Patriotic Schools of First Letters

Patriotic Schools of First Letters In addition to the teaching of orphaned children, the possibility of educating those children who, although not orphans, had to learn a minimum knowledge for the proper "political and religious" development in society, was also contemplated. Let us look at the following assertion expressed by Viera: "Since good education is the only thing that can prepare useful citizens for the State, it was certainly looked upon by the Society as one of the first objects of its institute, especially when it was seen in the Canary Islands in a pitiful situation. Public schools are the workshop of youth. To read correctly, to write with good character and spelling, to learn intelligently the catechism and the rudiments of Christian doctrine, to speak properly, to accustom oneself to good manners and inclinations, such must be the fruits of political and religious teaching, which, if they err or mislead, decide forever the fate of men and peoples. Without any novelty on the part of the Gran Canaria Economic Society, since it followed in this sense the guidelines set by Campomanes for all the Societies in the rest of the State,20 one of the first measures was the appointment of teachers, friends, protective partners and curators. While the role played by the former seemed key: to teach to the extent that their scant knowledge and meagre salaries allowed them to do so, the role of the patron and curator members was of a different nature, although complementary to that of the former: they had to watch over the progress of the teachings – as trusted men of the Economic Society – going so far as to act on certain occasions as patrons. to defray the expenses of the school for which they were responsible. Their function basically consisted of distributing catechisms and primers, visiting a couple of times a week and on indeterminate days the places where the teaching was given, supervising the compliance of the "teachers", the attendance of the disciples, and "the causes that may influence the lack of advancement, reporting to the Society what they observed so that it could remedy them, if possible".21 To facilitate the educational work, new textbooks were also used. In fact, two years before the Tenerife Society did the same, the Society of Las Palmas considered it appropriate to request at least two copies of the book by Pedro Díaz Morante – illustrated by Francisco Javier Palomares – The Art of Writing. In the session of February 9, 1778, it was decided that the two teachers should have it in their classes, "urging them to try to plant their observance in them and offering mercy and rewards to the disciples who gave evidence of greater success".22 As a political instrument that carried multiple codes of meaning, the school book – in any of its versions – was always a weapon of socialization at the service of the powers established to centralize, to standardize and systematize certain practices and ideas, behind the protective veil that was the most benevolent expression of "popularizing" teaching. From then on, and in the years that followed, the knowledge of school textbooks23 to improve the rickety calligraphy and to qualify for the award of prizes as more advanced disciples, as it was naively expressed, including in this formation of habits the students of the School of Teror founded by the priest Domingo Navarro in 1790, It became the most prominent and repeated pedagogical stimulus. Both the teacher from Triana, Francisco Capiró, and the teacher from Vegueta, Miguel de Marcelino,24 devoted themselves entirely to this and other activities, always standing out in the calligraphy sheets given to the members of the Society by the former's students. The prizes awarded to reward the efforts made by the most advanced and submissive disciples were silver buckles and medals, stockings, silk handkerchiefs, and feather cutting lace. However, and despite the progress described, criticism of the stagnation of the lessons, far from abating, persisted. Let us look at the following testimony: The Censor thought he was going to warn the Society, at a meeting of December 4 [1786], that in these schools all the care and exactness required for their good teaching were not put into it, so a commission was given to find out more thoroughly and to procure the best remedy.25 Although we know nothing more about this subject because we lack the necessary information, It seems that not all sectors of society agreed with the work carried out by the teachers or their immediate managers. It is also true that the neglect, the prevailing frivolity of the classroom, the inadequate economic endowment and the generalized lack of interest of the Economic Societies at the end of the century, could in all probability have determined this lack of attention to schooling and the damage caused to the process and the results of the expected learning. A matter that, by the way, for the reforms planned a few years earlier of broad economic, patriotic and social interest, was not of small importance.