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The Study of the Classics in the Philippines By Paul A. Dunol We may rightly congratulate ourselves as literature teachers“ am thinking of igh school Iter teachers we wee fo overhear out stents in the school bus discussing charactors ina novel ae though they were eal persons. With his Divine Comedy, Dante deminstates 10 nother and deeper level at which to ead Iteatre, Dante’ reading of Virgil's Aeneid emerges as having been crical to a conversion he scully experienced and which be repre in the Commedia T wish to tnderscore how the influence of Veal on Dante goes beyond poss or Politics, bat to the very core of Dante’ bing n his reang ofthe Aeneid, Dane the render, has met, ot [Aeneas of Dio of Paliourus o any eter character, but Virgo living person, not Vig ideas of poetry or plits, ut Virgil mind and het ‘ery much alive in his work. The immediate result of such reading 1 Inumanize the classic, in this case. Vigils work, to recognize it excellence but aso imitations: isnot a pare of sacred Ierature, ven if it be part ofa canon, It may therefore be equaled, and this st {act what Dante strives to do with the Commedia A second rest isto engage the reader in dialogue, in a conversation, in which the reader Pattcipates, not as poet ot pilosoper, but ae 2 human being. and & human being of particular te and place. The dened ete st word inthe dalogee berween Virgit and Dante; the Commedia is Dantes reply, and in this dialogue, Dane is most aware thatthe person he Is speaking to belongs to 2 culture and civilization esentialy different fom his. This doesnot constitute a bare for Dante ‘The modem exemplar for reading he class has often been Petrarch Petrarch the Antiquarian | Hike oc i. nan antiquarian reading of Vigil, one engages in a convertion pretending one is ¢ contemporary ofthe elasial writer, living in his time and space. This is ota conversation, but play-scting, The reading of @ medieval thinker like Bemard Syvester, who makes of Christian ethics «Procastean bed into which Virgil is forefuly fie, is nota conversation eter but a lecture addressed by Berard to Virgil. Now Dante's manner of reading ‘he Aeneid doesnot mean tht les imporance is given to the ent 0 its plot, characters or eter features ara Herary work. In Dan's manner of reading itis rather through a mest carefl consideration ofall these atone comes fe to face with the author, and nt wih a figment of fone own imagination, The literary work i the tind and heat ofthe tor singing, and one mus strive to go beyond the muse to that mind {nd eset. Once faced with the author ahs vision of the burn beng, fone mast react, accepting oF rejecting tht vision and fone accept tnd doing o reveals maters to change in one own life, then one must ‘eside to change, if one must and one must change if one shoul Dante manner of reading the classi conceives of iterate, like the actors performance in Hales View, a 2 miro held upto he readers ature, and the reader in such # manger of reading mus judge whether the image stu or false, The comfortable appreciation ofthe aesthecis rot possible; one is impliated in one's reading, One must rise fom Tending classic a different person fom what one was before siting own to read nthe reading of an aesthete ora scholar, the classic remains safely towed amay in the confines of imagination cnet, posing no anger to the reader’ life I do ot mean that ether aethete or scholar tends the performance of « Greek tagedy impassively” He may be ‘moved by both pty and fear, bat he leaves the theatre the same person he ‘was an hour and half evr In Dantes reading of Vig, erature intrudes inv the reader’ life, roses over from the ear’ inelet and imagination to rely, hus veal. So sroag i his lesson leaned fom ‘is mater that Dantes own Commedia constantly insists on entering is readers reality: Dante addresses the reader diet) ad plays games With his verses, even with his verses ab copied on the page, to destroy any ilsion ected by his et “My poem sa mior and it eet ou.” {Let us apply this manner of reading to history rater thn Iterature, to Plaich Ie 8 possible to read about mast, fot all the Romans, whos ives he relates in an encylopaedia; we cul, of couse, say we prefer Phiarch to-an encyclopaedia because of his syle, his ncedotes, but that so say he exceeds the Encyclopaedia Brtanica in Value only in his sterling sil. In Phitrch's Lives we must eventually meet Plutarch himsl 0 just the preservation ofthe Lines ‘5s Plutarch Lives: soial data are nach easter to come by today in this ae of flopy disks and CD-ROMs, but Plaarch is avaiable oaly in Plutarch. And to meet Plstarch is to know bis mind, his ideal and biases, his values and blifs-fishand, because suey all hse are available in some study of Plutarch, but oe thing isto ear about someone and another ing is o meet the person himself. To read Plutarch isin some ‘way to know his heart. The fading ofthe classics mus be a vst othe living not to the dead submit that if piece of writing doesnot have that power with readers other than those for whom it ws originally win, and. We fannot forget that almost 1,300 years separated Dante from. Virgil list double tbe amount of time that separates ws from Das, then st annot be called a classic. The possiblity ofan experience ike Dane* Should be, 0 my mind, the pear reason behind any movement to fetum the classes 0 schools "Thies the first reason then that ffr for the sty of cassis in this counry and in any other, no mater where that maybe. Allow met Aigress at this point and mention an argument occasionally given 10 bandon any idea of inoducing the cassis tothe Philippines, nd that is the lack of any immediate relation between the class and our ‘culture. That, however, Was preciscly tue of most peoples in barbarian Europe atthe time of the Carolingian Renaissance when the casics, ‘were fintdeibertely introduced nto European schools The case ofthe peoples ofthe West that of peoples who assimilated a fregn elt. "They ae similar fo the Mongols and the Manchus ia China or even of the Romans faced with the glory tat was Greece conquerors Iaring from the conquered ‘A second reason for studying the class is precisely the distance that separates usin time from them -~ two houstad and more years Now this observation is usualy givens a reason nt t stay the ‘lassi, which are coneived ofa al Hopeless dl becuse hey’ ate 4 food tem centuries ol But this argument is the argument of ‘ignorance. The proof ofthe pudding isin the eating, and we, who have ‘ead the lasis in the manner of Dante epyin dsb, “But have you ‘odo read a single clase?” The answer may infact be, "Yes," and out next question i to ask whose translation was read and who the lterare teaches of the objector were, beeaise in thie mater of intoduct ‘dents othe classi, the translation used (i at ll) and the teacher’ pedagogical technique are important. But assuming a good warslation ‘nd a good teacher, I would insist the greater the diffrence in time betwoun reader and ent if the text istry a classi, that a gest piece ‘of lteratue, ten the more reson there i to include tat work In the ‘curriculum. The elasic well aught and corety read carry the Filipino reader back thousands of years wa culture to which he may inital Fs completly lien and yeti which, afters few chapters ofthe iad. he may fel at home. Caught bythe exeilement intrinsic fo naraives of ‘ats, fascinate by the precise description of gore, he student eads on ‘ntl He reaches that wemendovs confrontation between the vicerous ‘Achilles gxzing coldly a Pram, head soiled with ding, groveling at hie feet begging fo he corse of his son, And at this momen, the base of ‘centuries and difenng cultures collapses. These ae human beings: fam {human being: I understand hem. The stent reads on Homer Aeseribes the entrance of Hector corpse nto Troy, and then come the tree magnificent aris. Verdi anticipated by almost three thous jen: Andromache sing, then Heevba,fllowed by Helen. These are ihn beings a a human being understand thet TT. S. Blot (69) comments on a new ‘ype of provincialism, elite o mdm man In our age, when men sem more dan ever prone to conte wisdom wath Knowledge, and knowledge with infomation, and {ot to sole problems of life in terms of engineering, there is foming into eustence 4 new kind of provinilism which perhaps deserves a new mime. Ita provincial, not of space, but of time; oe for which history &s merely the chronicle of human devices which have served tir tim and Been sapped, ‘one for which the wold isthe property solely ofthe living, 2 ‘popety in which the dead hold no shares, The clasics explode the tny universe of modem man, Suddenly man is discovered to be eof the bonds of he senses and the limits of personal memory able to navigate vast eeans of he psy, to assimilate minds and ven more woneruly fo fst emotions of hunan beings tht have long fzased to exist I call anton to emotions, as we may ot be 100 impressed by the ability to understand ideas fom the distant pos iti 3 characterise afterall fies o be abstracted from both space and time. Emotions, however, are anther mater alogether, part animal, port sivne, «mix of body and soul The lesson from reading the casi is ‘man, te teacher's gal to bing the student excl, ike thal stdent Of the clases almost ou hundred years ago: What piece of work is a man! How nable in reason! How infinite im cules! In form and moving bow express nd ‘rable Inaction how ike an angel! In apprehension how like Sead! ‘Good teehing consists in good timing, and the good teacher, ‘otng the profound silence in the clase ashe o be reds Helen's lent een who eis by Hector’ corpse fr having fost hor ome frien, s0 she says. nll of Toy, everyone ele blaming her for tee miseries, ating the silence of his stent, the good teacher must all the atenton of the ‘lass 10 the miabliuo taking place before them: “Getlemen, we ate reading someting writen 2800 years ago, 2800 years ago, when lasical Greece was ais dawn when inperal Rome didnot yt exis. when the fst inhabitants of noriem Lacon were only besiang 19 trickle in” The point being that neither space nor time mates in things tf the haman st PPilosophy has enlisted the serves of erature, but in the begining there was no distineton between philosophy and tenure, and great Iiteraure continues to recognize no boundaries between the two. One opens the pages of « modern edition ofthe Nicomacheun thes and while Aristotle dd not have footnotes, moder editors sop) ‘hem, and one notes that many of them, most af them, are eeferenes (0 poets and. playwrights. Great Iteraure has med the tvone of Sapienia as much a pilosophy. What the later seats of in abstract terms, the former presents embodied in people and events, What I wish ‘0 cal your atteton to 20%, hough sno philosophy embodied in plot and character, but philosophy embodied inthe very act of modern man reading the elasic. Classical erature, pressely ease of ie age finely sited in itself that is, as 2 medium tae simoltaneoeny 3 Imessige, to make the point about “mimo” about truth both trans altura and tans-histreal, about human Beings and the principle of| enty they share. And i'they ear make sch pints wel and they do, then they are especially needed today 10 cure us, not only of provincia, but aso ofthe several metaphysis that conemporty ‘Wesiem civilization sues fom and is spreading throughout the word “Te third reason for studying the classics n Philippine schools has to do with the eivilization that produced the classics, the civilization ‘of ancient Greece and Rome, The civilization of ancient Greece and Rome is omy mind, self worthy of study pres Because i dead Frozen in fixed pater, itis here tobe used as Machivelh sed ta reference always avalable tobe consulted for actions and reactions of ‘human beings to avast variety of situations andthe consequences of hese. Tht it may be replied is what all history is, which te, but the history of ancient Greece and Rome is of particular interest bacause of certain characteristics, such as the Greek ideal of civilization ad democracy and the Roman rule of law. The classics reflect the ivilzation that produced tem, evel it rom wit. I peopose the study of Greek and Reman evilzatin asthe stay ofthe bith, growth, dey, and death of 8 civilization, and of a good one at that, for t¥0 pio. Sophical reasons: to ampres upon the student the fragility of huts achievement and likewise, paradoxically, o ask why human achievement like the classes can outlive the civilization which produced i. All hee reasons I have jst given you Tor studying the classics in the Philippines may be used as wel for offer ltaties, This Is ‘obvious inthe case ofthe Ts the second may be wed for any aacient Titre, Chin's or Inia’: aT apne the third maybe ven forthe study ofthe mide ages insofar af medieval history isthe history of ‘Chnsian Europe that arguably o longer existe. It would, 1 suppose, be idea tobe able wo give reson, which apply exclusively tothe study of the elasis, bur T doubt any such reasons canbe given today. They used to be, and in prtculr two moments of European history: that ofthe mnonk Alcuin inthe cour of Charlemagne, and that of the Halian umanist Peach, Ising out these two because both inated, if not seta, tho atleast symbolically tote European ming, aren of the lassie to school. The reasons for thei initiating tis were deren, 2 ‘ference we Se inumeditly if We consider that tere Were no schools in Alein's ume. while there were not only schools but also universities in Petar’ time, which infact included the classes their cuiulum, Petrarch’ eur othe canis had a ferent meaning from Ali's ‘Atte oot of Alcuis and Peres move to rtum the asics to schools is, in my opinion, a sense of awe snd wonderment st Grete tnd Rome. This may oot strike us es anything diferent fom what we ‘urslves may feck, but I suggest that ame sense in Aleuin and Peach, ‘Separated though they are by 700 years, is qualitatively different from ny sich sence sil surviving in the West. belive thst ther sense of fe and wonderment was of the same stipe as that ofthe barbarians ‘charging into the Roman forum, tupefied atthe monuments of marble fad gold. In otber words, this sense of awe and wondement at Greece Sand Rome sas accompanied in both the eighth and fourtenth centres bya sense of infront, the inferivity ofthe bararians inthe case of Alcuin, site aware of the civilization they had js aid waste 9 few ‘centuries before, the iferioty of a young civilization inthe case of Petrarch, just Beginning to realize its asic and intellectual potential © ‘qua he greatest tthe tan id at least, of past evilizations. By the Seventeenth century, this sense of infront had begun odisappesr. and the nineteenth sentry arth Darwin and Spener proceeded to ease any remnants ofthat seme of inferiority, development that the position of the clasis in education has reflected. That postion has experienced Periods of reinforcement, but on the whole is history has Geen one of Seclne. The Went now sees itelf at the poet of Greose and Rome, Petaps even ast superion,at in this tage of development I doubt he West shall ever again justify the study ofthe classics simply Beaune they af the lasses, the iterate of ancient Greece and Rome suppose that since this etre taking place in he Philippines fone should sy someting about the site of the classics in Philippine Schools The classes have never Formed part ofthe education offered by the sate, since the American fathers of at education atthe beginning of This century were aleady beset with doubts about the tadionsl importance of the clases. Our sense of awe and wonderment nixed with inferiority is dreted to America, andi i American education we frequently ape. Once upon a time the casies did form part of the ‘ducaton offered by a few Cato school in the Philippines. usualy ‘hose founded inthe lst century of within the fst hid ofthis one. 1 hold myself foruaste, however, for having been among the penultimate butch in my high sehool to have been taught Lain forfour yeas, By 1971 the program was ints death thoes. Eight years later Iwas involved in the establishment of «new high seal dd not hesitate to ele {Latin in the cuiculum. 1 was lucky enough to convince my old Latin teacher to come out of retirement and teach in the new school, He no longer teaches, and he and Took at the fare wit foreboding, Onl) one Latin teacher tas been tained despite heroic efforts on his part, and without echers one cannot consider evving anything in schools, tis interesting to note hat Jose Rial, who excell in the lasics in the Ateneo, in the Univesity of Santo Tomas. and the Universidad Central n Madi didnot include the sy ofthe lass ot of classcal languages ina dat he made ofthe cucu of "in cleo ‘modemo This is however entirely in keeping with the two novels is famous for. in which clascal Icing is consitendy an abject oF

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