Chapter XIII: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.