Longfellow's legacy: education and the shaping of Philippine writing

Abstract: Filipinos are cultural clones of Americans. This was the perception for decades after the 1946 Philippine independence from the United States. What specific strategies did the American colonizers use to create these ‘brown Americans’? The answer may be found in the language and literature education imposed by the colonial educators. The success of American public education in the Philippines may be partly attributed to the Anglo‐American canon of literature introduced in Philippine classrooms. However, this literary canon would not have been as potent without its powerful partner: colonial pedagogy. Together, canon and pedagogy produced a certain type of language and literature education that created standards for Philippine writing. In the end, canon, pedagogy, and the power of American public education in the Philippines resulted in relegating Philippine writing to the margins.