EDUCATION
A marked difference is presented to-day in the picture of public
instruction, sheltered under the mantle of peace, compared with
that which was offered during the times of political agitation and
revolution. This interesting feature, the principal and most solid
foundation of the future prosperity of this country, receives each day
further development, thanks to the vigorous impulse impressed upon it
from all sides. While public authorities in all branches, moved by
generous emulation, have made enduring souvenirs of their occupancy
of office, this is particularly the case of the department of public
instruction. Outside of the great cities the academy diffuses the light
of civilization, and even in the smallest hamlet public and private
schools extend the knowledge of the people in every useful department.
Primary instruction is given almost everywhere. In the largest
municipalities the governments either directly support or subsidize a
great number of these establishments. Many schools the creation of
which is due to private initiative are endowed by individuals or are
under the direction and surveillance of benevolent societies. In 1906,
there was created a new seat in the cabinet, the Secretary of Public
Instruction and Fine Arts. Since then there is an increased interest in
school work. Each year two professors from the Normal School are sent
to America and Europe to see the best physical institutes and to study
the new school systems.
As in all progressive lands, education is the foundation of prosperity,
and activity in that direction has been very great among those who
realize that it is the basis of their existence. Schools have been
established in all parts of the republic, and now the poorest Indian
child has its opportunities for learning.
Compulsory education being one of the features it is seldom that the
common people are found without elementary knowledge. This branch of
learning comprises civic instruction, the Mexican language, arithmetic,
history of the country, natural science, practical geometry, drawing,
singing, physical culture, fine needle work and plain sewing.
[Illustration: PATIO OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.]
With the administration of President Diaz there was a great change in
the educational policy. Day and night schools were opened everywhere
for the poorer classes, and every substantial branch of practical
learning has been placed within reach of not only the young but the
adult laboring class, and the interest that has steadily grown in
this movement has been of great material benefit to Mexico. In the
general system of education in pursuance of the Government’s desire
to educate the working element, there are two classes of schools,
the supplementary, which are the means of giving primary instruction
to those unable to acquire it, and the complementary, which gives an
opportunity to those having a little learning to gain more. Primary,
normal and professional schools are within the grasp of every one, the
system of education being entirely free, even books and every facility
to gain knowledge is furnished by the Government.
[Illustration: NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ENGINEERS.]
Education in Mexico begun with the Conquest, and some institutions of
learning were then established, among them the College of San Juan
de Letran, in 1530, and the University of Mexico, which was opened
in 1553. There was a lull in interest on account of the unstable
conditions, and some of the great seats of learning were discontinued.
When Baron Von Humboldt, the German explorer, visited Mexico in the
earlier part of the eighteenth century, one of his first reports
to his sovereign was relative to the great advancement of higher
education in the New Spain. This was said of the higher classes, not
of the poorer people, who were illiterate and superstitious. To-day
the moral precepts that are instilled into these people as well as the
development of their mental faculties, give every man an incentive to
be a good and honorable citizen, and it is with great satisfaction that
those interested in this great reform have seen its splendid results.
After the adoption of the Federal Constitution, it required a great
deal of activity on the part of the officials to establish a common
school instruction throughout the republic.
As each state was responsible for its schools it was very difficult
after years of warfare and unsettled conditions to establish a system
of education without taxation for that purpose. School buildings were
erected, teachers employed, and gradually the interest of the people
grew. Now no country can boast of a finer educational foundation than
Mexico. Greater attention is directed toward manual training and
domestic economy than in any other country in the world. The Federal
primary schools are divided into two groups, day and night schools,
for children, and the working classes of both sexes. Belonging to the
first group are the kindergarten, elementary for mixed classes, and
general high schools and special high schools. These are divided into
mercantile and industrial, and those who graduate are permitted to
enter the normal school.
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS FOR MEN.]
All the primaries of the Federal District are under the general
direction of Primary Education, except the kindergartens, which are
under the supervision of the Minister of Instruction and Belles Artes.
In Mexico City and its outlying territories much care has been taken
to organize a splendid school system; new buildings, sanitary in
every respect, suitable to accommodate the demand of the multiplying
attendance, and a standard of education so advanced that Mexico has
achieved a great thing in meeting the needs of her people. The better
classes were in former years forced to send their children abroad to
school. The best professors direct the courses of study and every
art and craft known is taught. Splendid playgrounds for children and
gymnasiums are installed in all the modern school buildings.
Normal schools for men and women in which they become masters of the
art of teaching are one of the chief features of the educational system.
The Catholic Church takes great interest in education and maintains
branches of all its well-known teaching fraternities and sisterhoods.
Besides the parochial schools many academies and colleges are conducted
throughout the land and the teaching is on the same high plane as in
other countries. The Sisters of the Sacred Heart direct the finishing
schools for girls and the Jesuits most of the colleges and seminaries
for young men. There are many private schools with a high standard
of study, besides finishing schools of splendid order. They are
patronized by the better classes and the result is that Mexico boasts
of delightful men and women, well informed boys and girls, and the
Nation’s younger element are developing well in the progress of their
country, and are being fitted for important positions they must surely
fill some day.
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS FOR WOMEN.]
The National Conservatory of Music sends yearly into the world finished
artists and professors and the many histrionic and musical societies in
the Capital are ample proofs of the splendid training received in this
institution. Languages are taught in every school, and most versatile
linguists are found in Mexico, from the tradesmen to the Ministers of
the Cabinet. Some of the greatest men of Mexico, whose names are of
universal fame, graduated from the National School of Jurisprudence and
the School of Medicine.
In the penitentiaries of every state in the Republic there are schools
conducted with the finest masters to be obtained, and each prison has
an orchestra or band which has the full benefit of instruction in
music. The School of Engineering gives as good a course as may be had
at any university. A School of Mines and a School of Agriculture exists
and are splendid institutions. The Colegio de la Paz, once a religious
school, is now controlled by the Government, and largely supported by
its own endowment. Its building is one of the greatest in the city. In
rank just below these great public institutions of instruction come
the Schools of Industry for men and women, for deaf mutes and for the
blind, reformatories, business colleges and a school of arts and crafts.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO SCHOOL OF ENGINEERS.]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS.]
Amid wars and the care of material affairs, Mexico has never neglected
the æsthetic and the intellectual. Institutions devoted to culture
of every kind are important and are very liberally maintained. The
national library--_biblioteca national_--occupies the beautiful
old edifice once the church of San Agustin, which has been modified
to meet the purposes of a library while preserving the beauty of
the old church. Along two sides of the building stretches a pretty
garden enclosed by a high iron railing, the posts of which bear
commemorative busts of eminent Mexican writers beginning with the Aztec
Netzahualcoyotl, Ixtlilxochitl, and coming through the list of colonial
writers brings us to the modern Mexican literati. The classic interior
of the building lends a dignity and grace befitting the place. Statues
of didactic writers adorn the walls, including the biblical teacher
Isaiah and the great oriental master Confucius, and at the other
extreme are the figures of Humboldt and Cuvier.
Of the literature housed in this library a large portion consists
of devotional and dogmatic works collected from the convents and
monasteries on their suppression, numbering about two hundred thousand
volumes. There are many very precious tomes in this library, unique
specimens of priceless value, dating from early in the fourteenth
century, and some Mexican pinturas done in deerskin by Montezuma
as dispatches to his allies at the time of the invasion. Curios in
literature are of deep interest to the lover of antique songs. Modern
books on every subject make the National Library one of the valuable
and interesting depositories of the world.
[Illustration: STAIRCASE, SCHOOL OF ENGINEERS.]
Besides this great library there are several others containing works of
special interest to publicists and students--as those of the government
departments, the National Museum, the Fine Arts Academy, the School of
Engineering, the Law School, and the library at the National Palace.
Higher education has its protection and many schools for the
development of talent are found in Mexico. Besides a school for thought
which comprises advanced ideas, Mexico is very proud of her Escuela
Nacional de Artes y Oficios. It was established to give women and girls
an opportunity to gain a profession that could give them a livelihood
or fit them for the serious duties of life. In this school are taught
all the branches of work, nursing, elementary learning, photography,
upholstery, lace-making and in fact everything that the trained hand
can do. This school has elevated the humble class to a condition of
self respect, and the women who have had advantage of this training
have been able to earn a good living, and liberal remuneration for
their work and some have been known to establish little shops which
have grown into good commercial standing. This institution is one
of the great safeguards to women, who are protected by a feeling
of independence and self-confidence. It is under the direction of
the Government and the ladies of the highest society of Mexico, who
do everything for the advancement of this class of women. The best
teachers are employed, many of them having been sent abroad to make
studies of schools of this kind.
[Illustration: NATIONAL PREPARATORY SCHOOL.]
Realizing that many of the students were too poor to have proper food
and nourishment, the influence of Madame Sierra, wife of the Minister
of Education, and Madame Luz Cosio de Lopez, daughter of the Minister
of War, resulted in plans to give them free meals, and the good
nourishment given these girls, whose lots in life are not too easy, is
one of the aids to the great success of the institution.
[Illustration: COMMERCIAL SCHOOL.]
There are several English and American schools, among them the Sarah L.
Keen College.
It will be appreciated that the educational system has its practical
as well as its æsthetic side. A fair amount of intelligence and a
willingness to profit by the experience of other countries are the
keynotes of educational propaganda. The many agricultural colleges
throughout the country are modeled after those of Canada, where the
idea of such schools was first worked out. From Germany the scheme of
manual and industrial training was borrowed, while from the United
States came the plans for the mining and applied science colleges.
Already the beneficial effects of the training given are being noted;
better farming, more economical mining, more skill in weaving, in
dyeing, in metal working and thrifty housekeeping. The newly organized
Federal Department of Public Instruction is zealously directed by the
Secretary, Lic. Don Justo Sierra, ably assisted by the Sub-Secretary,
Lic. Don Ezequiel Chavez. “Co-operating” is the federation of
education: a convention of educators which meets from time to time
makes practical recommendations for improvement wherever such should
and can be undertaken. In another generation there will be no
illiteracy among the Mexicans, a condition of which no European country
can boast. Irresistibly, the mark of progress goes on, welding the
races into one people. One man’s life, that of Porfirio Diaz, spans the
whole improvement; and its inspiration is his, although the working out
of the plans for betterment has been in the capable direction of his
ministers supported by the whole-hearted efforts of an awakened people.
[Illustration: SAN CARLOS ACADEMY.]
[Illustration: MORELOS PARK, TOLUCA.]
[Illustration: STREET SCENE, TOLUCA.]