History of Argentine Education PDF

# HISTORIA DE LA EDUCACION ARGENTINA ## Influencias en la Educación Colonial Argentina - Two educational-cultural currents influenced Argentina during the colonial era: the North and the Plata. - The North current, originated in Peru during the era of the Austrias, was established by the direct ac...

# HISTORIA DE LA EDUCACION ARGENTINA ## Influencias en la Educación Colonial Argentina - Two educational-cultural currents influenced Argentina during the colonial era: the North and the Plata. - The North current, originated in Peru during the era of the Austrias, was established by the direct action of religious orders. - The Plata current, on the other hand, was imposed by the action of civil officials and was a consequence of the renewing movement developed during the Bourbon era. - Both currents shaped Argentina's education during the colonial period. - The North current -whose center was Córdoba and whose promoters were the members of the Company of Jesus- dominated all cultural manifestations with confessional and theological rigidity during the 16th, 17th and part of the 18th centuries. - The University of Córdoba: The origin of the only center of higher education that existed in the current Argentine territory during the colonial era dates back to the 17th century. - Studies were directed in 1624 when Pope Gregory XV authorized the Jesuits to establish “studies” and confer, for a period of ten years, the degrees of Bachelor, Licensed, Master, and Doctor. - This "study" of Córdoba was, like most of those founded in America, during the colonial era, the basis of the future university, which from 1634 had the faculty to grant degrees in perpetuity according to the authorization that was granted by Urban IV. - The teaching of the University of Cordoba was frankly scholastic, as it was intended to train members of the clergy. - With the creation of the Viceroyalty (1776) the Plata current penetrated, which had its center in Buenos Aires and, nourished by the ideals of the renewing movement animated by Carlos III, prepared the liberal thought that would crystalize in the May generation. - New pedagogical ideas emerged at the end of the 18th century. - There was a French influence on Spanish thought that was transposed to the colonies: enlightenment and physiocracy, which advocated liberalism in philosophy, religion, politics, economics, and maintaining the State’s obligation to educate the people, stated that secularization of education was a consequence. ## The Education Period of the Revolution - The Revolution of May 25, 1810 implied an immediate change in the political situation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, with the establishment of the First Patriotic Government. - However, the social, moral, religious and cultural status of the ex colony did not change immediately. For years people continued living in the same spiritual world of before. - The new political state - which replaced a Viceroy by a Board of Government, originated a new right based on the sovereignty of the people - caused a process that, at the same time it renewed the social structure of the country, generated new ideals. - These new ideals gradually led to a change in the cultural order and made it clear to the minority of educated leaders, that the Revolution needed a new educational concept adapted to the characteristics of the new political organization. - This new educational concept did not crystalize immediately. - On the one hand, it was challenged by the concerns of independence, which polarized all efforts. - On the other hand, the reform plans, almost always based on theories of French thinkers, clashed against the basic characteristics of the nation. - Therefore, after the Revolution, education continued evolving in a world informed by the same ideas that we have found in the last years of the colony. That is, those ideas originated in encyclopedism, which through Spanish thinkers were known and spread among us. - The Revolution, which broadened the spiritual horizon of human beings, causing a deep change and awakening new ideals, slowly made it possible for a new educational concept to be structured, which by mixing colonial and revolutionary elements, affirmed the foundations of our republican education. - In fact, after the people stopped being vassals of a king to become owners of their destiny, after replacing absolute government by a democratic and representative system, education was given a new purpose: build citizen awareness. - Belgrano, in the Regulations he issued for the schools that he founded in the North, clearly stated, when referring to the duties of the teacher, what this civic training should consist of. - The teacher - he said - should be concerned with inspiring his students with “"love for order, respect for religion, moderation and kindness in treatment, a sense of honor, love for virtue and for sciences, horror for vice, an inclination for work, detachment of interest, disdain for everything that involves excess and luxury in eating, dressing and other necessities of life, and a national spirit that makes one prefer the public good to the private one and esteem the quality of American above that of a foreigner." - To achieve these educational purposes, education needed to be promoted, extending its benefits, so that they would also reach the inhabitants of the countryside. It was necessary to elevate the school, improving its economic and social situation. It was necessary to provide new textbooks, more in harmony with the circumstances. In short, education needed to be freed from what was considered an overwhelming burden of colonial traditions. - However, the mental and social situation of the country, the demands of the moment and the lack of resources opposed the renovating purposes that, in educational matters, revolutionary governments had. ### Ideas of Mariano Moreno - Influenced by the philosophical thought of the 18th Century, Mariano Moreno (1778-1811) showed a strong trust in the effectiveness of education and demonstrated a deep interest in the problems of public education, because he recognized the need that the new political order established by the Revolution had for it. - For Moreno, educational action should not be limited to the classroom and the school. - As important as school education was the educational work of the book and journalism. That’s why he founded the Public Library, published a reprint of *The Social Contract*, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and created *La Gaceta de Buenos Aires* with the purpose of training and informing the people, stating that education was the strongest foundation of public happiness. - He also proposed that primary schools be established in all the parishes of the city and in the countryside; he projected that judges should force parents to send their children to school and that priests should preach about the duty to teach children. - After the Revolution of May, the first measure in matters of education was adopted by the Buenos Aires City Council. ### The Education of the People - In November 1810, the City Council sent a letter to the Governing Board referring to the municipal schools, where the Council expressed the convenience of "“uniforming education and organizing a systematic method that is generally followed and adopted in all schools”, for which the Council requested authorization to reprint the treatise on man’s obligations; to improve the situation of teachers; to establish public exams on all branches of knowledge that are part of education, and to award prizes to the students who excel, in order to motivate them in their studies." - In reality, more than the works, the ideas of the men of May were the standouts. - Only in 1812, during the government of the Triumvirate, new elementary schools were created in Monserrat, in the Misery Yards and in the Residence neighborhood. - The concerns of the men of May to educate the country had an impact on the interior, stimulating efforts in favor of popular education. - Primary schools were thus founded in Córdoba, Mendoza, San Juan, Tucumán, Jujuy, and Santiago del Estero (these last ones founded by Belgrano). ### Discipline - The first provision in this area was adopted on October 5, 1813, by the Sovereign Constituent Assembly, which abolished the punishment of whippings in schools, considering it absurd and harmful to children who are being educated to be free citizens. - It was also established that teachers who continued using whippings would lose their job and be punished as offenders; the only authorized penalty was to make the children kneel. - From the revolutionary era remains, therefore, the ideal of the suppression of corporal punishment, because in reality, they continued to be applied in practice. ### Textbooks - The men of the revolutionary period were concerned about improving the books used in teaching the first letters, suggesting the acquisition and adoption as a reading book of *The Treaty of the Obligations of the Man*. - This proposal, approved by the Board, had an impact on elementary education, because this small manual of civic morality, disseminated in all primary schools, allowed students to receive a uniform spiritual content and consistent with the new purposes pursued. ### School Organization - The first school organization that existed in the province of Buenos Aires after the Revolution of May dates back to the era of the Directory, when a regulation was created for the schools of the countryside. - This Regulation, which was approved in 1816, established the principle of compulsory education, requiring mayors and priests to enforce it strictly. - It determined the content of the school curriculum and the procedures to be followed. - To facilitate the attendance of students to school, it was determined that the period of annual vacations should coincide with the time of the year when the children were engaged in agricultural tasks. - The schools of the countryside, in the province of Buenos Aires, were under the supervision of Protective Boards. The schools of the city, on the other hand, continued to depend on the City Council. - The City Council of Buenos Aires decided on October 31, 1817, to create the position of General Director of Schools, appointing Canon Saturnino Segurola. Segurola resolved some issues related to teachers, establishing that their appointment should be made through an exam before a commission appointed for this purpose and two teachers; that teachers should avoid mistreating children by punishment; and that they should make sure that “decent” children did not mix with those of low color, that is, blacks or mulattoes. This shows that the racist prejudice that came from the colony was still in full force. - Activities of a patriotic nature, like singing a patriotic hymn at the end of the school day and that teachers and students should meet at the Victory Plaza, around the Pyramid, and sing the hymns of the Fatherland once a week were also introduced in elementary schools. - Between 1810 and 1820, the educational area witnessed a series of isolated efforts, which, although oriented in different directions, tended to the same goal: accentuate the scientific content of education, seeking in the dissemination of this type of knowledge, the basis for the development of the country. ### The Academy of Music - The Governing Board began its educational creations on July 18, 1810, sponsoring the Academy of Music. In August, it created the School of Mathematics intended for young people who would dedicate themselves to the military career, in order to educate them in the principles of the military profession. It functioned until 1812. ### Medical Institute - The Triumvirate decided in May 1813 to create a Medical Institute, which operated according to the plan presented by Doctor Cosme Argerich. - The need to train the largest possible number of surgeons, necessary to attend to the many wounded of the armies in the field, led to the Institute’s transformation into the Military Medical Institute that lasted only six years. - It formed a small but valuable nucleus of surgeons that served actively in the liberation armies. ### Academy of Drawing - In 1815, the Consulate of Buenos Aires opened an Academy of Drawing, inspired and directed by Father Castañeda. ### Academy of Mathematics and Military Art - By decree of January 20, 1816, Director Alvarez Thomas ordered the creation of the Academy of Mathematics and Military Art. - The curriculum, which was taught over two years, was better than those established for previous schools. - The Academy functioned until 1821. During this time, it served the culture and the cause of independence, providing the nation with well-educated officers. - The creation of establishments offering specializations concluded in the first decade of the revolution with the foundation of the Academy of Jurisprudence (1771-1832). - In truth, it wasn't a legal studies center, but rather an organization designed to facilitate legal practice for those who presented the degree of Bachelor, Licensed, or Doctor of Civil Law, titles that could not be obtained in Buenos Aires. - Approval to practice law allowed individuals to earn the lawyer title. ### Secondary Education - In the first years of the Revolution, preparatory studies were taken in the classrooms of some convents because, since the British invasions, San Carlos College was left unattended, its building being used as a military barrack. - In 1817, Director Juan Martín de Pueyrredón proposed to restore the old College. He did so by creating the Union of the South College, which was inaugurated on July 17, 1818. - The curriculum was more extensive than that of San Carlos College because it included the teaching of Living Languages (English, French, and Italian), philosophy and natural history, a chair for which the famous French naturalist Amadeo Bonpland was appointed. - However, despite the introduction of these scientific contents, education continued to be fundamentally religious. - In the interior of the country, Monserrat College, under the jurisdiction of the University of Córdoba, kept its status as an institution dedicated to repetition courses for students who enrolled in higher education. - In Mendoza, in November 1817, by measures promoted by General San Martín, the Holy Trinity College was founded. There were chairs for philosophy, Latin, physics, mathematics, geography, history, drawing and French, and for the first time in an institution of this type, the teaching of theology was not excluded. ## The Rivadavian Era (1820-1827) “The Rivadavian Era represents a period of radical renewal in the history of Argentine Education". - As Minister of Governor Martín Rodríguez, and later as President of the Nation, Bernardino Rivadavia (1780–1845) undertook the task of creating a new cultural climate, imposing the guidelines that prevailed in the centers of European civilization, encouraging legal and social research, and historical studies, promoting the development of the sciences, creating educational institutions, bringing foreign teachers to the country, acquiring scientific equipment for research and teaching, increasing didactic literature, and renewing the foundations and guidelines of public education. - His actions as a ruler made the era a time of deep transformations and reforms that were truly revolutionary for Argentina, whose fruits future generations could harvest after Caseros. - Rivadavia’s actions in favor of educational renewal had their first public expression during his time as Secretary of War of the Triumvirate. - He sought to challenge the theocratic orientation of colonial education by introducing a new scientific orientation. - It was on his initiative that the decree of August 7, 1812 was passed, ordering the creation of an educational institution that would teach everything related to public prosperity - political science, exact sciences, geography, mineralogy, economics, drawing, architecture and languages - and that foreign teachers would be incorporated to teach subjects that had never been taught among us. - The institution’s upkeep would be assured by a public subscription in all provinces. - The diplomatic mission entrusted to Rivadavia after his work in the Triumvirate, led him to stay in Europe for more than five years, an experience that influenced his ideas. Therefore, Rivadavia’s reform efforts, deliberately Europeanized, covered all aspects of public life, as he believed, according to his ideological inspiration, that through decrees he could organize the country definitively. However, he was defeated by the same reality that he wanted to change. - Primary education in 1820: The state of public education at the outset of Rivadavia’s ministerial term in the government of Martín Rodríguez was a consequence of internal and external events that impeded educational action in the first national governments. - Elementary education was particularly in a very precarious state. There was a complete disregard for it. - Faced with this situation, Rivadavia fulfilled his desire to spread education among the masses, aiming to raise their intellectual level. To do so, he implemented the Lancasterian system as a practical way to solve the problem of popular education, organized the administration of primary education, and created the Society of Charity so that women would participate in the social reform movement and help spread female education under State control. ### The Lancasterian system - The concern to expand education to the largest number of children had always been met with two serious obstacles: - the economic situation, which did not allow for the resources required to maintain the educational institutions, - and the lack of teachers, since there were very few individuals qualified enough to run the schools. - The Lancasterian system solved the problem of teachers financially, allowing for the realization of the long hoped for expansion of education, training a greater amount of individuals for social life. - In 1815, it was the first time we received information on the Lancasterian system through an article published in *La Gaceta* about Napoleon Bonaparte’s decree implementing the system in the French primary schools. - At the end of 1818, with the arrival of Diego Thompson, we gained a more complete knowledge of the system. - Thompson’s actions led to many conflicts and opposition from teachers, resulting in his departure from Buenos Aires in 1821. - In 1822, by decree of Rivadavia, the Lancasterian method of teaching was implemented in all schools in the province. - The subsequent hiring of Pablo Beladía and his appointment as General Director of Schools allowed for the greater spread of the mutual teaching system - the name used in Argentina. - The project was shelved, and after Rivadavia’s departure, primary education suffered a setback. ### Administration of Elementary Education - The abolishment of the Buenos Aires City Council by the government of Martín Rodríguez led to the creation of new organizations to replace this secular institution in carrying out its duties. - On December 11, 1821, the Police Chief was entrusted with the functions of the municipality, explicitly including those related to provincial statistics. In this context, it was determined that the rector of the University, the regents of studies in the convents and teachers of public and private schools should send quarterly statistics, in accordance with the information on the students of both genders who attended these institutions. - When the University of Buenos Aires was organized, it incorporated all public education and, with all the elementary schools in the city and countryside, it established the Department of Primary Education. - The incorporation of primary schools into the University, while centralizing its administration, allowed it to recover the prestige that it had lost in recent years. - This was due, in large part, to the dedication of Dr. Antonio Sáenz, the University’s first rector, who tirelessly visited the schools to stay abreast of their needs. - His actions allowed elementary education to reach a level of expansion that had not been imagined until then. - In June 1826, Rivadavia, with the goal of improving the teaching profession, decided that to teach, teachers had to prove their “morality and intelligence in the mutual teaching system” and commit to not abandoning their posts, even with permission, without leaving someone competent in their place. - The following month, seeking to solve the problem of the lack of school buildings, he commissioned the Engineering Department to draw up plans and estimates. ## The Era of Rosas - The rise of Rosas to power occurred on December 8, 1829, after many internal struggles. - From 1831, Rosas implemented a policy of social homogenization, beginning with educators, forcing them to align with the federal cause. - This ideological uniformity also extended to the University, leading to the dismissal of many teachers. - In February 1832, he issued a decree demanding that all public employees wear the maroon emblem, which was also incorporated in school uniforms. - A decree of April 27, 1833, eliminated teacher salary, which had been part of the budget, forcing parents to pay a fee for the maintenance of the schools; if they did not do so, the schools would have to close. - During this period, basic education suffered a significant setback as a result of many institutions being closed, and the poor care in those that remained open. - Women’s education was also affected as the Society of Welfare was forced to close its schools due to lack of resources. - In the cultural sphere, a large number of intellectuals, educators, and artists who were considered liberals left Argentina. They sought refuge primarily in Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia. - Esteban Echeverría in Montevideo and Domingo F. Sarmiento in Chile stood out for their efforts in favor of education, and they published numerous works on the tradition of May. - The General Urquiza promoted primary education in Entre Ríos, entrusting its organization to Marcos Sastre, who became Inspector General of Schools. - Sastre's regulations, made by this Uruguayan educator, clarified, for the first time, the functions of the school and the teacher. - Sastre defined that the school should mold the character of the students, guiding their abilities and eliminating prizes and decorations. - It also established requirements for teacher appointments, including Catholicism, good behavior, and the need for a prior exam to ensure their aptitude and commitment. - As for educational content, there was a difference in teaching between urban and rural schools. - In the first, students received instruction in Christian doctrine, morality, reading, writing, commercial arithmetic and grammar. - In rural schools, mathematics was limited to the four basic operations. - Urquiza’s administration in Entre Ríos focused on promoting youth education. -He founded the College of Preparatory Studies in Paraná, but its operation was soon affected by a lack of adequate guidance. -In 1849, another college was established in Concepción del Uruguay. -Facing the economic difficulties experienced by both institutions, the Paraná College closed in 1850, with its students being incorporated into the Concepción del Uruguay institution, which became a national one when it started accepting students from different provinces. - This institution acquired a significant value for the national union. ### The Political-Educational Thought of Argentine Romanticism - **Esteban Echeverría (1805-1851)**: He began his studies in the College of Moral Sciences, but dropped out when he was eighteen years old. - In 1825, he traveled to Europe, where he studied in Paris various subjects, including Philosophy, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Economics and Law. - During this time, he became involved in the Romantic literary currents that prevailed at the time. - He returned to the Río de la Plata in 1830, where he introduced both Romantic literature and political liberalism. - Echeverría was one of the main promoters of the Literary Salon, founded in 1838 in the bookstore of Marcos Sastre, which initially focused on readings and literary discussions. - However, its focus soon expanded to economic and political issues. After the Salon was closed by Rosas, its members formed the Secret Society, the Association of May, with the goal of restoring the true Argentine traditions. - Faced with the growing violence under Rosas’ rule, Echeverría was forced to take refuge in the countryside and, in 1840, in Montevideo, the last bastion of opposition to Rosas, where he died on January 19, 1851. - His political and educational perspective was set out in the *“Dogma Socialista”*, which was complemented in his speech about May and popular education in the Río de la Plata, as well as in his *“Letters to De Angelis”* and the *“Moral Education Manual" * for the primary schools of the Oriental State. - The *“Dogma Socialista”* (1839), which served as a program of action for the Association of May, received various influences from European ideological trends like the mystical Christianity of Lamennais, the republican-democratic inspiration of Mazzini, and the romantic socialism of Saint-Simon, with whom Echeverría was in contact between 1825 and 1830. - This generation considered itself a continuation of the generation of May, which led Echeverría to temper his romantic socialism and adapt it to the national context. - Thus, his doctrine was not simply a transplant of European ideas, but an adaptation of the prevailing currents to the reality of Argentina. - Echeverría emphasized the need to return to the worship of May and the traditions of the Revolution, reaffirming democracy as a principle based on the values of brotherhood, equality, and freedom. - To establish democracy, Echeverría believed that it was essential to completely free ourselves from colonial traditions, as Spanish customs and laws continued to hinder revolutionary progress. - He argued that, this liberation could only be achieved through education and legislation, and that true transformation would only be possible through education. - He believed that the Argentine problem is fundamentally educational, stating that the crucial element for public education is to build a democracy that is not only understood as a system of government but also a "regime of freedom based on equality between classes." - His greatest desire for public education was to create a path toward democracy, which was equivalent to educating for liberty.