Seth Lesser: An American Teacher in the Philippines the Early 1900s

Seth Lesser, an American teacher, arrived on Philippine shores on August 12, 1901. The Philippines was then a newly-established colony and Seth was one of the idealistic men and women who came to the country as educators. As a group, they would be known as the “Thomasites.” This name was derived from the ship which brought them to the Southeast Asian archipelago: the “USS Thomas.”

Education was an integral part of self-governance and with preparing the native Filipinos in self-governance in mind, Seth Lesser headed for the Philippines from Des Moines, Iowa. The process of training a new crop of Filipino teachers who would mold the minds of young Filipinos in preparation for said task needed someone like him and he was up to the task. To establish a new public school system and to train teachers to teach basic education to the native inhabitants using English as their medium of instruction were all parts of their job. To their efforts would be credited the fact that the Philippines is the 3rd largest English-speaking country in the world would today.

Seth Lesser, the native Iowan, belonged to a family of educators. His father was the late Reverend Leonard Lesser who founded the Des Moines Preparatory School for Boys in 1890. His mother was Anne Lesser, a piano and home arts teacher. His two older brothers were both teachers. They founded their own schools in Des Moines.

There are about a hundred Thomasites who stayed on in the Philippines after completing their teaching assignments, according to estimates. Seth Lesser, who was then 25 years old, was one of them. He met, fell in love and married the former Ligaya Madiaga from Ilocos Norte in the Northern Philippines. He lived and was buried in said province. Five sons were the product of this marriage. All five sons joined the teaching profession.