THE THOMASITES, AND EDUCATION IN THE EARLY 1900S By Eric J. Dedace From the “Pang-alalang Magasin” of Mr. Sancho Alvarez, the old Municipal building constructed under the supervision of “Maestro Carpintero” Pablo Racelis, served as the temporary school for the newly arrived American teachers and their young Sariayahin students. With that, the Municipio was temporarily housed at the Calle Bonifacio residence of Mr. Crispulo Vargas before it transferred to the brick-roofed Calle Daliz house of the 1883-1884 Gobernadorcillo Don Venancio Rodriguez or “Kapitang Bina”. The late Mrs. Guadalupe Alcaneses-Cadiz (born 1926) or “Tia Puping”, told of a story by her father Engr. Vicente Alcaneses (1893-1984) that happened sometime 1901 onwards when he started his schooling as an eight – year old under the “Thomasites”, a name that referred to the American teachers who arrived in Manila on board the ship “Thomas” from the US. He belonged to the first batch of students of the Sariaya school who used the Old Municipio as their place of learning. Among his father’s classmates as remembered by “Tia Puping” were Aniana Palomera, Mamerta Religioso, Eriberto Dedace, Justiniana Jumawan, Maria Ocampo, Mamerto Cadorna, and Justo Lacandola. Accordingly, he always chuckled while relating one of his favorite stories, that of the Sariaya Park Lagoon, referring to the then sunken part that used to be filled with water. In those days, what is largely the area of the present town park was still the southern part of the church patio, and an old wall separated it from what Engr. Alcaneses referred to as the much smaller Sariaya Park with the said lagoon, The road called Bandholtz Street (today’s Calle Mayor, General Luna Street), named after the Honorable Harry Bandholtz , the second American Governor of Tayabas Province (1902-1903) thus circumvented the church patio on both sides, from east to west when going to Candelaria and vice versa if headed for Lucena, while Calle Daliz bordered the small park at its southern end. According to the story, from the school, the Thomasite American teacher would say “Let’s go to the pool” and compelled them to go to the park every Wednesday after classes. Upon reaching the area, the teacher would roughly push them one by one into the water of the said lagoon. The young Vicente never understood why, but in his old age, he came to the following conclusion. They never bothered taking a bath and had only two sets of clothes in going to school. In all likelihood, they were a stinking group, unwashed and with dirty clothes. In those days, innocence was still the rule of the game, most especially with the Sariayahin children who were just learning the English language. Accordingly, when the Thomasite teacher started the roll – call, the young Vicente would say, “Hershey” instead of the customary “Here Sir!”. From a National Geographic article, Mr. Milton Hershey of Pennsylvania USA started his now famous chocolate-manufacturing company in the year 1903, around the time of the young Vicente’s primary schooling. His favorite subject in class was geography so he was very adept about the longitude and the latitude, more so the comparative sizes of countries and their respective capital cities. The much younger Gregorio Idea who learned to draw the map of Luzon, as well as the different provinces in it was likewise a geography buff, and said that they used to have geography-oriented contests in school. With such, it is very clear that geography was a very important subject in the early years of a child’s education, an essential part of the school curriculum in those days. As related by Mr. Sancho Alvarez in his “Pang-alalalang Magasin”, before the year 1918, Sariayahin students can only avail of a primary education, meaning up to the fourth grade, and beyond that, they had to go to Lucena, Tayabas and Lucban to complete their elementary education. They rode horses and calesas in the process and their parents had to rent houses in Lucena for the duration of their studies. As such, the young Vicente lived in the house of his benefactor, Donya Celestina Varela of Lucena and he finished his elementary education in the year 1909. It was only in the year 1917 when the new building of the Sariaya Elementary School was finished, which was used by Grades I and II during the school year 1918 – 1919. By the academic year 1919 – 1920, all the elementary school classes were in place and the very first school principal was Mr. Eriberto Alcance Dedace, an erstwhile classmate of Engr. Vicente Alcaneses. Mr. Dedace finished his secondary schooling at the Tayabas High School (now the Quezon National High School) in Lucena, and in the year 1918 married another erstwhile classmate, Maria Albufera Ocampo, who was likewise a teacher in the new school. That both of them became mentors even without a college degree is a tribute to the high quality education provided by the American Thomasite teachers to the young Sariayahins born in the late 1880s and the early 1890s, at their temporary school in what was the Old Sariaya Municipio starting the year 1900. Mr. Sancho Alvarez listed the very first grade seven graduates of the new Sariaya Elementary School Class of 1920 as Eduvigio Antona, Asuncion Luna, Mameng Religioso, Julio Albufera, Marciano Quejano, Eriberto Quejano, Manuel Gala, Teofisto Remo, Juliana Rama, Felimon de Luna, and Eulalia Decena among others. This Class donated the old “Bulletin Board that can still be found in today’s iron grill – enclosed porch of the 91 year old school building. Meanwhile “Tia Puping” said that accordingly, the very first Barrio School building in the whole Philippines was constructed at Barrio Morong in Sariaya through the Gabaldon School Act 1801 of the year 1907, allocating P 1 Million for schoolbuilding construction nationwide. It was authored by Congresman Isauro Gabaldon, said to be a close friend of then Sariaya Presidente Don Maximo Rodriguez, later, a two term Governor of Tayabas province (1916-1922 and 1933-1937). Another Barrio of Sariaya which had its own school building then was Mamala, where Miss Juliana Rama (born in 1904), who belonged to the new Sariaya Elementary School Class of 1920 taught, together with the head teacher Mr. Francisco A. de Castro from 1923 to 1925. Accordingly, they had to ride the Calesa to the school everyday, the only available means of transportation then aside from riding on horseback. She taught there for two years and in the year 1925 got transferred to the elementary school of barrio Bucal.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 11:06:15 +0000
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