical aspects, which was really

disappointing, in my opinion. As Filipino writers, I believe that we should not only write for art’s

sakes but also to see the world beyond its means and to write to fight for what is right and what

should be heard by other people.

Now, let me discuss the English language, especially the “English only in the Silliman

Workshop,” which is until today, I assume is still being implemented (come on, guys. It’s 2018,

time to change). Filipino writers that wrote in Filipino, Romulo Baquiran, Jr. and Luna Sicat Cleto,

only gained admission to the Silliman Workshop by submitting English translations of their works

originally written in Filipino. Philippines then became an Anglophone country, making Filipinos

belonging in an English-speaking community where two or more languages of our own are spoken.

English became an intelligent standard amongst Filipinos and sadly, in this generation, it still is.

Speaking English in public places and writing in English now means “I’m literate and I’m a genius

because I speak English and you don’t.” Yes, I may be an American citizen but in my heart, I will

always be a woman with two countries: the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of
America. I speak fluently in Ilocano, Filipino and English and I prefer speaking my own dialect

and my own language but this, I admit, although, embarrassingly, I prefer writing in English rather

than in Filipino; I feel more comfortable writing with English but after reading Cruz’s dissertation,

I realized that I, myself, was mis-educated yet I didn’t think of using the English language in

writing as a representation of being “intelligent” – it just means that I’m more comfortable with

using the said language yet, despite of this, I shouldn’t be neglecting my own language, that is the

Filipino language especially in writing. I may not be as experienced and confident in writing in

Filipino but I will try my very best to write in Filipino and change the standards of the education

not just of the Filipino writer but of all the Filipinos.

Let me end this with a quote from Dr. Jose P. Rizal: “Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa

sariling wika ay higit pa sa hayop at malansang isda.”