the harris memorial college: the pioneer in kindergarten...

Ortiz, Ellery Paraso.“ The Harris Memorial College:

The Pioneer in Kindergarten Education in the Philippines.” TALA I:2. (December 2018), pp 21-44.

The Harris Memorial College: The Pioneer in Kindergarten Education in the Philippines

Ellery Paraso ORTIZ1 University of Santo Tomas, Graduate School MANILA

ABSTRACT This is one of the chief legacies of the Methodist Episcopal Church (United Methodist Church) in the Philippines. The History of Kindergarten Education in the Philippines is claimed to be an idea were inspired by Sunday School teacher’s children ministry from Deaconesses of the Harris Memorial Training School (Harris Memorial College) an institution for women in 1903. Since 1898 when the United States epitomizes its colonization with its imperial design of missionary endeavor and Christian education in the colony, with their utmost concern of mission and early childhood education was informally handed over to the men, women and primarily children to the capital city and throughout the country. It was only during their early colonization in the later years of the first quarter of the 20th century, and it waited until 1923 when Ms. Brigida Garcia who first conceptualized and implemented it. This paper uses Historical Institutionalism as a theory that will guide the researcher throughout this study. This paper examines the contribution to the development of kindergarten education of Harris Memorial College in the Philippines as its legacy of the United Methodist Church. Keywords: Harris Memorial College, Kindergarten Education, United Methodist Church, History

1 Ellery Paraso Ortiz is currently taking up his Doctorate program at the University of

Santo Tomas. He is an Assistant Professor at the Harris Memorial College and lecturer at the Institute of Theological Studies. He is also the Chairperson of the Commission on Archives and History and the President of the Historical Society of the United Methodist Church.

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INTRODUCTION: RISING-UP ITS MINISTRY

he arrival of the Americans in the Philippines brought about the end of the 333-years in the land. With this, the Americans colonized the country and implemented an “American way of Democracy” that abruptly caused societal and structural changes in

the Philippines. Before this, "the Spanish system of education is that of the Catholic Church as its mission to spread Christianity, and the Church is the forefront of educational development in the country."2 However, this was undone by the Americans who introduced a free public school system that was secular. This, in turn, paved the way to the establishment of Harris Memorial Training School founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Harris Memorial Training School, now named Harris Memorial

College, was established in July 1903 under the inspiration of Sunday School’s Children Ministry, a traditional program of the Methodist Episcopal Church (now called United Methodist Church). It primarily trains dedicated young women and girls of the church. It was founded by Miss Winifred Spaulding who was a deaconess.3 She founded the training school to train young Filipino women to join the ministry and strive to become a deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Eventually, the institution, through the financial donation of Norman Waite Harris, will develop into the Harris Memorial Training School.

Harris Memorial Training School widened its ministry under the leadership

of Miss Mary Evans.4 She collaborated with Miss Brigida Garcia in organizing and implementing the first Kindergarten program in the country. For practical reasons and the need for higher education, the school offered a course of Bachelor of Kindergarten Education and its laboratory for children in 1923.

2 Jose Victor Torres, In Transition: The University of Santo Tomas during the American

Colonial Period (1898-1935). (Espana, Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2007), vii.

3 The idea that deaconesses could supply the mother element in the church makes more credible the idea of revising the female diaconate a ministry of service historically and scripturally traceable to the apostolic church. As adopted in May 1888 in the General Conference, as recognized deaconess office in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. & Susan Warrick, ed. Historical Dictionary of Methodism. (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005), 180.

4 Liwliwa Robledo & Phebe Crismo. Celebrating a Century of God's Faithfulness: Harris Memorial College and the Deaconess. (Dolores, Taytay, Rizal, Philippines: Harris Memorial College, 2003), 4.

t

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THE CONTEXT AND ITS FOUNDING

Given the magnitude of the American economic interests during the Spanish-American War and the American Protestant’s religious missionary endeavor of rescuing the Filipinos from the clutches of Spanish friars, the Philippine Islands was rendered into a colonial puppet that changes in accordance to the demands of its colonial masters, to the new imperial manner of American subjugation. The United States, at the time, was experiencing rapid economic growth through its industry and claimed that their industrial success could lead them to global economic power. “As the United States itself simply existed as a result of imperial efforts, its leaders recognized that also becoming a global imperial presence would be essential to its economic success.” As President McKinley proclaimed, “Thus... duty and interest alike, duty of the highest kind and interest of the highest and best kind, impose upon us the retention of the Philippines, the development of the islands, and the expansion of our Eastern commerce.”5

The American historical accumulation of territories since the 1780s to the

1890s meant the opening of opportunities for missionary endeavor and economic progress. With this, the clamor of many Protestant denominations for missions was strengthened, wherein, at one point, the Methodist Episcopal Church leadership under Bishop Charles McCabe along with some clergymen visited President William McKinley at the White House to stress their missionary concerns in the Philippines. As a response, McKinley said, “[...] I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God… to take them all and to educate the Filipinos, and to uplift and Christianized them.”6 Motives were in place throughout American society with the help of mainstream media, and the commence to secure its interest sends an expeditionary military Asiatic fleet to the Philippine islands. Indeed, the American government and the Church were separated by their written political and philosophical ideals, but the American people have presented a united front with such colonizing character combined with the faithful propagation of the Gospel.

One Protestant denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church arrived

early in the Philippines in 1899. Methodist missions were officially established

5 Digital History. “Using New Technologies to Enhance Research” last modified

December 27, 2018. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us27.cfm. 6 Bonifacio Salamanca, The Filipino Reaction to American Rule, 1901-1913. (Quezon City,

Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1968), 93. Daniel Schirmer & Stephen Shalom. The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance. (Manila: South End Press, 1987), 12.

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in 1900 through the Women's Foreign Missionary Society. This was the first full-time missionary that worked.7 Throughout America, Protestant missionaries were excited for their “new found possessions” and were encouraged with an expansionist outlook. The American public and its ecclesiastical culture, majority of them in support of the war with Spain, lobbied in Congress and in media to acquire the whole Philippines. Oppositions were also present at Congress and even organized “the Anti-Imperialist League,” a party that was led by Samuel L. Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, and other prominent Protestant ministers.8 Thus, this popular outlook was a major hurdle to their movement. Despite this appeal, Protestant missionaries zealously continued to share the Gospel to the Filipinos. Kenton posited:

The Protestants wanted the United States to rescue the Cubans and the Filipinos from what they perceived as Spanish misrule. But they also realized that Americans control of the Spanish Islands would open the way for Protestant message to be preached in the areas from which it had hitherto been excluded. 9

The Americans used education as a primary tool to uplift the Filipino people

and liberate them from the “uncivilized” way of life. Women were the prime reason for education, for they were deprived of the opportunity to learn during the Spanish. As a matter of fact, in the United States during the first quarter of the 20th century, women empowerment was in full swing, warranted by the granting of their rights to suffrage and other policies. It was in this way that the Church as an institution felt the need to establish a training school for deaconesses. At first, they were called Bible Women and were under the supervision of American missionaries. This vocation of Filipino women led to the establishment of Harris Memorial Training School in 1903 headed by Miss

7 Kenton Clymer, Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 1898-1916: An Inquiry into the

American Colonial Mentality. (Chicago, Illinois: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 177.

8 Jim Zwick, Mark Twain’s Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. (New York, U.S.A.: Syracuse University Press, 1992), 1.

9 Clymer, Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 3.

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Winifred Spaulding.10 The institution immediately expanded to spread in Lingayen, Pangasinan with the Women’s Bible School.11

With this blossoming missions of evangelism from Manila to the northern

part of the island of Luzon, church planting was very rapid. Sunday Schools in the local churches were developed for the young children with the Bible women as teachers. As early as 1911 the Sunday School Movement was a success story among the communities when the missionaries popularized it.12 Filipinos found a new religious tone in their life, encouraging young women to be educated for evangelistic work which is of paramount importance to the institution like Harris Memorial Training School. This would essentially foster Filipino Methodist identity, contributing to the foundation of its legacy that is passed onto succeeding generations of Philippine Methodism.13

To sum it up, the aims and reasons for the establishment of Harris

Memorial College are: 1) to develop young women for mission and evangelistic work; 2) to equip its devotees with knowledge and the essential calling of their life vocation; and 3) to inculcate substantial challenges progressive work for children’s educational needs. THE INSTITUTIONS FOUNDING IGNITORS

While it is clear that Methodist missions were persistent in its evangelical work, it is evident that institutions are reliable organs or vessels to much richer Christianizing work in the Islands. Aside from the Deaconess Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church overseeing the program implementation, minor deaconess missionaries support the institution’s academic program, especially when Ms. Brigida Garcia first introduced Kindergarten Education at Harris Memorial College and eventually in the Philippines. Essential personalities in the genesis of Harris Memorial Training School had drawn-out the architects of mission work who, with their time, talent, and treasures, begun its establishment.

10 Dionisio Alejandro, From Darkness to Light: A Brief Chronicle of the Beginnings and

Spread of Methodism in the Philippines. (Quezon City, Philippines: United Methodist Church Philippines Central Conference Board of Communications and Publications, 1974), 75.

11 Archie Ryan, Religious Education in the Philippines: A Study of the Organization and Activities of the Philippine Islands Sunday School Union. (Manila, P.I., Printed for the Philippine Council of Religious Education by the Methodist Pub. House, 1930), 65.

12 Ryan. Religious Education in the Philippines, 65-66. 13 Luther Oconer, Spirit-Filled Protestantism, Holiness-Pentecostal Revivals and the making

of Filipino Methodist Identity. (Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.: Pickwick Publications, 2017), 68-69.

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Norman Wait Harris (1846-1916), a banker and philanthropist who was born in Massachusetts, was very much involved in philanthropic activities during the McKinley administration. During 1907-1913 he was the president of the Harris Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago, he was also the president of Harris, Forbes & Co. of New York, and N.W. Harris & Co., Inc. of Boston. For many years he was a member of the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), where he was a significant financial contributor and was vice-president of the Board of Trustees of YMCA of Chicago. It was suggested that his life as a philanthropist deemed necessary for the church. Derby et al. stated that:

He was president of the board of trustees of the Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions, the most extensive training school of its kind in the country, to which he gave the land upon which its principal buildings are located, and erected its chapel and one of its main buildings known as Harris Hall. He also was president of the board of trustees of the Deaconess Pension Fund, which he founded, contributing $100,000, and was a trustee of Northwestern University, to which he donated $250,000 in 1913 to erect and maintain a building known as Harris Hall of Political Science

Illustration 1. Norman Wait Harris (1846-1916) (Courtesy of National

Cyclopedia of American Biography)

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and History. In 1911 he gave $250,000 to the public school extension of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He was a prominent member of the Methodist (Episcopal) Church and was connected with many societies of a charitable and benevolent nature.14

It was his involvement in the church and philanthropic urge at the turn of the 20th century did his generosity become relevant beyond his country. It was also with this urge did a small sum of money totaling to $5000 was given to the president of the board of trustees of the Deaconesses Pension Fund through the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) in 1903. The said gift was forwarded to the Philippines in support of the establishment of Harris Memorial Training School.

In March 1916, Dr. & Mrs. Norman Dwight Harris, the son and daughter-

in-law of the man for whom the Harris Memorial Training School was named after, visited Manila. They were greatly impressed by the school and students.15 When they went back to the United States of America, they eagerly reported to their father who was in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the fruitful work of the Institution.

14 George Derby & James White, National Cyclopedia of American Biography: Being the

History of the United States As Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women Who Are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the PR.1890), 323.

15 Barbara Campbell, To Educate is to Teach to Live, Women’s struggle to Higher Education. (475 Riverside Drive, N.Y., New York 10115: Women’s Division, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, 2005), 286.

Illustration 2. Winifred Spaulding in portrait (Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

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Winifred Spaulding (1903-1904, 1910-1912), a deaconess from the State of Kansas was appointed by the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society to move to the Philippines. Her ignited the ministry of Harris Memorial Training School in its pursuit of educating the youth and faithful aspirants. She conducted classes to a meager first batch of enrollees and lectured about Christian subjects. With minimal knowledge of the Filipino vernacular, she was assisted by a British missionary named Elizabeth Parker (1903-1928) who was fluent in Tagalog. In 1904 Ms. Spaulding fell ill and needed to return to the United States. Thus, Ms. Elizabeth Parker assumed her position in her absence.16

16 Campbell, To Educate is to Teach to Live, 287.

Illustration 3. Winifred Spaulding (second row from below, center) with Elizabeth Parkes (fourth row, second from the left) and with the first batch of students in 1903

(Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

Illustration 4. Marguerite Martha Decker (second row, center) with The Women’s Foreign Missionary Society conference in

the Philippines in 1921 (Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

Illustration 5. Marguerite Martha Decker in portrait

(Courtesy of Harris Memorial College Centennial Book)

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Marguerite Martha Decker (1905-1937), a lay missionary from the state of California, became the next director of Harris Memorial Training School. She arrived on July of 1905 replaced Ms. Parker and managed the institution with the assistance of Mrs. Estelle Clark Stuntz (1901-1905), Mrs. Jean Halstead Rader (1903-1921), and Mrs. Minnie Sprout Chenoweth (1901-1914). With so much responsibility running the school, Ms. Margaret Crabtree and Ms. Mabel Crawford provided their support.17

Brigida Garcia-Fernando (1894-1986), the forerunner and pioneer of Kindergarten Education in the Philippines, made a tremendous contribution that no American, Filipino educators, and even “Thomasite” for that matter, could match her achievements and contributions to the History of Education in the Philippines in 1923. Even the established American colonial government under the Bureau of Public and Private Schools were not keen in promoting early childhood education for the sole reason of a lack of budget that hindered the possibility of implement such projects. In the United States, as early as 1856, Margarethe Meyer Schurz first established Kindergarten School in Watertown, State of Wisconsin18Moreover, in 1863 Elizabeth

17 Alejandro, From Darkness to Light, 94-95 18 Elizabeth Jenkins. “How the Kindergarten Found Its Way to America.” (Wisconsin,

U.S.A.: Wisconsin Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Wisconsin Magazine of History, (1930), 1-2.

Illustration 7. Brigida Garcia (seated at front, right) and Maria Aquino (standing at second row, left) with the first batch of Kindergarten class

in 1923 at Hugh Wilson Hall at Lerma street, Sampaloc, Manila (Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

Illustration 6. Brigida Garcia (1894-1986)

(Courtesy of Harris Memorial College Centennial

Book)

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Palmer Peabody pioneered Kindergarten Education in Lancaster, the State of Massachusetts to were both stressed elements of childhood education distinguished by play and flexible physical environment.19

With a distinguished and enhancing brief presentation of the pioneer of Kindergarten education, Gamolo, in a recently published popular Methodist magazine in the Philippines, noted that:

The United Methodist Church, through Harris Memorial College, is known pioneer Kindergarten Education in the Philippines. What is widely known in the Methodist circles is that the pioneer itself was Brigida Garcia Fernando, who opened the first Kindergarten class in the country in 1922. Brigida was born on October 1, 1894, in Pildira, Pasay, to Francisco Garcia and Teodora Santos. She was raised by her grandmother, Francisca Garcia, whose family was converted to the Protestant faith, by the first Filipino Methodist (Episcopal Church) preacher, Nicolas Zamora. She finished her secondary school and attended Central Student Church where she met American missionaries, including Dr. Ernst and Mrs. Harriet Lyons. Through them, she developed a friendship with an American Army Colonel and his family. When the Colonel's family returned to the United States in 1914, they took Brigida with them as a babysitter. There she finished high school with the help of the Women's (Foreign Missionary) Christian Society in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brigida attended college with the help of the Women's Society and a banker who remained her faithful friend for more than 50 years. She finished her Kindergarten Education Course at Teacher's

19 Jennifer Russell. “From Child's Garden to Academic Press: The Role of Shifting

Institutional Logics in Redefining Kindergarten Education.” (published by American Educational Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Educational Research Journal, (2011): 236; Patricia Cantor. “Elizabeth Peabody: America’s Kindergarten Pioneer.” (published by National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to YC Young Children, (2013), 92-93.

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College, Columbia University in New York in 1921, then sailed back to the Philippines and joined the faculty of Harris Memorial Training School. There she met and married Gregorio Fernando who would later become a pastor. As the Kindergarten pioneer, she spends much time in outreach teaching and educating Kindergarten and student deaconesses.20

These personalities had pushed the ministry in our Church and the institution itself; it gave so much impetus to the mission and evangelization among the Filipinos. CHALLENGES DURING OPERATION

On 1898, hegemonic ills of this country were severed in terms of the Spanish colonial government. Battered by the shift of colonial master's imperial design that cuts through the very veins of an infant nation, so to speak, a nation with aspirations to be sovereign has come to its end. The context with a clear situation that the people had experienced–the Philippine society's way of life in every association, organizations, and institutions are marred by problems–culturally and ideologically.

When the institution was established in 1903, the lack of sufficient funds to

purchase a lot for the school was a problem. The faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, primarily the wealthy, undoubtedly began to recognize their ministry and contributed to its development; thus, establishing their legacy or materializing their interests. The evidence of its insufficiency was the changing of its location from one place to another. From 1903 to 1909 at Cervantes Street, Ermita, for only six years of her educational stint. From 1909 to 1923 at Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, beside Knox United Methodist Church where it stayed for fourteen years. Then it transferred again for the third time to Lerma Street corner P. Paredes, Sampaloc, to where the Hugh Wilson Hall was located–establishing the very first Kindergarten school in the country. Eventually, for twenty-four years it stayed in Lerma then went back to Cervantes Street in 1948. Moreover, for thirty-eight years at Cervantes Street from 1948 to 1983, the institution experienced its educational development. Then, in 1983, the institution was

20 N. Gamolo, “Profiles in Protestant Witness.” The Filipino Methodist Magazine, Jan.-

Mar., 2018), 4-5.

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permanently settled in the Municipality of Taytay, Province of Rizal until today.

Illustration 8. Harris Memorial Training School (Harris Memorial College) in 1903 at Calle Nozaleda (now Gen. A. Luna street, Ermita) Manila. (Courtesy of Harris Memorial

College Centennial Book)

Illustration 9. Harris Memorial Training School in 1909 at Calle Cervantes (now Avenida Rizal, Sta. Cruz)

Manila. Besides Knox Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church at far left. (Courtesy of Drew University Digital

Archives)

Illustration 11. Harris Memorial Training School at Hugh Wilson Hall at its first Kindergarten

laboratory with children playing at the foreground. (Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

Illustration 12. Harris Memorial School then at Hugh Wilson Hall, now Kapatiran-Kaunlaran Foundation, Inc. a United Methodist Church Social arm. (Courtesy of KKFI)

Illustration 10. Harris Memorial Training School in 1923 at Hugh Wilson Hall at

Lerma street, Sampaloc, Manila. (Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

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The financial instability of the new colonial American teachers and soldiers

was also attested by the complaints of the delay of their salary. This was the greatest source of dissatisfaction.21 Among many Protestant missionaries, this had been a problem, but faith and patience emerged. This had been revealing among the missionaries in the provinces and barrios.

Missionaries and teachers sometimes had a difficult time espousing their

colonial education to the Filipinos but strived to deliver it. One thing they have to achieve so that they could espouse their teaching was by Filipino culture and language.

The tropical weather and welfare conditions were very much an

environmental problem that affected their improvement. American soldiers and teachers complained of loneliness, homesickness, illnesses, and social displacement22 which is much more with the Protestant missionaries of the times. It is much more fitting to conclude, that:

Although the (American Protestant) missionaries consider themselves allies of the (American colonial) government in the difficult task of encouraging cultural change, they often judged themselves truer believers in the white man’s

21 Glenn May. Social Engineering in the Philippines: The Aims, Executions and Impact of

American Colonial Policy, 1900-1913. (Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1984), 87-88.

22, May, Social Engineering in the Philippines, 87-89.

Illustration 13. Harris Memorial School in 1948 back at Calle Nozaleda, Ermita, Manila.

(Courtesy of Drew University Digital Archives)

Illustration 14. Harris Memorial College in 1983 at Taytay, Rizal.

(Courtesy of Harris Memorial College)

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burden than government officials… In addition, most missionaries, reflecting the intellectual milieu of the late nineteenth century, displayed condescending, paternalistic, and sometimes racist attitudes towards Filipinos. But objective studies are scarce, and further investigation may show that the missionaries had only a limited impact on the larger society.23

Due to the religious proselytizing accusations of the Roman Catholic

faithful against the Protestant missionaries, the impact to the population was lack of religious toleration. This may have reinforced the abrupt change of colonial government. The populace with that particular society has negative impressions resulting to passiveness. Another was the issue of Nationalism; it states that:

Nationalistic sentiments did sometimes erupt against American (Protestant) missionaries, resulting in important schisms. But the bulk of congregation remains loyal, and fascination with America was a notable attribute of prominent Filipino clergymen.24

HMC’S CONTRIBUTION TO KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

As early as 1903 during her founding year as a training school, this institution made its way in a more definite direction. It is clear that church people, primarily Deaconesses will constitute the school. Bible Women and Deaconess are synonymous to each other in this ministry. Missionaries and organizers of the institution have been educating those who did not have access to learning in the past, specifically women. When the training school was established its intention was in good faith for not competing with other Protestant denominations and the established Catholic schools. Stuntz states that:

Protestantism (Methodism) in the Philippines because it is not good for Churches to be alone.

23 Clymer, Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 1898-1916, 192-195. 24 Clymer. Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 1898-1916: 196.

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Competition in religion may seem a shocking thing to some minds, but it has served, the ends for greater purity of teaching and life from the days of the Pharisees and the Sadducees to the time of Catholic and Protestants. One of the Civil Commissioners said in a session of that body when a petition from the Methodist of Manila for a long lease of a government property formerly administered by friars was before them for consideration: "I shall vote to grant the petition. I am a Catholic, but I believe in competition in religion." It is not for a man to be alone… Monopolies become bigoted… I will be tonic for Catholicism to have the Protestant Churches by her side. 25

For two decades between 1903 to 1923, years had been dedicated to the

education of young girls. Training for church work for the provinces outside of Manila was going north. Many pastors were at ease for more missionary work such as church planting for mission and evangelism with a Deaconess who graduated from the training school was very efficient. Sunday Schools were propagated massively for the youth and children, and these were not exempted for Christian Education. The training school was a great aid, Bible women positively prepared any occasion and events. Even faculties of the training school were very much focused on delivering the children, for the beauty of instilling in them a Christian education. The Bible itself was taught, morals were presented as plain as good and right for the vast majority of their students, not only for the Sunday schoolers. Weekdays are some opportunities for mission and evangelism.

The Women's Foreign Missionary Society was religious in sending

missionaries to establish women's institutions primarily for women and children. They were also responsible for sending funds and materials. When the United States colonial government in the Philippines started its "Pensionados"26 program from 1903 to 1956, young Filipinos were sent to

25 Homer Stuntz. The Philippines and the Far East. (Cincinnati, New York: Jennings and

Pye; Eaton and Mains. Cornell University Library, 1904), 376. 26 Mario Orosa. The Philippine Pensionado Story. Last modified December 27, 2018,

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/4628773/the-pensionado-story-the-philippine-pensionado-story-by-mario-e-, 2005), 27-37. See. Noel Teodoro. Pensionados and

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Illustration 15. Brigida Garcia’s certificate (Diploma) of completion from a University in America in 1921. (Courtesy of Ms. Virginia Ruth Fernando-Asuncion)

various colleges and universities in the United States to study with a full stipend. This cycle of migration had impacted the life of the Philippine society concerning education and civil life, not knowingly when an educator, Brigida Garcia blessed Harris Memorial Training School. As previously mentioned Ms. Garcia, was not a "Pensionado/a." She is a full-blown scholar from a Methodist couple in the military service in Manila with the help of the Methodist Episcopal Church missionaries. When she was in the United States in 1918, the couple who adopted her saw her potential and provided for her education in the prestigious Columbia University Teacher's College. Even though during the last quarter of the 1920s when the United States government was in turmoil economically because of the "Great Depression," she magnificently managed to earn her degree.

By 1921, when she graduated from this Ivy League University in the United States, she persistently prayed for a fourth of her life to be sent to a foreign country where she could dedicate her time, talent, and skills, in teaching others, especially children. That sense of purpose was urgent to the country where she came from, where teaching Filipino children the way of Christianity was her passion. That pursuit of Christian Education in the Methodist Episcopal Church was noble, the Sunday school which she was a product of since her childhood days was a dedication to establishing Kindergarten Education in the Philippines.

Workers: The Filipinos in the United States, 1903-1956. (Quezon City: University of the Philippines, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 1999), 170.

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Illustration 16. Brigida Garcia’s certificate of completion in 1923 from the Philippine Islands Sunday School Union, change in 1930 as The Philippine Council of Religious Education this also certifies her licenses’ conceptualization of the Kindergarten school at Harris Memorial Training School.

(Courtesy of Ms. Virginia Ruth Fernando-Asuncion)

She arrived in the Philippines with her avid and equipped knowledge coming from the United States in 1923. The Philippine Sunday School Union that was established in the Philippines in 1911 was a conglomeration of activities, training, and conventions of all protestant evangelical churches subscribed to a program of studying the Bible through Sunday schools as part of the Christian education among the evangelical churches. Their chief objective was a uniform understanding, knowledge, and training of all teachers. Furthermore, Ryan states that:

The Philippine Island Sunday School Union came into being in 1911 as an organized expression of the growing interest, among American missionaries and Filipino workers, in the achievement of more effective and religious education of children and young people. It has been quite analogous in its functions and activities to the State Sunday school Association of America. During the nineteen years since its organization, a large and significant development has taken place. Indeed, the present scope of the Union extending far beyond that of the traditional Sunday School, could hardly have been foreseen by the original

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founders. A great religious education renaissance had characterized American church life during the past two decades. The Philippines have felt the impact of this movement. And in the process of evolution we may confidently expect and still greater things are store for years that lie ahead. 27

This certifies Ms. Garcia in her involvement with this union, where it was a

developing skill in employing similar teaching strategies for the children. This also manifested her involvement in the Methodist Episcopal Church and one institution that would necessitate her mission to transfer her ideas into a program to the Harris Memorial Training School.

As Harris Memorial Training School exceeded her ministry, the first and

lone graduate of Kindergarten Education in 1925 was Maria Aquino who hails from Mexico, Pampanga. Brigida Garcia trained her in Huey Wilson Hall, Lerma street, Sampaloc, Manila. It was a rare opportunity that the institution was requested to hold Sunday afternoon extension children's ministry at the University of the Philippines (U.P.), Manila, At that time the President of U.P. was the Reverend Doctor Guy Potter Wharton Benton (1921-1925)28 and an American educator from the State of Ohio. With that request, Reverend Benton believes how essential pre-schools education is, especially in the Bible ministry. For some time Ms. Maria Aquino practiced as her fieldwork what she learned in that premiered University for two consecutive years. Her Kindergarten diploma paved the way for a more significant chance outside the institution and the Church. Her preschoolers were sons and daughters of the University campus faculties and some nearby communities in the campus premises.

27 Ryan. Religious Education in the Philippines, 1. 28 He was the 3rd President of the University of the Philippines and was an ordained

minister and elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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Illustration 19. The Rev. Dr. Guy Potter Wharton Benton (1865-1927)

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Illustration 18. Maria Aquino she was the first and lone graduate of Kindergarten Education in the Philippine in 1925 trained by pioneer Kindergarten Educator Brigida Garcia at Harris Memorial Training School (Courtesy of

Harris Memorial College Centennial Book)

Illustration 20. Dr. Jorge Cleofas Bocobo (1886-1965) (Courtesy of M. Orosa “The Philippine Pensionado Story”)

Illustration 17. Ms. Mary A. Evans The Third Directorship of Harris

Memorial Training School (Courtesy of Harris Memorial College

Centennial Book)

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As her concluding work in that premiered University, as it expanded out to Diliman, Quezon City, Ms. Aquino continued her work for preschoolers as part of her ministry. Because of her much needed expertise in pioneering this program, she was invited by Dr. Jorge Cleofas Bocobo29 who was the 5th President of the University of the Philippines from 1934 to 1939.

It had been a struggle that the American colonial government recognized

the institution's recognition of Kindergarten education. In 1939, the new directorship was passed on to Mary A. Evans, a hardworking lady who also helped social ministries and evangelistic work of the Filipino Deaconesses with Marguerite Decker. During World War II she boldly nurtured the ministry and education of Harris Memorial Training School up to 1951. CONCLUSION

The genesis of the Kindergarten education in the Philippines was a laborious pioneering work. American interest in the Philippine development can be summarized by Onorato who asserted that:

Yet it is Filipinos who castigate themselves and us for failing their country. Filipino intellectuals spare no words in their denunciation of those who were less than full-time heroes... It would be seen them that their understanding of the meaning of development differs from President William McKinley, Elihu Root, William Howard Taft, [Atkinson and Barrows]. By any reasonable measure, the progress in the Philippines during those early years surpasses the record of any other imperial power for a comparable period. American assistance, on the whole, is motivated by a sincere desire to help. It would be foolish to think that we are now trying to make amends for the past mistakes, although some of our countrymen no doubt thinks so. Probably, the Philippines would have received assistance even if there have been no “special relationship.” In the last analysis, it will be

, 29 A “Pensionado” and a Lawyer, an active Lay leader of the Methodist Episcopal

Church in the province of Tarlac and founding the Gerona United Methodist Church.

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the Filipino people who will determine the outcome of their national development. 30

Moreover, the institution (Harris Memorial Training School) was founded

by Americans. The church and state is somewhat a separated entity in the American political philosophy. Education in the Philippines brought by the American missionary efforts by the Women's Foreign Missionary Society through the Methodist Episcopal Church initiative was in response to the urgent needs of the times, that would gain development as a whole far more from the Deaconesses training from 1903 to 1923. From 1925 to 1941, Harris Memorial Training School produced Sixty-Seven (67) graduates from all over the island of Luzon. Young women and children have accepted the fact that the Methodist is synonymous to Kindergarten to which they are a product of. The institution's contributions to the national development, particularly in Kindergarten training was a breakthrough even after World War II when the Philippine government recognized early childhood education in the 1970s.

Furthermore, Methodism (Protestantism) was brought to the country by the American Missionaries. Their model of mission work is "preaching, teaching, and healing ministry. Their holistic work is a manifestation of their doctrine that spirituality cannot be independent from the social, the economic, and the political. These sectors are seen to be interacting at various levels and at various degrees."31 Education was one of it, particularly kindergarten education. This essential condition was laid evidently to the social and cultural dimension of the pre-school necessity of acquiring knowledge and character for national development in the country. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

Upon the discussion of the contributions of Harris Memorial College in church and society it is recommended for further studies to be carried on the following topics:

1. Who were the products of Harris Memorial College/Harris Memorial Training School? Who were, not only impacted nationally/internationally, but locally in their community?

30 Michael Onorato, A Brief Review of American Interest in the Philippine Development, and

other Essays. ( Manila: MCS Enterprises, Inc., 1972), 3 & 9. 31 Carlito Puno. The Role of Protestant churches in National Development. (Dissertation,

Manila: University of the Philippines, (1988), 361.

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2. What Kindergarten schools were established in the church and the community? In Manila and the provinces?

3. Finally, what educational (Kindergarten) philosophy the institution

initially developed? From Pestalozzi and Froebel to Montessori and the context of a Filipino child?

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Onorato, Michael. A Brief Review of American Interest in the Philippine Development, and other Essays. Manila: MCS Enterprises, Inc., 1972.

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