Transformative-essay-ian.docx

Tan, Ian James B.

March 5, 2019

KASPIL1 L85

T&TH 11:00pm – 12:30pm

Transformative Learning Essay

The first idea that comes into my mind after I hear the name of Jose Rizal is “hero”, because in high school we were taught that Rizal is a hero in our country, the Philippines. After going through and listening through the lectures of our professor in KASPIL, the notion of Rizal being a hero faded away. Surely Rizal loves our country, but not to the extent of letting it be free from the colonizers, nor to be independent from those who marked pain in the country’s history, but to become one of them. Rizal may be a hero to some because he sparked/ignited the fire burning within the rebelling Filipinos back then. But to me, a hero fights for his country’s freedom, not - fight to become a subordinate under the colonizers.

After some time, we were enlightened between the two differing words namely “Reformation” and “Revolution”, in which Rizal is a member on the former, while Bonifacio is member on both but joined the former to gain knowledge on how to lead Revolutionary movement. My prior knowledge on this matter is that both of those words mean the same thing – to end the sufferings felt by the victims, but it’s not in the case of Rizal. The reform movement wanted by Rizal was to let the Philippines be a province of Spain and for the Filipinos to enjoy equal rights with the Spaniards. On the other hand, Bonifacio held a revolutionary movement that led the Philippines to independence. Both mean well, but frankly one thinks more of himself over the others.

Lastly, the concept of nationalism. Over the years of listening from our history professors/teachers, the only thing I kept hearing is that the Spaniards only gives pain to our country in the past. But there’s that very important thing that they gave us, and that’s nationalism and unity. By being pushed far back in the corner, invading, colonizing, and much more abusing, the Filipinos learned how to fight eye for an eye, and learned how to love the country more the hard way. Spaniards being the superior for over 300 years, has made us realize to love the country more, and to be proud of it. Sadly, in the present years, we have become a victim of colonial mentality.

Reflecting to the lectures by our professor, I noticed that every concept being presented is backed-up by concrete evidences/facts dating back, and we were also encouraged to answer based on our prior knowledge. When I think about it, one must be open to new ideas, but also needs to be critical on the data given on the topic. Also, when presenting arguments, one must fully understand the claim that wants to be presented, the evidences given should be coherent and relative, and there should be a discourse about the topic. Overall, being critical in details and being open- minded, are two of the many possible things that I will still learn in the remaining meetings of our KASPIL1 course.