Education In Puerto Rico

In Chapter XXIII of this history we gave an extract from his

Excellency Alexander O'Reilly's report to King Charles IV, wherein,

referring to the intellectual status of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico

in 1765, he informs his Majesty that there were only two schools in

the whole island and that, outside of the capital and San German, few

knew how to read.



In the mother country, at that period, even primary nstruction was

very deficient. It remained so for a long time. As late as 1838

reading, writing, and arithmetic only were taught in the best public

schools of Spain. The other branches of knowledge, such as geography,

history, physics, chemistry, natural history, could be studied in a

few ecclesiastical educational establishments. The illiteracy of

the inhabitants of this, the least important of Spain's conquered

provinces, was therefore but natural, seeing that the conquerors who

had settled in it belonged to the most ignorant classes of an

illiterate country in an illiterate age. Something was done in Puerto

Rico by the Dominican and Franciscan friars in the way of preparatory

training for ecclesiastical callings. They taught Latin and philosophy

to a limited number of youths; the bishop himself gave regular

instruction in Latin.



A few youths, whose parents could afford it, were sent to the

universities of Caracas and Santo Domingo, where some of them

distinguished themselves by their aptitude for study. One of these,

afterward known as Father Bonilla, obtained the highest academic

honors in Santo Domingo.



From 1820 to 1823, under the auspices of a constitutional government,

intellectual life in Puerto Rico really began. A Mr. Louis Santiago

called public attention to the necessity of attending to primary

education. "The greatest evil," he said, "that which demands the

speediest remedy, is the general ignorance of the art of reading and

writing. It is painful to see the signatures of the alcaldes to public

documents." He wrote a pamphlet of instructions in the art of teaching

in primary schools, which was printed and distributed through the

interior of the island. The governor, Gonzalo Arostegui, addressed an

official note to the Provincial Deputation charging that body to

propose to him "without rest or interruption, and as soon as

possible," the means to establish primary schools in the capital and

in the towns of the interior; to the municipalities he sent a

circular, dated September 28, 1821, recommending them to facilitate

the coming to the capital of the teachers in their respective

districts who wished to attend, for a period of two months, a class in

the Lancasterian method of primary teaching, to be held in the Normal

School by Ramon Carpegna, the political secretary. A certain amount of

instruction, talent, and disposition for magisterial work was required

of the pupils, and those who already had positions as teachers could

assist at the two months' course without detriment to their salaries.



The fall of the constitutional government in Spain, brought about by

French intervention and the reaction that followed, extinguished the

light that had just begun to shine, and this unfortunate island was

again plunged into the intellectual darkness of the middle ages.

Persecution became fiercer than ever, and the citizens most

distinguished for their learning and liberal ideas had to seek safety

in emigration.



For the next twenty years the education of the youth of Puerto Rico

was entirely in the hands of the clergy. With the legacies left to

the Church by Bishop Arizmendi and other pious defuncts, Bishop Pedro

Gutierrez de Cos founded the Conciliar Seminary in 1831, and appointed

as Rector Friar Angel de la Concepcion Vazquez, a Puerto Rican by

birth, educated in the Franciscan Convent of Caracas.



In the same year there came to Puerto Rico, as prebendary of the

cathedral, an ex-professor of experimental physics in the University

of Galicia, whose name was Rufo Fernandez. He founded a cabinet of

physics and a chemical laboratory, and invited the youth of the

capital to attend the lectures on these two sciences which he gave

gratis.



Fray Angel, as he was familiarly called, the rector of the seminary,

at Dr. Rufo's suggestion, asked permission of the superior

ecclesiastical authorities to transfer the latter's cabinet and

laboratory to the seminary for the purpose of adding the courses of

physics and chemistry to the curriculum, but failed to obtain it, the

reasons given for the adverse decision being, "that the science of

chemistry was unnecessary for the students, who, in accordance with

the dispositions of the Council of Trent, were to dedicate themselves

to ecclesiastical sciences only." The rector, while expressing his

regret at the decision, adds: "I can not help telling you what I have

always felt - namely, that there is some malediction resting on the

education of youth in this island, which evokes formidable obstacles

from every side, though there are not wanting generous spirits ready

to make sacrifices in its favor."



Some of these generous spirits had organized, as early as 1813, under

the auspices of Intendant Ramirez, the Economic Society of Friends of

the Country. Puerto Rico owes almost all its intellectual progress to

this society. Its aim was the island's moral and material advancement,

and, in spite of obstacles, it has nobly labored with that object in

view to the end of Spanish domination. From its very inception it

established a primary school for 12 poor girls, and classes in

mathematics, geography, French, English, and drawing, to which a class

of practical or applied mechanics was added later. In 1844 the society

asked and obtained permission from the governor, the Count of

Mirasol, to solicit subscriptions for the establishment and endowment

of a central college. The people responded with enthusiasm, and in

less than a month 30,000 pesos were collected.





The college was opened. In 1846 four youths, under the guidance of Dr.

Rufo, were sent to Spain to complete their studies to enable them to

worthily fill professorships in the central school. Two of them died

shortly after their arrival in Madrid. When the other two returned to

Puerto Rico in 1849 they found the college closed and the

subscriptions for its maintenance returned to the donors by order of

Juan de la Pezuela, Count Mirasol's successor in the governorship.



If the unfavorable opinion of the character of the Puerto Ricans to

which this personage gave expression in one of his official

communications was the motive for his proceeding in this case, it

would seem that he changed it toward the end of his administration,

for he founded a Royal Academy of Belles-Lettres, and a library which

was provided with books by occasional gifts from the public. He

introduced some useful reforms in the system of primary instruction,

and inaugurated the first prize competitions for poetical compositions

by native authors.



From the returns of the census of 1860 it appears that at that time

only 17-12 per cent of the male population of the island knew how to

read, and only 12-12 per cent of the female population. Four years

later, at the end of 1864 there were, according to official data,

98,817 families in Puerto Rico whose intellectual wants were supplied

by 74 public schools for boys and 48 for girls, besides 16 and 9

private schools for boys and girls respectively.



In 1854 General Norzagery, then governor, assisted by Andres Vina, the

secretary of the Royal Board of Commerce and Industry, had founded a

school of Commerce, Agriculture, and Navigation. After sixteen years

of existence, this establishment was unfavorably reported upon by

Governor Sanz, who wished to suppress it on account of the liberal

ideas and autonomist tendencies of its two principal professors, Jose

Julian Acosta (Abbad's commentator) and Ramon B. Castro. In the

preamble to a secret report sent by this governor to Madrid he says:

"This supreme civil government has always secured professors who, in

addition to the required ability for their position, possess the moral

and political character and qualities to form citizens, lovers of

their country, i.e., lovers of Puerto Rico as a Spanish province, not

of Puerto Rico as an independent state annexed to North America."



Female education had all along received even less attention than the

education of boys. Alexander Infiesta, in an article on the subject

published in the Revista in February, 1888, states, that according to

the latest census there were 399,674 females in the island, of whom

293,247 could neither read nor write, 158,528 of them being white

women and girls. The number of schools for boys was 408, with an

attendance of 18,194, and that for girls 127, with 7,183 pupils.



From the memorial published by the Director of the Provincial

Institute for Secondary Education, regarding the courses of study in

that establishment during the year 1888-'89, we learn that the number

of primary schools in the island had increased to 600, but, according

to Mr. Coll y Toste's Resena, published in 1899, there were, among a

total population of 894,302 souls, only 497 primary schools in the

island at the time of the American occupation. The total attendance

was 22,265 pupils, 15,108 boys and 7,157 girls.