One of those historical columns describe how an American schoolteacher regarded the prospects of his frontierland  job in Benguet.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Schools for Benguet

Jesse George, the principal teacher for Benguet Province, assessed educational conditions.

The 16 pueblos or towns of the province were Atok, Adaoay, Ampusunga, Baguio, Balakbak, Buguias, Bokod, Cabayan, Capangan, Galiano, Itogon, La Trinidad, Loo, Palina, Kibungan and Tublay.  It had a population of 818 Ilocanos and 14,630 Igorots, or a total of 15,448. The provincial school population was 2,173, but only 405 could read and write.

The Ilocanos were confined to La Trinidad and Galiano, and in other pueblos the few Ilocanos were traders and miners, and towrt secretaries. George found only 10 Igorots who could read and write, and their “knowledge was confined to stumbling over very simple Ilocano and being able to write their names and form the letters of the Ilocano alphabet.” The 30 children who were claimed to know how read Ilocano "have wholly forgotten their attainment." What passed for a school system the Spaniards had setup in only five pueblos were long gone, but these could be repaired and refitted. Ilocano or Tagalog maestros were employed, and paid meagerly, so that Christianized patrons had to donate for their services, mostly Christian indoctrination.

George found the Igorotes not as pure savages in a state of semi-civilization. They had none of the bloodthirsty characteristics, the tribal feuds and the customs of raiding and robbing one another common to purely savage tribes.  Like the Indians of America, George noted, the Igorot woman performed most of the labor of the fields and the household duties and are “little better than beasts of burden.” George found them without a well-defined god to worship, were superstitious. The men, like the Indians of America, fashioned crude tools and implements and mined gold. They also performed services such as carriers, guides and menial jobs for the Americans and rich Ilocanos. George knew he had much of educating to accomplish in Benguet Province.

There are now good universities in Benguet.

by Andres Cristobal Cruz, 2 November 2001, Malaya