Education Life of Rizal

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and prayers. "My mother", wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, " taught me how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God". As tutor, Dona Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she who first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC's and to stimulate her son's imagination, she related many stories.
Rizal first studied under Justinia Aquino Cruz in Binan, Laguna, before he was sent to Manila. As to his father's request, he took the entrance examonation in Colegio de San Juan de Letran but he then enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila and graduated as one of the nine students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he decided o switch to medicine at te medical school of Santo tomas specializing later in ophthalmology.
In the first two terms the classes were divided into groups of interns and externs; the first constituted the Roamn Empire and the second, the Carthaginian Empire.
Without his arents knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Madrid Spain in May 1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Lecentiate in Medicine.