Monica's 3rd Post

Mónica Mendoza-Castrejón

7-15-14

Philippines Study Abroad

Andresen and Panganiban

To not read and pay attention to the news (or not having a college degree) means that you are underinformed, and if you read and pay attention to the news (or hold a college degree), you are misinformed. This is a quote which I find to be highly true when referring to the education which we receive under American dominated higher education. As we focused on education this week, I reflected on the readings by Paulet, David and Okazaki and Constantino and found that the common theme is that the education received by Filipinos and Filipino Americans is in fact, “miseducation”. This miseducation can be found through the Colonial Mentality Scale, language of instruction and overall imperialism.

The Colonial Mentality Scale is best described through David and Okazaki’s article, “The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation”. Here, they describe the Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) through four different forms, which are 1) Denigration of the Filipino Self, 2) Denigration of the Filipino culture or body, 3) Discriminating against less Americanized Filipinos and 4) Tolerating historical and contemporary oppression of Filipinos and Filipino Americans (David and Okazaki, 2006, pages 241-242) . It is important to describe CMS because through it, we can better understand the psychological issues caused by colonialism and how greatly it impacts the daily lives of Filipino Americans and all People of Color in the US and other countries and groups. Reading through Constantino’s article made me remember Andresen’s article “Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience”, (2012) as it too discusses CMS and CSE, Collective Self-Esteem, which is the extent to which persons evaluate their social group positively. This also made me reflect on the information which I learned about in Ayala Museum, and how colonialism spread to the Philippines, which ended up leading to imperialism. While museums can be problematic the way that they present information by ‘showcasing’ different groups’ things which can be sacred, they definitely help all people in learning about that group and part of the world. This was definitely the case with the visit to Ayala Museum. Learning about how gold has been so central to the way that the Philippines is connected to the rest of the world was particularly eye opening for me.

Paulet’s article, “To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the Philippines” (2007) brings to light the overall imperialism which is found in education in the Philippines, which takes a double hit for Filipino Americans. In the article, the US-Philippine education system is compared to American Indian studies by discussing the Filipino peoples assimilation as the Native Americans had to assimilate. The lecture which our group had on July 8 with Dr. Angel Shaw and the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) President was a great way to delve deeper into these discussions, particularly near the end with Q and A. PWU’s President brought up great insights as far as this hidden agenda which is found through imperialism goes. This relates to the article as we saw in Dr. Angel Velasco Shaw’s first film, Nailed, (1998) which mentioned the connection that Filipino culture under US imperialism has with Native American culture. In the part which connects to US imperialism, it presents the image of what a Native American is supposed to look like by preaching US nationalism and the term ‘American Indian’, which is a term given to Native Americans by Europeans, much like the term Hispanic was given to peoples indigenous to ‘Latin America’. Thinking about education in general, however, also made me think about how all universities that have extreme prestige in their respective countries, such as the University of Santo Tomas (UST) are founded on the very basis of colonialism, in this case with Catholic beliefs and when Spain came to Intramuros.

Constantino’s article, “Miseducation of Filipinos” discusses the harms which occur when you attempt to take away the language of a people and how by doing so the nation which the language originates from then becomes highly idealized and seen as ‘the savior country’. “Because of their lack of command of English, the masses have gotten used to only half-understanding what is said to them in English. They appreciate the sounds without knowing the sense. This is a barrier to democracy…. Because of the language barrier, therefore, they are content to leave everything to their leaders.” (Constantino, 1982, page 188). Reading about this made me remember what Dr. Oscar Campomanes referred to during our class visit to Ateneo University. I had asked him a question regarding any social movements occurring or have occurred in the Philippines related to language and he referred to Hispanismo, which was an attempt to use Spanish as a resistance to the main language group, which is Tagalog. He also discussed the neoliberal language efforts set out by the government to ensure that English is kept as the ‘overseeing’ language instead of any indigenous spoken tongue, and that by using English one is ‘Intellectualizing’ the Filipino people. Reflecting on this, it made me think about how many indigenous languages and cultures around the world are going or have been, extinct. If one were to think about this in terms of material goods and rights, it would be like big corporations taking over ‘mom and pop’ shops and the problems which surround this.

Re-thinking education was the overall theme for this week in my eyes. The readings, as well as experiences through the different lectures and university visits gave a greater insight and gave me a clearer vision and idea on how imperialism is spreading through education in other countries outside the US, such as the Philippines. 

Discussion question: How can immigrants in the US, children of immigrants in the US and people of color in the US continue to sustain their motherland’s culture while co-existing with their dual identity of being ____ American and having to “live” in English? What about for groups in other countries with similar situations?

Works Cited:

Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of war. (pp. 177-192). New York: New York Press.

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation.
Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16.

Paulet, A. (2007). To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the Philippines. History of Educational Quarterly, 47 (2), 173-202.

Andresen, T. (2012). Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience, In E. Bonus, E. & D. Maramba, (Eds.) The “other“ students: Filipino Americans, education, and power. Charlotte, NC: IAP.

“Nailed”. Dir. Dr. Angel Velasco Shaw. 1998. Film