Education and Economic Development in the Early American Period in the Philippines

The American teachers had to start virtually from scratch, since years of warfare had nearly eliminated any trace of Spanish educational efforts. It is, however, no disparagement of the American program to point out that the Spanish authorities were aware of educational needs and had taken significant steps to meet them. Prior to the nineteenth century, the Spanish approach had been mainly what is now termed informal education. Schools were provided for Spanish children and a very small number of the Indios (the Spanish term for the natives). Most of the population were never inside a school room, but their lives were, nevertheless, dramatically changed by the missionary work of the Spanish clergy. The priests moved the people from scattered farmsteads into settled villages, taught them the rudiments of the Catholic faith, trained competent artisans in the building trades and introduced a European type of agriculture and stimulated craft industry. The classic description of Spanish missions indicates the prominence of work in handicrafts: