Francisco Acosta's Examination Paper from the Binondo Boys School, Manila, Philippines circa 1900
date: label: date made
content: 1900-03
label: associated date
content: 1900
name: label: maker
content: Acosta, Francisco
label: associated institution
content: Binondo Boys' School
label: maker
content: Acosta, Francisco
notes: label: Description
content: This school examination, with it's elaborate display of cursive penmanship, was created in March 1900 as an example of how politics influences school curriculums. This record makes reference to a "Professor D" and then under that heading is the name Catalino Sevilla, who was a member of an rising land holding "peasant" family who had not reached histhe height of his power at this point. The Binondo Boy's School in Manila was one of many established by the Catholic Church and the Spanish government, which first opened missionary school in 1565. By 1865, the Spanish government decreed there should be at least one primary school for girls and one for boys with each municipal government. The classes were taught in Spanish frequently by Jesuits priests, but the schools were state sponsored, and officially not religious or faith-based educational institutions. While enrollment was technically open to all, in reality there were not enough schools or teachers, so attendance was limited to the privileged.
label: Description
content: Throughout much of the 1890’s, the Philippine resistance had been fighting to wrest control from Spanish rule. In the spring of 1898, while Commodore George Dewey was battling Spanish forces in the Philippines, the Filipino resistance was declaring independence from Spain, a move neither Spain nor the US recognized. Dewey’s victory at the Battle of Manilla Bay substantially contributed to ending the Spanish- American War so in the 1898 Treaty of Paris in December Spain ceded the Philippines to the US. President William McKinley issued a proclamation that for the good of its people, the Philippines would have a “benevolent assimilation.” The U. S. then set about establishing Americanization programs like those occurring within the continental United States. Note the use of American symbols like flags and eagles on some of these papers. Under the new school system all students would be provided a basic education, not just the upper classes, but the American annexation also resulted in English being taught in place of Spanish, and in a Protestant based curriculum with traditional history classes highlighting the successes of select white male leaders, courtesy of American publishers. Industrial school education was also introduced. Private and “church” schools were retained as the country had neither enough teachers nor schools, so first members of the military, and later a large influx American teachers, known as Thomasites, were recruited. The government also established normal schools to train native born teachers.
label: Description
content: These examination papers were most likely sent to the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition for the Philippine Education Building as part of the Philippine Exhibits. The Binondo Boys Public School is listed in the official catalogue published in January 1904, as exhibiting regular class work, arithmetic, geography, language, drawings, and photographs. The exhibit highlighted the importance of teaching English in the schools as a need for a common language and displayed native dialect charts contrasting the school papers with examples of the English alphabet. This was also a period where penmanship was a graded course and an important part of education.
label: Description
content: Little is known at this time about the student beyond the fact that Francisco Acosta was a Filipina Mestizo (mixed race) 17 year old boy in 1900.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Philippines: Manila, Manila
label: location where used
content: Philippines
topic: label: referenced
content: Writing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CL.294111.01
label: catalog number
content: 294111.01
label: accession number
content: 294111
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Examination Paper
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 1/2 in x 17 1/4 in; 31.75 cm x 43.815 cm