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Exploring the Variety of Random
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science; yet even in this case we are persuaded that our work makes for
that object, and will be the speediest and surest means of promoting it.”

This reasoning is evidently logical. No one could deny this, yet there is a
considerable degree of fallacy in it, and we must make this clear. If the
ruling classes have the same ideas as the reformers, if they are really
impelled by a zeal for the continuous reorganisation of society until
poverty is at last eliminated, [48]we might recognise that the power of
science is enough to improve the lot of peoples. Instead of this, however,
we see clearly that the sole aim of those who strive to attain power is the
defence of their own interests, their own advantage, and the satisfaction
of their personal desires. For some time now we have ceased to accept
the phrases with which they disguise their ambitions. It is true that there
are some in whom we may find a certain amount of sincerity, and who
imagine at times that they are impelled by a zeal for the good of their
fellows. But these become rarer and rarer, and the positivism of the age is
very severe in raising doubts as to the real intentions of those who govern
us.

And just as they contrived to adapt themselves when the necessity arose,
and prevented education from becoming a danger, they also succeeded in
organising the school in accord with the new scientific ideas in such a way
that nothing should endanger their supremacy. These ideas are difficult to
accept, and one needs to keep a sharp look-out for successful methods
and see how things are arranged so as to avoid verbal traps. How much
has been, and is, expected of education! Most progressive people expect
everything of it, and, until recent years, many did not understand that
instruction alone leads to illusions. Much of the knowledge actually
imparted in schools is useless; and the hope of reformers has been void
because the organisation of the school, instead of serving an ideal
purpose, has become one of the most powerful instruments of servitude
in the [49]hands of the ruling class. The teachers are merely conscious or
unconscious organs of their will, and have been trained on their principles.
From their tenderest years, and more drastically than anybody, they have
endured the discipline of authority. Very few have escaped this despotic
domination; they are generally powerless against it, because they are
oppressed by the scholastic organisation to such an extent that they have
nothing to do but obey. It is unnecessary here to describe that
organisation. One word will suffice to characterise it—Violence. The school
dominates the children physically, morally, and intellectually, in order to
control the development of their faculties in the way desired, and deprives
them of contact with nature in order to modify them as required. This is
the explanation of the failure; the eagerness of the ruling class to control
education and the bankruptcy of the hopes of reformers. “Education”
means in practice domination or domestication. I do not imagine that
these systems have been put together with the deliberate aim of securing
the desired results. That would be a work of genius. But things have
happened just as if the actual scheme of education corresponded to some
vast and deliberate conception; it could not have been done better. To
attain it teachers have inspired themselves solely with the principles of
discipline and authority, which always appeal to social organisers; such
men have only one clear idea and one will—the children must learn to
obey, to believe, and to think according to the prevailing social dogmas. If
this were the aim, education could not be other [50]than we find it to-day.
There is no question of promoting the spontaneous development of the
child’s faculties, or encouraging it to seek freely the satisfaction of its
physical, intellectual, and moral needs. There is question only of imposing
ready-made ideas on it, of preventing it from ever thinking otherwise than
is required for the maintenance of existing social institutions—of making
it, in a word, an individual rigorously adapted to the social mechanism.

It cannot be expected that this kind of education will have any influence
on the progress of humanity. I repeat that it is merely an instrument of
domination in the hands of the ruling classes, who have never sought to
uplift the individual, and it is quite useless to expect any good from the
schools of the present day. What they have done up to the present they
will continue to do in the future. There is no reason whatever why they
should adopt a different system; they have resolved to use education for
their purposes, and they will take advantage of every improvement of it. If
only they preserve the spirit of the school and the authoritative discipline
which rules it, every innovation will tend to their advantage. For this they
will keep a constant watch, and take care that their interests are secured.
I would fix the attention of my readers on this point: the whole value of
education consists in respect for the physical, intellectual, and moral
faculties of the child. As in science, the only possible demonstration is
demonstration by facts; education is not worthy of the name unless it be
[51]stripped of all dogmatism, and unless it leaves to the child the direction
of its powers and is content to support them in their manifestations. But
nothing is easier than to alter this meaning of education, and nothing
more difficult than to respect it. The teacher is always imposing,
compelling, and using violence; the true educator is the man who does
not impose his own ideas and will on the child, but appeals to its own
energies.

From this we can understand how easily education is conducted, and how
light is the task of those who seek to dominate the individual. The best
conceivable methods become in their hands so many new and more
effective means of despotism. Our ideal is that of science; we appeal to it
in demanding the power to educate the child by fostering its development
and procuring a satisfaction of its needs as they manifest themselves.

We are convinced that the education of the future will be entirely

spontaneous. It is plain that we cannot wholly realise this, but the
evolution of methods in the direction of a broader comprehension of life
and the fact that all improvement involves the suppression of violence
indicate that we are on solid ground when we look to science for the
liberation of the child.

Is this the ideal of those who actually control the scholastic system? Is
this what they propose to bring about? Are they eager to abandon
violence? Only in the sense that they employ new and more effective
methods to attain the same end—that is to [52]say, the formation of
individuals who will accept all the conventions, all the prejudices, and all
the untruths on which society is based.

We do not hesitate to say that we want men who will continue

unceasingly to develop; men who are capable of constantly destroying
and renewing their surroundings and renewing themselves; men whose
intellectual independence is their supreme power, which they will yield to
none; men always disposed for things that are better, eager for the
triumph of new ideas, anxious to crowd many lives into the one life they
have. Society fears such men; you cannot expect it to set up a system of
education which will produce them.

What, then, is our mission? What is the policy we must adopt in order to
contribute to the reform of the school?

Let us follow closely the work of the experts who are engaged in the
study of the child, and let us endeavour to find a way of applying their
principles to the education we seek to establish, aiming at an increasingly
complete emancipation of the individual. But how are we to do this? By
putting our hand energetically to the work, by promoting the
establishment of new schools in which, as far as possible, there shall rule
this spirit of freedom which, we feel, will colour the whole education of
the future.

We have already had proof that it leads to excellent results. We can

destroy whatever there is in the actual school that savours of violence, all
the artificial devices by which the children are estranged from [53]nature
and life, the intellectual and moral discipline which has been used to
impose ready-made thoughts, all beliefs which deprave and enervate the
will. Without fear of injury we may place the child in a proper and natural
environment, in which it will find itself in contact with all that it loves, and
where vital impressions will be substituted for the wearisome reading of
books. If we do no more than this, we shall have done much towards the
emancipation of the child.

In such an environment we may freely make use of the data of science

and work with profit. It is true that we could not realise all our hopes; that
often we shall find ourselves compelled, from lack of knowledge, to use
the wrong means. But we shall be sustained by the confident feeling that,
without having achieved our entire aim, we shall have done a great deal
more than is being done by the actual school. I would rather have the free
spontaneity of a child who knows nothing than the verbal knowledge and
intellectual deformation of one that has experienced the existing system
of education.

What we have sought to do in Barcelona is being done by others in

various places. All of us saw that the work was possible. Dedicate yourself
to it at once. We do not hope that the studies of children will be
suspended that we may regenerate the school. Let us apply what we
know, and go on learning and applying. A scheme of rational education is
already possible, and in such schools as we advocate the children may
develop freely according to their aspirations. [54]Let us endeavour to
improve and extend the work.

Those are our aims. We know well the difficulties we have to face; but we
have made a beginning in the conviction that we shall be assisted in our
task by those who work in their various spheres to deliver men from the
dogmas and conventions which secure the prolongation of the present
unjust arrangement of society. [55]

[Contents]
Chapter X.
 NO REWARD OR PUNISHMENT
Rational education is, above all things, a means of defence against error
and ignorance. To ignore truth and accept absurdities is, unhappily, a
common feature in our social order; to that we owe the distinction of
classes and the persistent antagonism of interests. Having admitted and
practised the co-education of boys and girls, of rich and poor—having,
that is to say, started from the principle of solidarity and equality—we are
not prepared to create a new inequality. Hence in the Modern School
there will be no rewards and no punishments; there will be no
examinations to puff up some children with the flattering title of
“excellent,” to give others the vulgar title of “good,” and make others
unhappy with a consciousness of incapacity and failure.

These features of the existing official and religious schools, which are
quite in accord with their reactionary environment and aim, cannot, for
the reasons I have given, be admitted into the Modern School. Since we
are not educating for a specific purpose, we cannot determine the
capacity or incapacity of the child. When we teach a science, or art, or
trade, or some subject requiring special conditions, [56]an examination
may be useful, and there may be reason to give a diploma or refuse one;
I neither affirm nor deny it. But there is no such specialism in the Modern
School. The characteristic note of the school, distinguishing it even from
some which pass as progressive models, is that in it the faculties of the
children shall develop freely without subjection to any dogmatic patron,
not even to what it may consider the body of convictions of the founder
and teachers; every pupil shall go forth from it into social life with the
ability to be his own master and guide his own life in all things.

Hence, if we were rationally prevented from giving prizes, we could not

impose penalties, and no one would have dreamed of doing so in our
school if the idea had not been suggested from without. Sometimes
parents came to me with the rank proverb, “Letters go in with blood,” on
their lips, and begged me to punish their children. Others who were
charmed with the precocious talent of their children wanted to see them
shine in examinations and exhibit medals. We refused to admit either
prizes or punishments, and sent the parents away. If any child were
conspicuous for merit, application, laziness, or bad conduct, we pointed
out to it the need of accord, or the unhappiness of lack of accord, with its
own welfare and that of others, and the teacher might give a lecture on
the subject. Nothing more was done, and the parents were gradually
reconciled to the system, though they often had to be corrected in their
errors and prejudices by their own children. [57]

Nevertheless, the old prejudice was constantly recurring, and I saw that I
had to repeat my arguments with the parents of new pupils. I therefore
wrote the following article in the Bulletin:—

The conventional examinations which we usually find held at the end of a

scholastic year, to which our fathers attached so much importance, have had no
result at all; or, if any result, a bad one. These functions and their accompanying
solemnities seem to have been instituted for the sole purpose of satisfying the
vanity of parents and the selfish interests of many teachers, and in order to put
the children to torture before the examination and make them ill afterwards.
Each father wants his child to be presented in public as one of the prodigies of
the college, and regards him with pride as a learned man in miniature. He does
not notice that for a fortnight or so the child suffers exquisite torture. As things
are judged by external appearances, it is not thought that there is any real
torture, as there is not the least scratch visible on the skin.…

The parent’s lack of acquaintance with the natural disposition of the child, and
the iniquity of putting it in false conditions so that its intellectual powers,
especially in the sphere of memory, are artificially stimulated, prevent the parent
from seeing that this measure of personal gratification may, as has happened in
many cases, lead to illness and to the moral, if not the physical, death of the
child.

On the other hand, the majority of teachers, being mere stereotypers of ready-
made phrases and mechanical inoculators, rather than moral fathers of their
pupils, are concerned in these examinations [58]with their own personality and
their economic interests. Their object is to let the parents and the others who
are present at the public display see that, under their guidance, the child has
learned a good deal, that its knowledge is greater in quantity and quality than
 could have been expected of its tender years and in view of the short time that
it has been under the charge of this very skilful teacher.

In addition to this wretched vanity, which is satisfied at the cost of the moral
and physical life of the child, the teachers are anxious to elicit compliments from
the parents and the rest of the audience, who know nothing of the real state of
things, as a kind of advertisement of the prestige of their particular school.

Briefly, we are inexorably opposed to holding public examinations. In our school

everything must be done for the advantage of the pupil. Everything that does
not conduce to this end must be recognised as opposed to the natural spirit of
positive education. Examinations do no good, and they do much harm to the
child. Besides the illness of which we have already spoken, the nervous system
of the child suffers, and a kind of temporary paralysis is inflicted on its
conscience by the immoral features of the examination; the vanity provoked in
those who are placed highest, envy and humiliation, grave obstacles to sound
growth, in those who have failed, and in all of them the germs of most of the
sentiments which go to the making of egoism.

In a later number of the Bulletin I found it necessary to return to the

subject:—

We frequently receive letters from Workers’ [59]Educational Societies and

Republican Fraternities asking that the teachers shall chastise the children in our
schools. We ourselves have been disgusted, during our brief excursions, to find
material proofs of the fact which is at the base of this request; we have seen
children on their knees, or in other attitudes of punishment.

These irrational and atavistic practices must disappear. Modern pædagogy

entirely discredits them. The teachers who offer their services to the Modern
School, or ask our recommendation to teach in similar schools, must refrain
from any moral or material punishment, under penalty of being disqualified
permanently. Scolding, impatience, and anger ought to disappear with the
ancient title of “master.” In free schools all should be peace, gladness, and
fraternity. We trust that this will suffice to put an end to these practices, which
are most improper in people whose sole ideal is the training of a generation
fitted to establish a really fraternal, harmonious, and just state of society.

[60]
[Contents]
Chapter XI.
 THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND THE LIBRARY
In setting out to establish a rational school for the purpose of preparing
children for their entry into the free solidarity of humanity, the first
problem that confronted us was the selection of books. The whole
educational luggage of the ancient system was an incoherent mixture of
science and faith, reason and unreason, good and evil, human experience
and revelation, truth and error; in a word, totally unsuited to meet the
new needs that arose with the formation of a new school.

If the school has been from remote antiquity equipped not for teaching in
the broad sense of communicating to the rising generation the gist of the
knowledge of previous generations, but for teaching on the basis of
authority and the convenience of the ruling classes, for the purpose of
making children humble and submissive, it is clear that none of the books
hitherto used would suit us. But the severe logic of this position did not at
once convince me. I refused to believe that the French democracy, which
worked so zealously for the separation of Church and State, incurred the
anger of the [61]clericals, and adopted obligatory secular instruction,
would resign itself to a semi-education or a sophisticated education. I had,
however, to yield to the evidence, against my prejudice. I first read a large
number of works in the French code of secular instruction, and found that
God was replaced by the State, Christian virtue by civic duty, religion by
patriotism, submission to the king, the aristocracy, and the clergy by
subservience to the official, the proprietor, and the employer. Then I
consulted an eminent Freethinker who held high office in the Ministry of
Public Instruction, and, when I had told him my desire to see the books
they used, which I understood to be purged of traditional errors, and
explained my design and ideal to him, he told me frankly that they had
nothing of the sort; all their books were, more or less cleverly and
insidiously, tainted with untruth, which is the indispensable cement of
social inequality. When I further asked if, seeing that they had replaced
the decaying idol of deity by the idol of oligarchic despotism, they had not
at least some book dealing with the origin of religion, he said that there
was none; but he knew one which would suit me—Malvert’s Science and
Religion. In point of fact, this was already translated into Spanish, and
was used as a reading-book in the Modern School, with the title Origin of
Christianity.

In Spanish literature I found several works written by a distinguished

author, of some eminence in science, who had produced them rather in
the interest of the publishers than with a view to the education of
[62]children. Some of these were at first used in the Modern School, but,
though one could not accuse them of error, they lacked the inspiration of
an ideal and were poor in method. I communicated with this author with a
view to interesting him in my plans and inducing him to write books for
me, but his publishers held him to a certain contract and he could not
oblige me.

In brief, the Modern School was opened before a single work had been
chosen for its library, but it was not long before the first appeared—a
brilliant book by Jean Grave, which has had a considerable influence on
our schools. His work, The Adventures of Nono, is a kind of poem in which
a certain phase of the happier future is ingeniously and dramatically
contrasted with the sordid realities of the present social order; the delights
of the land of Autonomy are contrasted with the horrors of the kingdom of
Argirocracy. The genius of Grave has raised the work to a height at which
it escapes the strictures of the sceptical and conservative; he has depicted
the social evils of the present truthfully and without exaggeration. The
reading of the book enchanted the children, and the profundity of his
thought suggested many opportune comments to the teachers. In their
play the children used to act scenes from Autonomy, and their parents
detected the causes of their hardships in the constitution of the kingdom
of Argirocracy.

It was announced in the Bulletin and other journals that prizes were
offered for the best manuals of rational instruction, but no writers came
forward. I confine [63]myself to recording the fact without going into the
causes of it. Two books were afterwards adopted for reading in school.
They were not written for school, but they were translated for the Modern
School and were very useful. One was called The Note Book, the other
Colonisation and Patriotism. Both were collections of passages from
writers of every country on the injustices connected with patriotism, the
horrors of war, and the iniquity of conquest. The choice of these works
was vindicated by the excellent influence they had on the minds of the
children, as we shall see from the little essays of the children which
appeared in the Bulletin, and the fury with which they were denounced by
the reactionary press and politicians.

Many think that there is not much difference between secular and
rationalist education, and in various articles and propagandist speeches
the two were taken to be synonymous. In order to correct this error I
published the following article in the Bulletin:—

The word education should not be accompanied by any qualification. It means

simply the need and duty of the generation which is in the full development of
its powers to prepare the rising generation and admit it to the patrimony of
human knowledge. This is an entirely rational ideal, and it will be fully realised in
some future age, when men are wholly freed from their prejudices and
superstitions.

In our efforts to realise this ideal we find ourselves confronted with religious
education and political education: to these we must oppose rational and
scientific instruction. The type of religious education [64]is that given in the
clerical and convent schools of all countries; it consists of the smallest possible
quantity of useful knowledge and a good deal of Christian doctrine and sacred
history. Political education is the kind established some time ago in France, after
the fall of the Empire, the object of which is to exalt patriotism and represent
the actual public administration as the instrument of the common welfare.

Sometimes the qualification free or secular is applied abusively and maliciously

to education, in order to distract or alienate public opinion. Orthodox people, for
instance, call free schools certain schools which they establish in opposition to
the really free tendency of modern pædagogy; and many are called secular
schools which are really political, patriotic, and anti-humanitarian.

Rational education is lifted above these illiberal forms. It has, in the first place,
no regard to religious education, because science has shown that the story of
creation is a myth and the gods legendary; and therefore religious education
takes advantage of the credulity of the parents and the ignorance of the
children, maintaining the belief in a supernatural being to whom people may
address all kinds of prayers. This ancient belief, still unfortunately widespread,
has done a great deal of harm, and will continue to do so as long as it persists.
The mission of education is to show the child, by purely scientific methods, that
the more knowledge we have of natural products, their qualities, and the way to
use them, the more industrial, scientific, and artistic commodities we shall have
for the support and comfort of life, and men and women will issue in larger
numbers from our schools with a determination to [65]cultivate every branch of
knowledge and action, under the guidance of reason and the inspiration of
science and art, which will adorn life and reform society.

We will not, therefore, lose our time praying to an imaginary God for things
which our own exertions alone can procure.

On the other hand, our teaching has nothing to do with politics. It is our work to
form individuals in the full possession of all their faculties, while politics would
subject their faculties to other men. While religion has, with its divine power,
created a positively abusive power and retarded the development of humanity,
political systems also retard it by encouraging men to depend for everything on
the will of others, on what are supposed to be men of a superior character—on
those, in a word, who, from tradition or choice, exercise the profession of
politics. It must be the aim of the rational schools to show the children that
there will be tyranny and slavery as long as one man depends upon another, to
study the causes of the prevailing ignorance, to learn the origin of all the
traditional practices which give life to the existing social system, and to direct
the attention of the pupils to these matters.

We will not, therefore, lose our time seeking from others what we can get for
ourselves.

In a word, our business is to imprint on the minds of the children the idea that
their condition in the social order will improve in proportion to their knowledge
and to the strength they are able to develop; and that the era of general
happiness will be the more sure to dawn when they have discarded all religious
and other superstitions, which have up to the present done so much harm. On
that account there are no rewards or punishments in our schools; no alms, no
[66]medals or badges in imitation of the religious and patriotic schools, which
might encourage the children to believe in talismans instead of in the individual
and collective power of beings who are conscious of their ability and knowledge.

Rational and scientific knowledge must persuade the men and women of the
future that they have to expect nothing from any privileged being (fictitious or
 real); and that they may expect all that is reasonable from themselves and from
a freely organised and accepted social order.

I then appealed in the Bulletin and the local press to scientific writers who
were eager for the progress of the race to supply us with text-books on
these lines. They were, I said, “to deliver the minds of the pupils from all
the errors of our ancestors, encourage them in the love of truth and
beauty, and keep from them the authoritarian dogmas, venerable
sophisms, and ridiculous conventionalities which at present disgrace our
social life.” A special note was added in regard to the teaching of
arithmetic:—

The way in which arithmetic has hitherto been generally taught has made it a
powerful instrument for impressing the pupils with the false ideals of the
capitalist règime which at present presses so heavily on society. The Modern
School, therefore, invites essays on the subject of the reform of the teaching of
arithmetic, and requests those friends of rational and scientific instruction who
are especially occupied with mathematics to draw up a series of easy and
practical problems, in which there shall be no reference to wages, economy, and
profit. These exercises must deal with agricultural and industrial production,
[67]the just distribution of the raw material and the manufactured articles, the
means of communication, the transport of merchandise, the comparison of
human labour with mechanical, the benefits of machinery, public works, etc. In
a word, the Modern School wants a number of problems showing what
arithmetic really ought to be—the science of the social economy (taking the
word “economy” in its etymological sense of “good distribution”).

The exercises will deal with the four fundamental operations (integrals,
decimals, and fractions), the metrical system, proportion, compounds and
alloys, the squares and cubes of numbers, and the extraction of square and
cube roots. As those who respond to this appeal are, it is hoped, inspired rather
with the ideal of a right education of children than with the desire of profit, and
as we wish to avoid the common practice in such circumstances, we shall not
appoint judges or offer any prizes. The Modern School will publish the
Arithmetic which best serves its purpose, and will come to an amicable
agreement with the author as to his fee.

A later note in the Bulletin was addressed to teachers:—

 We would call the attention of all who dedicate themselves to the noble ideal of
the rational teaching of children and the preparation of the young to take a
fitting share in life to the announcements of a Compendium of Universal History
by Clémence Jacquinet, and The Adventures of Nono by Jean Grave, which will
be found on the cover. 1 The [68]works which the Modern School has published
or proposes to publish are intended for all free and rational teaching institutions,
centres of social study, and parents, who resent the intellectual restrictions
which dogma of all kinds—religious, political, and social—imposes in order to
maintain privilege at the expense of the ignorant. All who are opposed to
Jesuitism and to conventional lies, and to the errors transmitted by tradition and
routine, will find in our publications truth based upon evidence. As we have no
desire of profit, the price of the works represents almost their intrinsic value or
material cost; if there is any profit from the sale of them, it will be spent upon
subsequent publications.

In a later number of the Bulletin (No. 6, second year) the distinguished

geographer Elisée Reclus wrote, at my request, a lengthy article on the
teaching of geography. In a letter which Reclus afterwards wrote me from
the Geographical Institute at Brussels, replying to my request that he
should recommend a text-book, he said that there was “no text-book for
the teaching of geography in elementary schools”; he “did not know one
that was not tainted with religious or patriotic poison, or, what is worse,
administrative routine.” He recommended that the teachers should use no
manual in the Modern School, which he cordially commended (February
26, 1903). [69]

In the following number (7) of the Bulletin I published the following note
on the origin of Christianity:—

The older pædagogy, the real, if unavowed, aim of which was to impress
children with the uselessness of knowledge, in order that they might be
reconciled to their hard conditions and seek consolation in a supposed future
life, used reading-books in the elementary school which swarmed with stories,
anecdotes, accounts of travels, gems of classical literature, etc. There was a
good deal of error mixed with what was sound and useful in this, and the aim
was not just. The mystical idea predominated, representing that a relation could
be established between a Supreme Being and men by means of priests, and this
priesthood was the chief foundation of the existence of both the privileged and
the disinherited, and the cause of much of the evil that they endured.
 Among other books of this class, all tainted with the same evil, we remember
one which inserted an academic discourse, a marvel of Spanish eloquence, in
praise of the Bible. The gist of it is expressed in the barbarous declaration of
Omar when he condemned the Library of Alexandria to the flames: “The whole
truth is contained in the sacred book. If those other books are true, they are
superfluous; if they are not true, they should be burned.”

The Modern School, which seeks to form free minds, with a sense of
responsibility, fitted to experience a complete development of their powers,
which is the one aim of life, must necessarily adopt a very different kind of
reading-book, in harmony with its method of teaching. For this reason, as it
teaches established [70]truth and is interested in the struggle between light and
darkness, it has deemed it necessary to produce a critical work which will
enlighten the mind of the child with positive facts. These may not be
appreciated in childhood, but will later, in manhood, when the child takes its
place in social life and in the struggle against the errors, conventions,
hypocrisies, and infamies which conceal themselves under the cloak of
mysticism. This work reminds us that our books are not merely intended for
children; they are destined also for the use of the Adult Schools which are being
founded on every side by associations of workers, Freethinkers, Co-operators,
social students, and other progressive bodies who are eager to correct the
illiteracy of our nation, and remove that great obstacle to progress.

We believe that the section of Malvert’s work (Science and Religion) which we
have entitled “The Origin of Christianity” will be useful for this purpose. It shows
the myths, dogmas, and ceremonies of the Christian religion in their original
form; sometimes as exoteric symbols concealing a truth known to the initiated,
sometimes as adaptations of earlier beliefs, imposed by sheer routine and
preserved by malice. As we are convinced and have ample evidence of the
usefulness of our work, we offer it to the public with the hope that it will bear
the fruit which we anticipate. We have only to add that certain passages which
are unsuitable for children have been omitted; the omissions are indicated, and
adults may consult the passages in the complete edition.

[71]

It should be stated that both the writers are Anarchists, in the sense I have indicated
1
in the Preface. Except on special subjects—the famous geographer Odón de Buen, for
instance, [68]co-operated with Ferrer in regard to geography—no other writers were likely
to embody Ferrer’s ideals. All, however, were as opposed to violence as Ferrer himself,
and Mr. W. Archer has shown in his life of Ferrer that the charges brought against Mme.
Jacquinet by Ferrer’s persecutors at his trial are officially denied by our Egyptian
authorities.—J. M. ↑

[Contents]
Chapter XII.
 SUNDAY LECTURES
The Modern School did not confine itself to the instruction of children.
Without for a moment sacrificing its predominant character and its chief
object, it also undertook the instruction of the people. We arranged a
series of public lectures on Sundays, and they were attended by the pupils
and other members of their families, and a large number of workers who
were anxious to learn.

The earlier lectures were wanting in method and continuity, as we had to

employ lecturers who were quite competent in regard to their own
subjects, but gave each lecture without regard to what preceded or
followed. On other occasions, when we had no lecturer, we substituted
useful readings. The general public attended assiduously, and our
advertisements in the Liberal press of the district were eagerly scanned.

In view of these results, and in order to encourage the disposition of the

general public, I held a consultation with Dr. Andrés Martínez Vargas and
Dr. Odón de Buen, Professors at the Barcelona University, on the subject
of creating a popular university in the Modern School. In this the science
which is given—or, rather, sold—by the State to a privileged [72]few in the
universities should be given gratuitously to the general public, by way of
restitution, as every human being has a right to know, and science, which
is produced by observers and workers of all ages and countries, ought not
to be restricted to a class.

From that time the lectures became continuous and regular, having regard
to the different branches of knowledge of the two lecturers. Dr. Martínez
Vargas expounded physiology and hygiene, and Dr. Odón de Buen
geography and natural science, on alternate Sundays, until we began to
be persecuted. Their teaching was eagerly welcomed by the pupils of the
Modern School, and the large audiences of mixed children and adults. One
of the Liberal journals of Barcelona, in giving an account of the work,
spoke of the function as “the scientific Mass.”
The eternal light-haters, who maintain their privileges on the ignorance of
the people, were greatly exasperated to see this centre of enlightenment
shining so vigorously, and did not delay long to urge the authorities, who
were at their disposal, to extinguish it brutally. For my part, I resolved to
put the work on the firmest foundation I could conceive.

I recall with the greatest pleasure that hour we devoted once a week to
the confraternity of culture. I inaugurated the lectures on December 15,
1901, when Don Ernesto Vendrell spoke of Hypatia as a martyr to the
ideals of science and beauty, the victim of the fanatical Bishop Cyril of
Alexandria. Other lectures were given on subsequent Sundays, as I said,
until, on October 5, 1902, the lectures were organised [73]in regular
courses of science. On that day Dr. Andrés Martínez Vargas, Professor of
the Faculty of Medicine (child diseases) at Barcelona University, gave his
first lecture. He dealt with the hygiene of the school, and expounded its
principles in plain terms adapted to the minds of his hearers. Dr. Odón de
Buen, Professor of the Faculty of Science, dealt with the usefulness of the
study of natural history.

The press was generally in sympathy with the Modern School, but when
the programme of the third scholastic year appeared some of the local
journals, the Noticiero Universal and the Diario de Barcelona, broke out.
Here is a passage that deserves recording as an illustration of the way in
which conservative journals dealt with progressive subjects:—

We have seen the prospectus of an educational centre established in this city,

which professes to have nothing to do with “dogmas and systems.” It proposes
to liberate everybody from “authoritarian dogmas, venerable sophisms, and
ridiculous conventions.” It seems to us that this means that the first thing to do
is to tell the boys and girls—it is a mixed school—that there is no God, an
admirable way of forming good children, especially young women who are
destined to be wives and mothers.

The writer continues in this ironical manner for some time, and ends as
follows:—
 This school has the support of a professor of Natural Science (Dr. Odón de
Buen) and another of the Faculty of Medicine. We do not name the latter, as
there may be some mistake in including [74]him among the men who lend their
support to such a work.

These insidious clerical attacks were answered by the anti-clerical journals

of Barcelona at the time. [75]

[Contents]
Chapter XIII.
 THE RESULTS
At the beginning of the second scholastic year I once more drew up a
programme. Let us, I said, confirm our earlier programme; vindicated by
results, approved in theory and practice, the principle which from the first
informed our work and governs the Modern School is now unshakable.

Science is the sole mistress of our life. Inspired with this thought, the
Modern School proposes to give the children entrusted to it a mental
vitality of their own, so that when they leave our control they will continue
to be the mortal enemies of all kinds of prejudices and will form their own
ideas, individually and seriously, on all subjects.

Further, as education does not consist merely in the training of the mind,
but must include the emotions and the will, we shall take the utmost care
in the training of the child that its intellectual impressions are converted
into the sap of sentiment. When this attains a certain degree of intensity,
it spreads through the whole being, colouring and refining the individual
character. And as the conduct of the youth revolves entirely in the sphere
of character, he must learn to adopt science as the sole mistress of his
life. [76]

To complete our principle we must state that we are enthusiastically in

favour of mixed education, so that, having the same education, the
woman may become the real companion of man, and work with him for
the regeneration of society. This task has hitherto been confined to man;
it is time that the moral influence of woman was enlisted in it. Science will
illumine and guide her rich vein of sentiment, and utilise her character for
the welfare of the race. Knowing that the chief need in this country is a
knowledge of natural science and hygiene, the Modern School intends to
help to supply it. In this it has the support of Dr. de Buen and Dr. Vargas,
who lecture, alternately, on their respective subjects.

On June 30, 1903, I published in the Bulletin the following declaration:—

 We have now passed two years in expounding our principles, justifying them by
our practice, and enjoying the esteem of all who have co-operated in our work.
We do not see in this any other triumph than that we are able to confirm
confidently all that we have proclaimed. We have overcome the obstacles which
were put in our way by interest and prejudice, and we intend to persevere in it,
counting always on that progressive comradeship which dispels the darkness of
ignorance with its strong light. We resume work next September, after the
autumn vacation. We are delighted to be able to repeat what we said last year.
The Modern School and its Bulletin renew their life, for they have filled, with
some measure of satisfaction, a deeply-felt need. Without making promises or
programmes, we will persevere to the limit of our powers.

[77]

In the same number of the Bulletin was published the following list of the
pupils who had attended the school during the first two years:—

MONTHS. GIRLS. BOYS. TOTAL.

1901–2. 1902–3. 1901–2. 1902–3. 1st Yr. 2nd Yr.
Opening day 12 — 18 — 30 —
September 16 23 23 40 39 63
October 18 28 25 40 43 68
November 21 31 29 40 50 71
December 22 31 30 40 52 71
January 22 31 32 44 54 75
February 23 31 32 48 55 79
March 25 33 34 47 59 80
April 26 32 37 48 63 80
May 30 33 38 48 68 81
June 32 34 38 48 70 82

At the beginning of the third year I published with special pleasure the
following article in the Bulletin on the progress of the School:—

On the eighth of the present month we opened the new scholastic year. A large
number of pupils, their relatives, and members of the general public who were
in sympathy with our work and lectures, filled the recently enlarged rooms, and,
before the commencement of the function, inspected the collections which give
the school the appearance of a museum of science. The function began with a
short address from the director, who formally declared the opening of the third
year of school life, and said that, as they now had more experience and were
encouraged by [78]success, they would carry out energetically the ideal of the
Modern School.

Dr. de Buen congratulated us on the enlargement of the School, and supported

its aims. Education should, he said, reflect nature, as knowledge can only
consist in our perception of what actually exists. On the part of his children, who
study at the School and live in the neighbourhood, he paid a tribute to the
good-comradeship among the pupils, with whom they played and studied in a
perfectly natural way. He said that even in orthodox education, or rather on the
part of the professors engaged in it, there were, for all its archaic features,
certain tendencies similar to those embodied in the Modern School. This might
be gathered from his own presence, and that of Dr. Vargas and other
professors. He announced that there was already a similar school at
Guadalajara, or that one would shortly be opened there, built by means of a
legacy left for the purpose by a humanitarian. He wished to contribute to the
redemption of children and their liberation from ignorance and superstition; and
he expressed a hope and very strong wish that wealthy people would, at their
death, restore their goods in this way to the social body, instead of leaving them
to secure an imaginary happiness beyond the grave.

Dr. Martínez Vargas maintained, against all who thought otherwise, that the
purely scientific and rational education given in the Modern School is the proper
basis of instruction; no better can be conceived for maintaining the relations of
the children with their families and society, and it is the only way to form,
morally and intellectually, the men of the future. He was glad to hear that the
scholastic hygiene which had been practised in the [79]Modern School during the
previous two years, involving a periodical examination of the children, and
expounded in the public lectures, had received the solemn sanction of the
Hygienic Congress lately held at Brussels.

Going on to resume his lectures, and as a means of enforcing oral instruction by

visual perception, he exhibited a series of lantern-slides illustrating various
hygienic exercises, certain types of disease, unhealthy organs, etc., which the
speaker explained in detail. An accident to the lantern interrupted the pictures;
but the professor continued his explanations, speaking of the mischievous
effects of corsets, the danger of microbic infection by trailing dresses or by
children playing with soil, insanitary houses and workshops, etc., and promised
to continue his medical explanations during the coming year.
 The audience expressed its pleasure at the close of the meeting, and the sight
of the great joy of the pupils was some consolation amid the hardships of the
present, and a good augury for the future.

[80]

[Contents]
Chapter XIV.
 A DEFENSIVE CHAPTER
Our programme for the third scholastic year (1903–4) was as follows:—

To promote the progressive evolution of childhood by avoiding all anachronistic

practices, which are merely obstacles placed by the past to any real advance
towards the future, is, in sum, the predominant aim of the Modern School.
Neither dogmas nor systems, moulds which confine vitality to the narrow
exigencies of a transitory form of society, will be taught. Only solutions
approved by the facts, theories accepted by reason, and truths confirmed by
evidence, shall be included in our lessons, so that each mind shall be trained to
control a will, and truths shall irradiate the intelligence, and, when applied in
practice, benefit the whole of humanity without any unworthy and disgraceful
exclusiveness.

Two years of success are a sufficient guarantee to us. They prove, in the first
place, the excellence of mixed education, the brilliant result—the triumph, we
would almost say—of an elementary common sense over prejudice and
tradition. As we think it advisable, especially that the child may know what is
happening about it, that physical and natural science and hygiene should be
taught, the Modern School will continue to have the services of Dr. de [81]Buen
and Dr. Vargas. They will lecture on alternate Sundays, from eleven to twelve,
on their respective subjects in the school-room. These lectures will complete
and further explain the classes in science held during the week.

It remains only to say that, always solicitous for the success of our work of
reform, we have enriched our scholastic material by the acquisition of new
collections which will at once assist the understanding and give an
attractiveness to scientific knowledge; and that, as our rooms are now not large
enough for the pupils, we have acquired other premises in order to have more
room and give a favourable reply to the petitions for admission which we have
received.

The publication of this programme attracted the attention of the

reactionary press, as I said. In order to give them a proof of the logical
strength of the position of the Modern School, I inserted the following
article in the Bulletin:—