A Behind-the-Scenes Story of The Thomasites

The Thomasites were sent to the Philippines to educate but their labors did not focus on that singular purpose.  Carmina and Patch discuss how their work served America’s imperial vision of benevolent assimilation, the possible personal motivations of leaving the comforts of home for an unknown land, and their innermost thoughts about the Filipino students under their tutelage and the communities in which they lived. Learn about “Philippinitis,” how one Filipino spent (and thrived) for years at a Native American industrial school and the fascinating synopsis of a historical fiction novel, “The Thomasite.”

Learn more: A Brief History of The Thomasites, Frederick G. Behner's "Thomasite Adventure," The Thomasite, Educating the Empire: American Teachers and Contested Colonization in the Philippines, Playing Indian, Playing Filipino: Native American and Filipino Interactions at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Victoria Grageda-Smith, The Thomasite, and EMPIRE and EDUCATION.

To support FilTrip, go to the Patreon page here and PayPal page here.

Visit https://filtrip.buzzsprout.com. Drop a note at thefiltrip@gmail.com.

Thanks to FilTrip's sponsor SOLEPACK. Visit thesolepack.com for more details.

See https://www.buzzsprout.com/privacy for Privacy Policy. 

Transcript

Carmina: 0:06

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines. And now a quick shout out. Check out Manila Candle. Manila Candle features Filipino inspired scents like Tagaytay, Palawan, Ube Halaya and Buco and Mango. They also have fun ones like Ay Nako and Bahala Ka Sa Buhay Mo.

Patch: 0:35

Enjoy their car fresheners, wax melts and merchandise too. Visit manilacandle.com and take a trip to the Philippines through their scents.

Carmina: 0:46

Back to our show.

Patch: 0:48

Today's trip is a round trip when we talk about historical facts and things that connect to back. In this episode, we'll be talking about Thomasites who arrived in Manila on August 21st, 1901, to establish a new public school system in the Philippines.

Carmina: 1:07

I remember a conversation we had a while back Patch when we were reflecting on why our grandparents, and to some extent even our parents, were fluent in Spanish. And somehow it skipped us <laugh>.

Patch: 1:21

Right.

Carmina: 1:22

And this arrival of the Thomasites was really pivotal in basically erasing Spanish from the educational curriculum, making English the primary medium of education in the Philippines. But it really wasn't just education, it was also in religion, business, and everyday life.

Patch: 1:44

When the Thomasites arrived, there was an existing school system, and 45% of the population nationwide was literate, almost half. And in fact, in Manila it was 50%. So it's not true that, you know, we were this population of uncivilized peoples who are illiterate. Yeah.

Carmina: 2:08

That's how we were portrayed in America, to drum up public support for America's imperialistic aims. So a lot of propaganda was circulating in the US to portray us as a people to be saved.

Patch: 2:24

President McKinley declared that he wanted American forces to gain Filipino's confidence, respect, and affection, and demonstrate that America's purpose was benevolent assimilation. So the Army began intervening in civic affairs in the Philippines to gain public support for the US presence in the country, and had already opened a number of schools even before the Thomasites arrived.

Carmina: 2:54

Our first teachers really were military personnel, correct? But that wasn't sustainable because there's only so many military personnel who can act as teachers. And so this whole program was conceived to Americanize the entire Philippine Islands.

Patch: 3:10

On July 23rd, 1901, the United States Army Transport Thomas, or the USAT, Thomas left San Francisco, California. It was manned by a crew of about 300 men and carrying about 350 male teachers and 200 female teachers, a few wives, and about 30 children. The ship first anchored in Honolulu, Hawaii to replenish supplies and refuel, and also the Thomasites used that time as a mini vacation to tour the islands before the ship continued across the Pacific Ocean, eventually arriving in Manila Harbor on August 21, 1901.

Carmina: 3:57

So Patch, they apparently went on an excursion of San Francisco's Chinatown to prepare them for coming to the Philippines <laugh> , because they really didn't have a lot of knowledge.

Patch: 4:09

Right? And I believe some of them even went to a , uh, particular science fair?

Carmina: 4:15

Yeah, the Pan-American Exposition of July 15, where there was a Filipino village that was part of the attractions.

Patch: 4:24

<laugh> . I can just imagine how we were portrayed.

Carmina: 4:28

So you mentioned that they were on the US Army Transport Thomas, which is why they're called the Thomasites. They're named after that ship that they arrived on. But of course, they weren't the only educators that came to the Philippines. There were waves and waves of them that arrived during the entire American colonization period, and they were all called Thomasites. I think it was also noteworthy that their arrival was just four months after the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo. From a political standpoint, it was really crucial that this was executed very quickly, because if you remember in the Independence episode, Theodore Roosevelt at that time wanted to turn the tide of public sentiment in America towards the idea of American imperialism. He said that white American men were honor bound to lift the Philippines out of savagery and into civilization. So Patch , why don't we talk about the background of the educators that were on the USAT, Thomas.

Patch: 5:33

Generally speaking. I know that they came from different backgrounds. Of course, some of them were teachers, but some of them had religious backgrounds, and some of them had their background in music, and in fact, whatever their background was dictated how and what they taught in the schools.

Carmina: 5:53

So most of them were single. Only a third had over five years of teaching experience, and a lot of them had only less than two years, and 20% had none. So Wawa <laugh> , those Filipinos who got that , that percentage, but maybe not right, because they probably weren't jaded yet from teaching <laugh> . So the largest contingent came from New York, followed by California, then Massachusetts. But Patch, there was one guy from Michigan, this Michigander is Frederick G Bhenner.

Patch: 6:32

He was the pastor who focused in incorporating Christian ideals into his curriculum.

Carmina: 6:38

Before I go into him.

Patch: 6:39

Mm-hmm. < affirmative>,

Carmina: 6:40

They were deployed without a formal and established curriculum. And since they also had varying levels of educational achievement, they delivered different levels of quality in their instruction. <laugh> , as you said, some like Bhener was heavy on the religion, but someone who was a music lover could be focused on singing and dancing <laugh> . And which classroom would you rather be in <laugh> . In any case, Bhener kept diaries, very detailed ones. And they were important in understanding perspectives of Thomasites like himself. Equally important, his students' essays also survived, and they also revealed a lot about how he taught these essays, though also revealed a little bit of a sad side, because one of the lessons he apparently instilled in his students, according to a former student, was the notion that Filipinos were uncivilized and that the Americans were spreading a new superior and civilized order. So according to the student, the feeling of being inherently inferior became deep seated . And you can see this being replicated across the Philippines, right? If someone like Bhener had this mission and really took it seriously that he was a tool of the imperial government, it became propagated in our collective psyches.

Patch: 8:08

So I also wanted to add another Thomasites that I came across.

Carmina: 8:13

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> ,

Patch: 8:14

Walter Marquardt , I'm sorry if I'm butchering his last name, but he was a Thomasite who chronicled most of the events of his teaching through photography. And in fact, a lot of Thomasites use photography, a kind of proof to show the progress of the Filipinos being civilized. So for example, there was a particular photo of a little girl from the Ifagao tribe who was working on a sewing machine while a mother with a blouse and a skirt looked over her showing that the youngsters and their communities were being taught the proper ways to dress.

Carmina: 8:54

That underscores that they weren't just teaching, you know, the usual subjects, right? But was a way for the American teachers to show the Filipinos what proper clothing should look like. So it was a slow and steady brainwash, I guess, so to speak.

Patch: 9:14

Right. And I did want to add just another Thomasite, Euretta A. Hoyles, who described how the school day began with teaching American folklore tunes and prayer. Instead of teaching Filipino school children their folklore and songs, they were teaching American folklore and songs. And so that is just another way to say that in order to be civilized, you had to be American.

Carmina: 9:42

Since we're naming notable Thomasites, I wanted to mention someone, but I have to mention it in the context of Black Americans. So as we heard earlier , Theodore Roosevelt's speech was very heavily weighted on white American men. However, in spite of this very strong language about whiteness and maleness, there were actually 11 men and three women who were black Americans as part of this group. And on the topic of the black Thomasites, it was interesting because they were, as we know, experiencing intense discrimination, especially in the South. And their participation in this program was apparently very heavily debated. But a lot of them really fought for a place in this program because it was an opportunity for them to sort of reposition themselves in the Philippines. They were able to claim themselves as Americans first, which was a very difficult thing for them to assert in white America. They were also said to have been very sympathetic to the Filipinos because of the similarities from a race and equality perspective. So they were able to draw a direct line between their racial oppression in America and the imperial mandate in the Philippines. So that influenced how they taught as well. I mean, it's a shame that there were only 14 of them, right? They probably imparted a lot of what the American ideals of equality and democracy should really be, as opposed to the perspectives of the white Thomasites. So there was one who became the most famous, and his name is Carter G. Woodson. When he returned to America, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and history, and eventually became known as the Father of Black history.

Patch: 11:39

Wow. And he was a Thomasite in the Philippines?

Carmina: 11:42

He was, and he apparently tried to go back, but for a variety of reasons he couldn't. And instead established a very strong foundation of black history.

Patch: 11:53

You talked about a marginalized sector in American society. Did you come across any information about the other marginalized sector of American society, which are the women?

Carmina: 12:05

That was also a huge debate because they weren't considered strong enough for the colonial work, and that their bodies weren't suited to tropical climates. In fact, doctors came up with a disease called Filipinitis, did you know this

Patch: 12:24

<laugh>? No. I mean , I shouldn't be laughing, but what is that?

Carmina: 12:29

I mean, it's just so ridiculous. You have to laugh. It was characterized by lack of energy and focus, which doctors said, white women were particularly in danger of contracting and supposedly even affected their monthly periods. <laugh> ,

Patch: 12:50

Wait, I have Filipinitis.

Carmina: 12:53

<laugh> . Are you sure It's not just menopause?

Patch: 12:58

<laugh> ?

Carmina: 13:00

But anyway, that was a fascinating piece of , uh, facts to me. And I'm putting facts in air quotes,

Patch: 13:09

<laugh> , although that image of these white women teachers existed that way, a lot of the imagery of the Thomasites kind of showed these women as mothers to the Filipino citizens who were portrayed somehow as the unruly children in need of the family's direction and instruction.

Carmina: 13:33

And in a way, a lot of these women too, it was a chance for them to reposition their hierarchy in society in the Philippines, right? Because they were so marginalized in the US, they brought some ideas and practices to the Philippines that were even more advanced than what was happening in America. So I'll give you one example. Women teachers encouraged sports in their female students.

Patch: 13:58

Oh, right.

Carmina: 13:59

Filipino girls played tennis, basketball, croquet golf, horseback riding, and others. While their American counterparts participation in sports was not yet common in America during the same period. So sports became so important to Filipino girls.

Patch: 14:19

There was actually a girl's baseball team that was established. They were wearing obviously the classic American baseball uniforms, but I believe there was a picture with the girl's baseball team. And these were actually Moros or Muslim Filipinos from Southern Philippines.

Carmina: 14:39

So patch, in the beginning, we said that the Thomasites transformed our educational system. But the way they used it was not unique though. It's so interesting because they really took ideas from the European model of colonialism, including their own attempts. So an example of this is how they taught the Native Americans. A man named David Barrows, w ho w as a central figure. He was an anthropologist and had a deep interest in the life and customs of Native Americans. And he did extensive research and collaboration with the Native American tribes. He was appointed by President Taft as chief of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of the Philippine Islands, and then became the general superintendent of education. So in that position, he reorganized the entire educational system and believed that many parts of it needed to be patterned after the Indian services in America.

Patch: 15:41

Prior to David Barrows, president Taft actually nominated a certain Fred Atkinson, and the goal was preparing Filipinos for self-government. Noteworthy, is that Atkinson used the black educational system in the United States as a model for advancing education in the Philippines, emphasizing on primary and industrial education. However, Taft thought that the Filipinos could be more than laborers, and that they were born politicians, which is funny 'cause that could be true <laugh> as we look at the political landscape now . But finally, in the fall of 1902, he fired Atkinson feeling that Filipinos were more capable than labor, and he then chose David Barrows.

Carmina: 16:37

So I think that is two sides of the same coin, because it did persist. This idea of making sure that we were heavy on the manual and industrial education as well. In fact, this focus on manual and industrial education had to do with readying the markets of both countries. Isn't that interesting?

Patch: 16:59

That's very interesting.

Carmina: 17:00

The American government wanted to open the Philippines to American investment and export. So students were taught to produce goods that had a market in America, like hat and mat weaving and basketry as early as the primary grades, and then prepare Filipinos as farmers and laborers also to supply the American market. But I appreciate that at least there was thought that this was not all we were good for <laugh> . Right?

Patch: 17:30

Right.

Carmina: 17:30

And in fact, it gave rise to this Pensionado program. So there was this Pensionado act, it was implemented on August 26th, 1903, and it was a scholarship program that was to prepare the Philippines for self-governance after the Philippine American War, ostensibly because we know that it took decades and decades before they actually granted us independence. The goal was to train highly educated civil servants and the mold of American ideals. The first iteration of the program was only open to elite Filipinos, but over the decades, it became available even to ordinary Filipinos. So hundreds and hundreds were able to access American education. It was the largest of its kind. And from 1903, continued until 1943 until it was replaced by the Fulbright program.

Patch: 18:30

Carmina , did you come across what actually motivated these group of people to leave their homes and travel all the way to the Philippine Islands?

Carmina: 18:40

A lot of what we've read growing up about the homicides really portrayed them as these ambassadors of goodwill for America. Right?

Patch: 18:47

Right.

Carmina: 18:48

And we already discussed how they were really a tool for the imperial aims of the government, and they really saw themselves as an arm of that. However, some of them were really simply adventure seekers who were looking to start a new life. The other factor Patch was that they would also earn a much better salary than in America, approximately double. But I just wanted to mention something about their pay. They were paid in Mexican silver, which fluctuated in value. So sometimes they would lose money when they converted it into American dollars. <laugh>.

Patch: 19:24

So that's karma for some of them who had , uh, nefarious motives for coming here.

Carmina: 19:31

<laugh>. Right. Then on the other side of that, there were people who knew that having experience and colonial education would advance their educational careers. And in fact, opened other assignments as educational reform advisors in countries in South America, like Peru, Nicaragua, and others. And those were desirable posts. And then as we talked about in the case of the Black Americans and the women, there were also those who knew that this was an opportunity to reinvent themselves and reposition themselves in Philippine society as Americans. And there were also a few examples, and I really hope that people will be interested enough to look this up , who rewrote their entire personal histories, and in some cases also erased all of their ethnicity. So it wasn't only the Black Americans, there were also people who were naturalized Americans, but came from other countries like the Middle East who passed as white.

Patch: 20:34

Some Thomasites chose to assimilate into the local culture and formed long-term relationships with their students and communities. And some of them decided to stay.

Carmina: 20:45

You know, what was the other interesting thing? Patch was of course, they had to live in the communities that they taught, so they were in very close contact with the Filipinos and the communities they lived in. And a lot of these unfiltered observations came through by way of the letters that they wrote back home. These writings, the combination of letters and diaries that these teachers kept were very enlightening as to what they really thought. So some of the things that they documented were challenges they encountered with students. And this whole propagation of this notion that a lot of us were uncivilized and needed to be taught civilization through punishment. So in the early days of the implementation of the educational system Patch, there was a lot of physical and verbal punishment being needed out to the students, but against the backdrop of Filipinos asserting their independence. And you know, it wasn't just one-sided, right? The Americans had their view of us. We also had their view of them <laugh> .

Patch: 21:56

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Carmina: 21:56

As people who were encroaching upon our independence. So a lot of the acting out could really be attributed to the Filipinos trying to assert their independence and their views that these American teachers are intruders in their lives. So even from the beginning, there were many examples of Filipinos challenging the American teachers practices. In fact, one example that was documented, which I found so cool, was my province Balayan was cited as an example in this book I read titled, Educating The Empire.

Patch: 22:36

What happened in Balayan?

Carmina: 22:37

There was an American teacher, Helen Trace , who slapped a boy in her class in October of 1903. The brother of the boy reported it, but he didn't report it to the principal. He instead went directly to the province's superintendent because the principal was Helen Trace's husband.

Patch: 22:59

Oh, smart.

Carmina: 23:01

So Helen trace's students met and they decided to strike, which lasted for several weeks.

Patch: 23:09

Wow.

Carmina: 23:10

And they didn't just play hooky during this time. 'cause you would think, right. So what they did, instead, the more advanced students in this Balayn school took on the role of the teacher and held their own lectures to the rest of the class so they wouldn't fall behind. So, because this strike went on and on, apparently, so her husband transferred some students from other sections to her class, and guess what they did?

Patch: 23:35

What?

Carmina: 23:36

They joined the strike <laugh> because of the controversy, the husband and wife were removed from Balayan . And this incident led the Bureau of Education to institute rules prohibiting physical punishment, except under one condition.

Patch: 23:53

What condition is that?

Carmina: 23:54

If your parents or your guardian permitted it? But it had to be in writing. And it also led to prohibiting verbal abuse as well, specifically prohibiting teachers from commenting on Filipino students' capacities.

Patch: 24:10

I'm sure all these rules were not really explicitly followed.

Carmina: 24:15

I think it just so happens that Batangas, as we know, was a very strong proponent for Filipino independence. I was so proud.

Patch: 24:23

So Carmina, the Thomasites were instrumental in the establishment of an education system in the Philippines.

Carmina: 24:31

And we feel ambivalent about it. Right?

Patch: 24:33

Right. <laugh> ,

Carmina: 24:34

on the one hand, there's no doubt that generations of Filipinos benefited from this effort, even though we know that on the other it was a means to one end.

Patch: 24:46

But thankfully, they did establish many basic and secondary schools that are still in existence today. It could also be said that the Thomasites, they are commonly regarded as the forerunners of the Peace Corps, whose purpose is to develop schools and civic initiatives around the world. So that's a very positive aspect of the history of the Thomasites in our country.

Carmina: 25:12

And in fact, Patch, a Thomasites was influential in the foundation and formation of the Peace Corps. His name is John S. Noffsinger, who taught in the Philippines from 1909 to 1912. He was a senior counselor in the Office of Public Affairs of the Peace Corps from 1961 until his death in 1966. So there's a little bit of a controversy about the Peace Corps, Patch. Not really a controversy, but something that happened when they arrived in the Philippines in 1961. The first Peace Corps volunteers were greeted at the airport with a banner that said, welcome to the new Thomasites. And the Peace Corps volunteers immediately rejected this because they saw themselves as more respectful of other cultures and beliefs and didn't want to be associated with the imperialistic aims of the Thomasites. So, okay . Patch, let's talk about some trivia.

Patch: 26:13

We talked about how the educational system was influenced by the way they were teaching the Native American Indians in America.

Carmina: 26:21

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> .

Patch: 26:22

And so the Carlisle Indian Industrial School is the first off reservation Native American boarding school, which was established in 1879. It was established by Richard Henry Pratt, and he founded this school, which was linked very much to imprisonment and colonial education right from the start. Carlisle later became a model for similar schools across the United States and Canada. But what's interesting is there was a Filipino who entered the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on March 20, 1903. His name was Esteban Gloria .

Carmina: 27:07

Hmm.

Patch: 27:08

It's the first year that any Filipino student entered the United States. And during his seven years at Carlisle, he received printer training and participated in a variety of school activities there.

Carmina: 27:23

So he was a pension ,

Patch: 27:25

I guess. Yeah.

Carmina: 27:26

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> .

Patch: 27:27

So finally becoming even a captain of a junior varsity football team and a member of what they call the Invisibles, which is one of the Carlisle's four literary organizations. He was renamed Stephen Glory to replace his so-called Indian name and was classified as both Native American and Filipino during the term of his school. And despite the fact that the Philippines isn't an Indian tribe, he was referred to as coming from the tribe of the Philippines. And there were pictures of a group of Indians, and he was one of them. .

Carmina: 28:11

Wow. <laugh> I mean, a movie needs to be made about this.

Patch: 28:14

<laugh> <laugh> . I think so.

Carmina: 28:16

Okay. So the us a Thomas, it was the same ship that Apolline Mabini came in when he was returned to the Philippines from Guam. Well, the funny thing about this is, at first I thought, oh, were they on the same ship? But no, because Mabini actually arrived earlier than the Thomasites. It just so happens that they use the same ship.

Patch: 28:40

Oh, that's funny. Because some of the research that I found mentioned that the Thomasites were the first civilian cargo. But I was thinking, well, isn't Mabini a civilian? But not really. I guess they were considered prisoners of war. Okay.

Carmina: 28:58

Okay. And then the last one that I found, as we know, we were part of this package deal, right?

Patch: 29:05

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> ,

Carmina: 29:06

When the Americans won the Spanish American War, and in the package deal we're also Puerto Rico and Cuba, only hundreds were sent to Puerto Rico in the same timeframe. And the least was Cuba. Apparently only a handful were sent there. And I wondered, was it because we were the most rebellious of the bunch?

Patch: 29:27

Apparently we were the more uncivilized quote and unquote ,

Carmina: 29:32

So patch . In closing, I wanted to talk about a historical fiction called The Thomasite.

Patch: 29:38

What kind of historical fiction?

Carmina: 29:40

It's by a Filipino American author, Victoria Gerda Smith . She's a lawyer turned author. She's a first generation Filipino immigrant. She was born in the Philippines and is the eldest of 10 children. And before this, she had published many other written work. So if I may read the synopsis Amid the Philippine American War in 1901, a young teacher from Iowa, Eleanor Karsten sail on the US Army transport Thomas to America's new territory, the Philippine Islands. In response to President McKinley's call to help implement the policy of benevolent assimilation of Filipinos, she joins more than 500 US educators called the homicides to teach Filipino children and build a secular public school system. As an alternative to the Catholic educational institutions established by Spanish colonial rule, a stopover in the Hawaiian Islands, and a brief residency in Manila, where the homicides await deployment to their designated school areas, awaken Eleanor to disturbing implications of America's expansionist policy. She eagerly welcomes her assignment to Magayon, home to the majestic, perfectly cone shaped Mayon volcano when she arrives there. However, various challenges including malaria, a cholera epidemic, insurrection and racial and religious prejudice test her resolve to fulfill her missions. Her loyalties are likewise tested when she unwittingly becomes romantically entangled <laugh> with a Spanish Filipino plantation owner. And his peasant foreman worse , Eleanor worries. One of them could be the local leader of the insurrection. Thus setting her at odds with the commanding officer of the US infantry stationed in town. Even worse, she clashes with the parish priest as Eleanor witnesses, the ramifications of the US occupation of the Philippine Islands. She finds herself the student, rather than the teacher caught between, on the one hand, her compassion for her students and Filipinos, and on the other, her patriotic duty to her country, her devotion to her vocation, and her increasingly undeniable feelings for one of the men competing for her love and the scorching battle between ideology and reality. Eleanor struggles to balance treading on a tightrope of volatile interwoven interests and carve a path forward. Would Eleanor survive the forces tearing her and her mission apart, including the people she's come to love as her own? To whom would she finally entrust her heart? And what legacy would she and her fellow homicides leave for generations of Filipinos

Patch: 32:40

<laugh>?

Carmina: 32:41

That was long. However, I really thought it perfectly describes this whole story of the Thomasites, <laugh> .

Patch: 32:52

Maybe we should have just done the synopsis of that book.

Carmina: 32:55

The book. And with that, that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip, o siya, siya.

Patch: 33:04

Ingat. Thanks for listening to FilTrip with Carmina and Patch. Support FilTrip through Patreon or PayPal. And follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever all podcasts are downloaded.

Carmina: 33:23

Thanks to Filtrip's sponsor Solepack, a functional shoe accessory bag. Visit thesolepack.com for more details.

Patch: 33:32

Email us at thefiltrip @gmail.com.