The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-02-06
K UP A NATION
How Uncle Sam, Patriarch, is Educating the
Filipino.
Filipino.
BY Frank G. Carpenter.

AACkG ALAXSs |
Iieh Means to the Islands-A Look |
n the schools and the New School,
houscs-Thrce Hundred Thousand
Boys and Girls Who Are Having
Manual Training-COurseS in Wcav-
ing. Lacemaking, Farming and
Gardcning-The Normal Schools
and How the Teachers Are Trained
summer Schools Everywhere
Thc Correspondence School and
the Teachers Camp-Athlctics-
Twelve Hundred Baseball Teams
and the National Meets.
copyright, 1912, by Frank G. Car
wAsHINGToN, D. c.
Waking up q nation!
That is what Uncle Sam is doing
IN the Philippines. He has started
A,a00,0 900 people to thinking. and both
The wild man and the civilized are
using their brains. The ladies with
which he is stirring this mighty in
tellectual pot are of many kinds. One
Is the new government, another the
roads and public works that are being
made everywhere, g third is the
chances for mOney-making which he
has opened up to the people, and
most important Of all is the schools.
When l visited the stands in 1900
education was almost unknown. The
great majority of people had no
schooling whatever. Eighty per cent
Of them were densely ignorant, and
not one man in ten could read or
Write, h few schools, such as they
were, had beer broken up by the
That of the friars, who were incul-
eating the knowledge Of the middle
ages, and hat largely religious.
During my stay some schools we're
o~rSaniZed by the army, and an ex-
soldier was put at the head Of the bu-
reau Of education. Then Uncle sam
began 80 bring in the American
SChoolma'am and to teach The chill
dren in English.
have not been to the Philippines will
never know. Only about z per cent
~ the population OF the islands could
speak Spanish and the people carried
on their work in a pOlyglot of Ian
Euages. Even the Christian Filipinos
had sixteen different dialects. and
these were so varied that the better
itS lllLiI IOH VI
COULD hardly make himself understood
to the man Of Luzon. There was nc
Common language and English was
comparatively unknown.
Giving the Filipino a Language.
Today the Filipinos have one
tongue. which can be understood
anywhere in the Islands and which
will carry the traveller through them
from BorneO to Formosa. This is the
English. Thousands of teachers have
been teaching it during the past IF
teen years, and hundreds Of tho
sands of children are now practicins
1t in every city and village. Toda.
there are more than 5000 Filipino
) hool teachers, all Of whom reat
English we'll and most OF whom speal
y fairly we'll. There are also abou
500 American teachers VINO are work
lnF here and the younge generation
IS growing up with English as it
thouEht language and book language
This means much to the Philip
pines. 1t is unifying the people am
making them one nation. In the pas
thc fllipinos, or the Christian native
as distinguished from the wild tribe
anu the Moros. had eight differen
types OF languages. The natives Of on
province could not understand thos
oi The ones adjoining them. In Luzo
Hpoht seven OllIcFtnI tOnS uc.
aHd throughout the archipelago ther
were numerous dialects.
mere were about 100000 VIII
used the Tagalog. 100000 who cor
S'Tsed IN he loco, n more tina
nan n million who spoke Bicol. Their
Were 100000 or 400, 900 who had tn
ahgasinam and more than a quartz
81 q million who had the Pampang;
SUI different tongues were spoken b
inc 100000 Of the Visayan Island
aGliher south, and these had the
dialects.
me Moros Of Mindanao and Sui
nuu their own language, but it W.
inherent in different places. The who
~ohlpelaso In short was a Babel wit
auoh a confusion Of tongues hat
"ouio nave been impossible to ha,
n~.Ioouced modern civilization with
y d new language. Uncle Sam h.
HTch the people this new tongue an