<div class="image-550">
<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-15/usat-thomas.webp" alt="U.S. Army Transport Thomas" loading="lazy" />
<div>
(U.S. Army Transport Thomas)
</div>
</div>
<p>
The Thomasites were a group of American teachers who travelled from the United States to the newly occupied territory of the Philippines on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAT_Thomas" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">U.S. Army Transport Thomas</a>. The group included 346 men and 180 women, hailing from 43 different states and 193 colleges, universities, and normal schools. The term "Thomasites" has since expanded to include any teacher who arrived in the first few years of the American colonial period of the Philippines.
</p>
<p>
The name Thomasite was derived from the United States Army Transport Thomas which brought the educators to the shores of Manila Bay. Although two groups of new American teachers arrived in the Philippines before Thomas, the name Thomasite became the designation of all pioneer American teachers simply because Thomas had the largest contingent. Later batches of American teachers were also dubbed Thomasites.
</p>
<p>
Philippines had enjoyed a <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/835/today-in-philippine-history-december-20-1863-spain-promulgated-an-educational-decree-for-reforming-the-educational-system-in-the-philippines" class="news_link">public school system since 1863</a>, when a Spanish decree first introduced public elementary education in the Philippines. The Thomasites, however, expanded and improved the public school system and switched to English from Spanish as the medium of instruction.
</p>



<p>
The U.S. government spent about $105,000 for the expedition (equivalent to $3,420,060 in 2021). More American teachers followed the Thomasites in 1902, making a total of about 1,074 stationed in the Philippines.
</p>

<p>
Some Thomasite teachers were:
</p>
<ol class="k-list">
<li>
Edwin Copeland, first dean of UP College of Agriculture and founder of the <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/979/today-in-philippine-history-march-6-1909-the-university-of-the-philippines-los-ba-os-was-officially-established" class="news_link">University of the Philippines at Los Baños</a>.
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1716/today-in-philippine-history-february-22-1872-austin-craig-rizal-research-professor-of-history-was-born-in-eddytown-new-york" class="news_link">Austin Craig</a>, an American expert on José Rizal
</li>
<li>
A.V.H. Hartendorp, the founder and publisher of the Philippine Magazine
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/2969/adeline-knapp-an-influential-figure-in-philippine-education-was-born-on-march-14-1860-in-buffalo-new-york" class="news_link">Adeline Knapp</a>
</li>
<li>
Henry Nash, former member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders
</li>
<li>
Philinda Rand
</li>
<li>
Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman, founder of <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/2852/today-in-philippine-history-august-28-1901-silliman-university-was-established-as-silliman-institute-by-american-protestant-missionaries" class="news_link">Silliman University</a>
</li>
<li>
Frank Russell White, founder of Tarlac Provincial High School (now Tarlac National High School), the oldest public high school in the Philippines
</li>
<li>
Carter G. Woodson, African-American historian
</li>
<li>
Marius John, author of the "Philippine Saga" (1940) who was stationed at Baao, Camarines Sur in 1902
</li>
<li>
Thaddeus Delos Anglemyer
</li>
</ol>

<p>
At the time, the Thomasites were offered $125 a month (equivalent to $4,072 in 2021), but once in the Philippines salaries were often delayed and were usually paid in devalued Mexican pesos.
</p>
<div class="image-550">
<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-19/adeline-knapp.webp" alt="adeline knapp" loading="lazy" />
<div>
(Adeline Knapp)
</div>
</div>
<p>
Although the Thomasites were the largest group of pioneers with the purpose of educating the Filipinos, they were not the first to be deployed by Washington, D.C. A few weeks before the arrival of Thomas, U.S. Army soldiers had already begun teaching Filipinos the English language, thus in effect laying the foundation of the Philippine public school system. The U.S. Army opened the Philippines' first public school in Corregidor Island, after Admiral George Dewey vanquished the Spanish Pacific fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Also, a few weeks before the arrival of Thomas, another group composed of 48 American teachers also arrived in the Philippines, aboard the USAT Sheridan.
</p>
<p>
After President William McKinley's appointment of <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1717/today-in-philippine-history-september-15-1857-william-howard-taft-first-civil-governor-of-the-philippines-was-born-at-cincinnati-ohio" class="news_link">William Howard Taft</a> as the head of a commission that would be responsible for continuing the educational work started by the U.S. Army, the Taft Commission passed <a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/2984/january-21-1901-the-department-of-public-instruction-in-the-philippines-was-established-through-act-no-74" class="news_link">Education Act No. 74 on January 21, 1901</a>, which established the Department of Public Instruction. The latter was then given the task of establishing a public school system throughout the Philippines. The Taft Commission also authorized the further deployment of 1,000 more educators from the U.S. to the Philippines.
</p>
<p>
The Thomasites built upon the Spanish school system created in 1863 and the contributions laid down by the U.S. Army. They built elementary schools and learning institutions such as (among others) the Philippine Normal School, formerly the Escuela Normal de Maestros during the Spanish period (now Philippine Normal University) and the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, formerly the Escuela Central de Artes y Oficios de Manila (now <a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/2998/history-of-technological-university-of-the-philippines" class="news_link">Technological University of the Philippines</a>) in 1901, the Tarlac High School on September 21, 1902 and the Tayabas High School (now Quezon National High School), on October 2, 1902.
</p>


Today in Filipino History, August 21, 1901, the Thomasites arrived to establish a new public school system switching to English from Spanish