Catholic education

Pinoy Kasi : Catholic education

First posted 01:01am (Mla time) June 09, 2006
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on Page A15 of the June 9, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

TWO Catholic schools mark important anniversaries this year: Xavier School in San Juan marks its 50th year today, and St. Scholastica’s College will have its centennial in a few weeks.

I’m writing about them because I studied in Xavier and my mother in St. Scholastica’s. But I don’t want non-Xaverians and non-Scholasticans to stop reading, so let me assure you I’m going to take a different take on these anniversaries, sharing a few historical footnotes as my way of paying tribute to its founders and of tackling the issue of Catholic education itself.

Saving souls

Both Xavier and St. Scholastica’s were started by foreign Catholic religious. St. Scholastica’s is most identified with German Benedictine sisters. Xavier was founded by a team of Jesuits, mostly Basques and French-Canadians, and many others of different nationalities. What brought these men together was a passion not for the Philippines but for China. They were all originally assigned to work as missionaries

in China but they were expelled after the communist victory in 1949. So they moved to the Philippines, hoping to minister the Chinese community in the Philippines. There was already a girls’ school, Immaculate Conception Academy, so they set up one for boys.

It was not accidental that these schools were started by foreign Catholic religious. After the Americans occupied the Philippines in 1898, the Catholic Church realized that they now faced competition from American Protestant missionaries. Even if the country already had many Catholic schools, there was more work for Catholic religious. So you had new schools set up like St. Scholastica’s -- and Maryknoll College (now Miriam College), which was established by American sisters.

The Jesuits faced a different kind of competition. The Protestants had been quite active prosletyzing with the local Chinese, and had set up schools like St. Stephen’s and Grace Christian, offering the full range of Chinese subjects. The Jesuits knew they had a niche to carve, offering Chinese subjects through a Catholic institution for boys.

There then is part of the story behind these schools: a battle for souls.

Not clones

There can be no doubts about how committed the schools’ founders were to the Catholic Church. They left comfortable lives -- there were always rumors of a German princess or two in St. Scholastica’s -- to work under the most difficult of conditions. When the Jesuits arrived in Manila, the city was still recovering from World War II, and so Xavier started out in an old barracks building in Echague, Quiapo.

The anniversaries of St. Scholastica’s and Xavier offer us an opportunity to look at how the founders combined their religious faith with their commitment to a different mission: that of education. Looking now, in 2006, at what they’ve established, I have no doubts that they were effective as Catholic educators because they were able to transcend the stereotypes associated with missionary work.

To the credit of the Jesuits and Benedictine sisters, their schools didn’t quite try to mold students in their own image, at least not in a rigid sense.

I think back now of Xavier’s priests and how staunchly anti-communist they were. There were summers where the priests organized groups of Xaverians to go to Taiwan. Besides sight-seeing, we were herded into rallies with crowds chanting out slogans about driving the communists out of the mainland and freeing China.

In high school, when I submitted a term paper about an Indian named Vinoba Bhave who fought for land reform, my English teacher, an American, scribbled on my paper: “Bhave was a communist.”

Actually, Bhave was a socialist, not a communist; but in retrospect, I can understand where the priests were coming from. It was the height of the Cold War, and the priests had gone through persecution in China.

Yet, in fairness, they never tried to impose their views on us. Our teachers were a mixed lot, allowed to air their own opinions. One of my favorites was a Chinese woman who had married a Filipino. I’m not giving her name because even today, I’m not sure how her family feels about what she did. She spoke Chinese languages fluently and knew her history well -- she had little sympathy for Taiwan and the Kuomintang government there, talking about the corruption in China that eventually led to the communists’ victory. Those were very radical views for her times.

There was diversity in school -- non-Catholics were not required to attend Mass, or to convert. The world was there for us to explore, daily from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. We had a great library, with an even greater librarian, Reynaldo Alejandro, who eventually left for New York but still comes home regularly and is known for his wonderful books about the Philippines. The priests fully supported him in developing an excellent library, without censorship. Much of my curiosity about the world, which I try to share through this column, was nurtured in Mr. Alejandro’s library.

Feisty

St. Scholastica’s is more intriguing. The sisters were German, and you know what the stereotypes are about the German fixation on orderliness and routine. As if being German wasn’t enough, they were Benedictine, an order which sought to glorify God through work on days divided into rigid routines.

My mother remembers, and appreciates, the discipline of St. Scholastica’s, but she also remembers the nuns encouraging creativity, and taking on the outside world. They must have done something right, because eventually, some of their Filipina students took over the school, as nuns and lay people. With strong programs on social awareness and on gender sensitivity, you can see a real difference between a Scholastican and your other Filipina “colegialas” (convent school girls).

A few weeks back, I caught TV footage showing Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel of the Akbayan party-list group being arrested at a rally and arguing with the police. I ran into her a few days later and congratulated her: “They should know better than to pick on a Scholastican.” Actually, quite a few of the Hontiveros women went through St. Scholastica’s, the more visible ones being Risa and Pia on ABS-CBN television.

Xaverians? They’re a bit more conservative, mostly business people and professionals, but I’d still like to think Xaverians also come from a different mold. Xaverians are comfortable straddling different worlds, seeing no contradiction between being Chinese and Filipino, between being a businessman and appreciating a good play, or a good film. I’d like to think, too, that even if Xaverians pale in comparison to strong and independent women like my mother and the Hontiveroses, we do know what our principles are, and stand for them.

The Jesuits and Benedictine sisters taught us the importance of faith and mission, of conviction without falling into the traps of bigotry and intolerance. Each in their own way, Xavier and St. Scholastica’s offer us models for Catholic education.