ABSTRACT
After the American victory in the Spanish-American war of 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed which allowed the United States to obtain the Philippines for 20 million dollars (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 212). Prior to that, the revolutionary Philippine government of Emilio Aguinaldo had also been engaged in a war with the Spanish forces. After the turnover of the Philippines, the Spanish were replaced by the Americans, and the three-year period from 1898–1902 marked the Filipino-American war (Agoncillo, 1990, pp. 217–231). One of the first and most urgent projects of the Americans, in the midst of hostilities, was to establish a public school system (Agoncillo, 1990, pp. 371–372). This was intended as a means of pacification and for sowing the seeds for eventual Philippine self-government and independence. American soldiers became the new system’s first teachers, despite the lack of books and materials. ‘In many cases a school was the first thing established by the army in a town, even preceding the rudiments of municipal government’ (Gates, 1973, p. 87). This strategy, fully approved and endorsed by General Elwell Otis, was highly effective and even welcomed by the general populace. It gave a humane face to the new American colonisers.
