Renato Constantino WPS Office

Renato
Constantino
NATIONALISM is not just an
empty word full
of emotional appeal. It is
the expression of a reality
that we have a country of
our own, which must be
kept our own. Its political
expression is
independence.”
The Social, Political, and
Historical discourse of
Renato Constantino;
The timeless writings of
Renato Constantino were a
major influence in the
intellectual formation of
countless young Filipinos.
was raised in Manila, which
was the hotbed of contending
socio-political ideologues in the
1930s. He was
educated at the Manila North High
School (now, Arellano High School)
and
the University of the Philippines
(UP) where student activism
influenced his
worldview.
wrote about the youth’s vital role
in the nationalist struggle for
independence
and, at the same time, criticized
political bigwigs. That was his way
of
expressing himself as a young
nationalist: wielding the pen with
words of keen
wit and sharpness while exposing
social ills.
Tato’s most crucial views on
nationalism came in the years
that followed
the Second World War when, as
a professional journalist, he
wrote about the
society’s glaring issues. His
writings were published in
various broadsheets
and magazines like the:
Evening Herald, Manila
Chronicle, Malaya, Daily
Globe, Manila Bulletin,
Manila Times, and
Graphic.
culture and identity shaped
by its long colonial
experience. Coupled with
this
is the problem of political
subservience and
mendicancy that transformed
the
nation into a neo-colony of
American imperialists.
Indeed, Tato’s
controversial image as
a historian and
journalist made
him one of the most
influential public
intellectuals of his
generation.
Gradually and
unconsciously the Filipino
people have been
seeing the world through
the eyes of the Americans
as an effect of the
information written in an
American way.
movies,
the Filipino assimilated in their
day-to-day life the “American
ways and
attitudes, music and dances,
fads in food, drink, and dress,
idiosyncrasies of speech,
behavior towards family and
friends, problems
of juvenile delinquency and
crime.”
Education was the
most powerful and
effective colonial tool
used by the
Americans.
to restore tranquillity in
the Philippine
archipelago and second to
transform the Filipinos
into good colonial
subjects
and to shape their young
ideal minds to conform to
American ideas.
people to the new masters and
at
the same time to dilute their
nationalism which had just
succeeded in overthrowing a
foreign power. The introduction
of
the American educational
system was a subtle means of
defeating
a triumphant nationalism.
In addition, Filipinos
“were rendered ignorant
of their historic struggles
to be a free people
The present educational
system is a product of
American educational
system.
Constantino argues
present
educational system does
not give more emphasis
on nationalism for the
American education
stresses internationalism,
or globalization, and
underplays nationalism
postcolonial discourses
on education is focused
on the
following published
essays, Our Captive
Minds, The Miseducation
of the
Filipino and Education
and Consciousness.
Three themes:
(1) education as an
instrument of colonial policy;
(2) English as
a technology of power; and
(3) the effects of colonization
to the economic and
political attitude and
mentality of the Filipino
people.
and Political Mentality
To Constantino, “The almost complete

lack of understanding at present
of those economic motivations and of
the presence of American interests in
the Philippines is the most eloquent

testimony to the success of the
education
for colonials which we have
undergone.”
educational system in the Filipino
economic
mentality can be seen in the idea
of progress which is “tied to the
quantity of
natural and human commodities
we are able to export in order to
earn dollars
with which to buy more imported
goods and pay our gargantuan
foreign debt.
American colonial
education also caused
the development of
apathetic
attitude towards
industrialization among
the Filipinos.
the picture that is presented for
the child's
admiration is an idealized picture
of a rural Philippines, as pretty and
as
unreal as an Amorsolo painting
with its carabao, its smiling
healthy farmer,
the winsome barrio lass in the
bright clean patadyong, and the
sweet little
nipa hut.
The Americans’ motive for
this strategy is for them
to monopolize and
exploit the natural
resources of the
Philippines which is for
the benefit of their
own economy.
The American educational
system facilitated also the
transplantation of
American political
institutions in the Philippine
colony. The Philippine
government and bureaucracy
are brought by the
Americans in the Philippines
readymade.
The Filipino people failed to
develop indigenous institutions
that evolved from
the experiences and needs of
the people. That is why until
now Filipino
politicians debate on what form
of government is best to the
country to achieve
growth and development.
American models are treated
as “messiahs” of Philippine
public
problems.
Because of the effective use
of education as instrument of
colonial
policy, the Filipino people are
confused about their national
goals.
foundation of that
confusion is the “follow
America”
political and economic
mentality which became
the cornerstone of
Filipino
national and international
life.
through the use of different
technologies like education and
language. The
Filipino culture is a product of
colonization. It is a product of
Spanish and
American colonization. The
Spaniards used religion as their
technology while
Americans used education and
language.
These technologies altered
the way
of life and redirected the
consciousness of the Filipino
people so that they will
submit to the power and
interests of their colonial
masters.
Quiz Time!
1. According to ___, the Filipinos easily accepted
the English language.
2. This made them remain to be in control to the
Filipino people not by the use of force but
through_____
3. ____ was the most powerful and effective
colonial tool used by the Americans
4. American ways and attitudes, music and
dances, fads in food, drink, and dress, ____,
behavior towards family and friends, problems of
juvenile delinquency and crime.
5. ___the Filipino people have been seeing the
world through the eyes of the Americans as an
effect of the information written in an American
way
6.

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Renato

To Constantino, “The almost complete

the Philippines is the most eloquent

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