This body plays a larger part in educational thought and leadership
than the corresponding body in any other Latin American State. Its
activities are planned for close articulation of the social and
educational needs of the nation. One of the furthest reaching is
the public-extension work in subjects of university and secondary
instruction. In 1917, its eleventh year of operation, it held 14
conferences at the University of Chile, with an attendance of 15,000,
an increase of 50 per cent over the previous year. The subjects
treated were patriotic, historical, literary, artistic, sociological,
commercial, and medico-therapeutic.
In secondary extension during 1917 there were held in provincial
capitals 19 conferences on subjects more popular and more exclusively
educational and sociological.
The department of university extension has also for three years
devoted itself to collecting international data upon immigration
and naturalization laws, and has cooperated with all the labor
organizations of the Republic to hinder the passage of premature and
unscientific laws in this field.
The activities of the association cover a wide range. In his report for
the year 1917 the president reviewed the activities of the body and
examined the most important problems to which it had addressed itself
during the period. They were:
1. The establishment of a rural normal school, a project not yet
realized.
2. Democratic education by the progressive elimination of primary
courses of education in secondary institutions.
3. Obligatory primary instruction, sought by a law passed by the
Chamber of Deputies in 1917, but as yet not acted upon by the Senate.
4. Nationalization of the Chilean system of education, a question
which needs to be presented still more in detail to the nation and the
Congress.
Like Argentina, Chile has a grave problem in the assimilation of
alien elements, and her nationalism is alarmed at the activity of the
school organizations of diverse races existent on her soil. French
students of education are intensely interested in this development as a
vindication of their prophecies, for they have long been pointing out
the Germanization of Chilean education.
The association has vigorously urged legislation requiring the close
and systematic inspection of all nongovernmental schools, especially
those of secondary grade in north Chile, where German propaganda has
for years been an open secret, carried on, as was well known, by a
German-Chilean Union of Teachers, and where German liceos exist in full
operation. The association urged the requirement in secondary schools
of essentially national subjects, such as Spanish and the history,
geography, and civics of Chile, taught by Chileans and descendants of
Chileans.
In the field of physical education, the activities of the association
have been specially directed to securing proper playgrounds for schools
and to arousing practical interest in this field among philanthropists
and the public at large. The association has taken strong ground
for antialcoholic instruction in primary and secondary schools,
urging that such be incorporated in the textbooks in the study of
physiology, hygiene, and temperance, and in independent courses in
public schools and State colegios. The project encountered opposition
in the National Congress. The association has also grappled with the
problem of immorality, issuing in May, 1917, appeals to families on
sexual ethics and the systematic inculcation of ethical ideas of sex by
educational and therapeutic measures. During 1917, fraternal relations
were established with Brazil and Bolivia, on the occasion of the
inauguration of the Higher Normal Institute.