Rizal in the curriculum

IT is Rizal Day and once more, the President — or whoever he chooses to substitute for him — will solemnly lay a wreath too big for him to carry by himself at the foot of the Monument under which it is said rest Rizal’s remains. It should be a somber remembering of that day when Jose Rizal was marched out to this same field to meet his death at the hands of Filipino musketeers superintended by Spanish officers.

Because of Republic Act 1425, college students must study “the life and works of Jose Rizal.” Alas, this subject has fallen into a pitiful state, one can say, with good reason, “disrepute” — assigned to teachers who are not loaded with “more serious” subjects, hardly ever taken seriously by the students. It is grudgingly enrolled in — not really studied — because it is “required,” and I seriously doubt that many students come from their study of Rizal with a greater appreciation of the national hero and a keen understanding of his works.