Early Education

Rizal’s first teacher was his mother, Teodora Alonso. As a tutor, Doña Teodora discovered that her son had a creative and in-depth talent for poetry so she encouraged him to write poems to reduce the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s imagination.

As Rizal grew older, his parents employed private tutors. His first private tutor was Maestro Celestino, followed by Maestro Lucas Padua and later, an old man named Leon Monroy. Monroy lived at the Rizal residence and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, after 5 months of teaching, he passed away. After Monroy’s death, Rizal’s parents decided to send him to a private school in Biñan.
Life and Studies in Ateneo (1872-1877)

In 1865, college began to function in the Philippines when the Jesuits returned. Jesuits were considered as the best educators in Spain, and perhaps in Europe. So they established an institution called the Ateneo de Municipal.

The Instruction of Jesuitical system was considered advanced. Their methods were less mechanical and rigid in discipline. Jesuits introduced physical culture as well as art cultivation, such as music, drawing, and painting. Agriculture, commerce, and mechanics were part of their vocational courses. Being a religious institution, Ateneo’s principal purpose was to mold character.

Rizal entered Ateneo de Municipal in 1872. He describe his first professor, Fr. Jose Bech as a “man of high stature; lean body, bent forward; quick gait; ascetic physiognomy, severe and inspired; small, sunken eyes; sharp Grecian nose; thin lips forming an arch with its sides directed toward the chin."

During his second year in Ateneo he had the same professor as in the previous year; but instead of lodging outside the City, he resided at No. 6 Calle Magallanes. At the end of the term, he received excellenct grades in all his