Foundations of Laic Moral Education in Spain

Abstract

This article studies the foundations of laic moral education in Spain. Some aspects of laic moral education can also be found in other nations, including the emergence of the laic man or the need for an educating State; other aspects of laic moral education, however, are peculiar to the Spanish case, such as the influence of Krausoinstitutionism and the programmes of 1931 Republicanism. This analysis of laic moral education centres on the bipolarity of traditionalism/liberalism. The article takes 1857 as its starting point, a date that is significant for the birth of laic morality and the Spanish education system. The article’s end point is 1936, on the threshold of the Civil War. This bipolarity of traditional/liberal is in combination, on the one hand, with the demands of Krausoinstitutionism for an independent morality and neutrality in instruction as tools for the attainment of a moral ideal of preparing men and, on the other hand, the Republican vindication of an autonomous morality and school laicism as key to the preparation of citizens, as well as with the demand for a civil morality fostered by an educating State.

Notes

¹ The aim of laic moral education is the teaching of the collective and individual obligations of the human being founded in common ethics, in a universal morality that enables the coexistence in society of peoples with disparate ideas and beliefs, in contrast to religious morality (autonomic, immanent and guided by reason, truth, liberty and justice). Religious morality is based on religious precepts and has divine validation, while laic moral education is independent of all religious creeds, having its origin in Mankind and civil laws. Religious morality is characteristic of the confessional schools, laic moral education of the non‐denominational schools.

² During the revolutionary six year period 1868–74, there emerged in the Spanish panorama philosophies such as socialism and anarchism that included their own conception of morality and its correspondent teaching. However, I have chosen in this study to make reference to the bipolarity reigning in Spanish education in these years, between traditionalism and liberalism. These were represented respectively by retrograde Catholicism and by progressive sectors open to European influences. The protagonists here, many of whom, for example, belonged to the Spanish Socialist Party, are tagged with the label of liberalism. A future article will study moral education within Spanish traditionalism.

³ Krauso‐institutionalism is the assimilation of the ideas of the idealist German philosopher Christian Friedrich Krause in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was propagated through the work of Sanz del Río, one of the guiding lights of the Free Institution of Teaching, which was based on the teachings of Krause. See also note 13.

⁴ Many of the ideas, defended by the Second Republic (1931–39), especially in the field of education, were already present in historical Spanish Republicanism. To a great extent, Spanish Republicanism can be said to be the heir. However, I wish to single out the Republicanism of 1931, both for its power and for its considerable social impact as a movement. Note that throughout this article I use the terms ‘he’, ‘his’ (rather than ‘he/she’, ‘his/her’ etc.) for the sake of brevity.

⁵ The year 1857 is the date of the Moyano Law, the first general law of Spanish education, which encapsulated in legislation the agreements of the Concordat of 1851. This concordat facilitated the Church’s control of and vigilance over religious morality. In addition, 1857 was the year in which Julián Sanz del Río, responsible for introducing the thinking of Krause into Spain, made a speech at the opening of the academic course of 1857–58 in the Central University, La obra moral y científica de la Universidad. This was seen by many as a decisive manifesto for this new laic morality. The speech offered a counteroffensive to Spanish traditionalism and prompted persecution of those (referred to as ‘living texts’) who spread this new philosophy. The decision to set the boundary at 1936, on the very threshold of the Civil War, is logical in the light of events following this date.

⁶ Examples, amongst others, of this preoccupation are the studies brought together in Cortina, Suárez M., ed. Secularización y laicismo en la España contemporánea. Santander: Sociedad Menéndez y Pelayo, 2001. See also the reception of the debate on the laity tabled in France in the wake of the Rapport au Président de la République, remis le 11 Décembre 2003, par la Commission de Réflexion sur l’application du principe de laïcité dans la République (‘Commision Stasi’).

⁷ The passing of religious morality to civil morality is seen as one of the dimensions of morals and good manners. See the doctoral thesis of Esteban Ruiz, F. “El código de la urbanidad en los manuales escolares de la España contempopránea (1800–1936). Génesis y evolución.” Ph.D. diss., University of Valladolid, 2001. Also Guereña, J.‐ L. El alfabeto de las buenas maneras. Los manuales de urbanidad en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, 2005.

⁸ Heterodox are the dissident thinkers of the orthodox school of the Catholic tradition. Menéndez Pelayo, in his famous Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, understands them to be those who commit errors with regard to dogma, who fall into impiety (deism, naturalism, pantheism, atheism etc.), who commit idolatry in any of its diverse forms, who persist in apostasy, heresy etc.

⁹ Sánchez Blanco, F. La mentalidad ilustrada. Madrid: Edic. Taurus, 1999.

¹⁰ Hazard, P. La crise de la conscience européenne 1680–1715. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1961.

¹¹ Sales Ferré, M. Nuevos fundamentos de la Moral. Madrid: Tip. De la Viuda e Hijos de Tello Impresor de Cámara de S. M., 1907.

¹² Martínez Albiach, A. Ética socioreligiosa en la España del siglo XVIII. Burgos: Ed. Aldecoa, 1970.

¹³ Krausism was a Spanish philosophical movement characterized by rationalism in philosophy, liberalism in politics and reformism in social matters. It exerted a great influence on contemporary thought and Spanish society in terms of secularization.

¹⁴ Giner De Los Ríos, F. “Instrucción o educación?” Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza III, no. 61 (1879): 126.

¹⁵ Luzuriaga, L. La Institución Libre de Enseñanza y la educación en España. Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1957.

¹⁶ Montero Ríos, E. “Discurso leído por el Excmo. Sr. D.…, Rector de la Institución, en la apertura del curso académico de 1877–78.” Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza I, no. 17 (1877): 65–69.

¹⁷ Ultramontanism is the doctrine that defends the absolute primacy of the church over civil power.

¹⁸ Caesarism is the dictatorial and popularist system inspired by the government established by Julius Caesar in which power does not reside in one person who has obtained it through war, coup d’état or by any other illicit means not laid out in the established mechanisms for democratic election or succession.

¹⁹ Azcárate, G. de. “Neutralidad de la Universidad.” Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza XXVII, no. 516 (1903): 65–74.

²⁰ Hence, for example, his scant sympathy for the reforms undertaken by Jules Ferry in French education.

²¹ Giner de los Ríos, F. “La enseñanza confesional y la escuela.” Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza VI, no. 132 (1882): 173–74.

²² Institutionalism is defined as that set of influences that came together in the Free Institution of Teaching, which characterized the public and private bodies and institutions which arose from it and which aided the educational, cultural, social and political transformation in Spain.

²³ Struggleforlife is a term used by Edmond Demolins in his book Á quoi tient la supériorité des Anglo‐Saxons (Paris: Firmin‐Didot, 1897: 46. 173). It refers to the self‐sufficient individual who trusts in his own initiative, personal effort and in the fruits of his labour; to a person who does not depend on others and who is able to organize his life and carve out a future for himself. With this work Demolins (1852–1907), founder of L’École des Roches, engaged in the polemic engendered by French sociology at the end of the century, which defended the idea of the inferiority of the Latin race to the Anglo‐Saxon as a possible explanation for the French defeat in 1870 and the Italian defeat in 1896. In Spain this theory also served as a potential explanation for the ‘crisis of 1898’, which brought the loss of the last remaining Spanish colonies.

²⁴ Regenerationism, closely related to Krausism, to Institutionalism and to the writers known as the ‘generation of ’98’ (Unamuno, Baroja, Azorín, Machado, etc.), is a social, political and cultural movement which, faced with the decadence of Spain, promotes a critical attitude towards its general and political degeneration and which proposes the regeneration of Spain and the Spanish, demanding reform of education among other reforms.

²⁵ The ‘disaster of 1898’ or ‘crisis of 1898’ is a concept that expresses the feeling of national frustration which came with the Cuban War and the loss of the last colonies of the old Spanish Empire (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines). These events brought on a state of pessimism in the Spanish elite around aspects of social, cultural and political life and led to critical introspection regarding Spain’s ‘problems’.

²⁶ Carmona, F. “La crisis de la ética. Su relación con la pedagogía.” Revista de Pedagogía 127 (1932): 291–95.

²⁷ Spanish pro‐republican pedagogies were attracted to the Weimar Republic as it appeared to respond to the excesses of industrialization, mechanization and the division of labour. This was done by orientating educational practice in agreement with pedagogical ideals; recovering neo‐humanist aspirations, yet without abandoning the will for progress; defending the spiritualization of the school and democratizing and socializing education for which it set itself a special task: promoting civic duty in the sense of individual and collective responsibility. In the task of spiritualization of the school and of an educational practice based on axiological concepts the principle promoters of Weimar pedagogy exerted a special influence. On the one side was Kerschensteiner, with his acceptance of a pedagogy of values, the autonomy of the person, the significance of professional training and of the community for civic education, and on the other Spranger, with his stance that pedagogy had its origins in the life of the people as a whole, to which individual or group interests should be subject and his conception of the school as an educational community that should both respect the autonomy and conscience of the student while awakening national awareness and a sense of responsibility.

²⁸ Xirau, J. “La pedagogía y la vida.” Revista de Pedagogía 133 (1933): 3–5.

²⁹ Xirau, J. “El principi de la Llibertad i la consciència moral.” In Escola d’estiu del 1932, edited by Generalitat de Catalunya. Escola Normal. Barcelona: Cooperativa Popular, 1936: 31–34.

³⁰ Llopis, R. La revolución en la escuela. In Dos años en la Dirección General de Primera Enseñanza. Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1933.

³¹ Torroja, R. La Educación moral y cívica en la Escuela actual. Gerona–Madrid: Dalmau Carles, Pla, S.A., 1933.

³² Bunge, C. O. La educación. Valencia: F. Sempere y Compañía, 1901.

³³ Comas, J. “La educación moral en la escuela laica.” Revista de Pedagogía 26 (1932): 266–72.

³⁴ Ballesteros, A. “Libertad religiosa y educación moral.” Revista de Pedagogía 114 (1931): 267–72.

³⁵ Luzuriaga, L. “La escuela de la República.” Revista de Pedagogía 146 (1934): 49–56.

³⁶ It is well known that a frequent stance in Krausoinstitutional liberalism recognizes the State’s right to give and favour official teaching but without harming private interests, as long as they are subject to private and public law. Normally Krausoinstitutional liberalism justifies State intervention as necessary but temporary; that is to say until Society, freed of ignorance, is able to put its freedoms to good use and take charge of its own destiny and take control of its members’ education.

³⁷ Salmerón, N. “Speech.” In Diario de sesiones del Congreso 22 May 1985. Madrid: Imp.y Fundición de J. A.García, 1895: 3487.

³⁸ A recurrent problem, “Education and national identity”, which History of Education dealt with some years ago (History of Education, 28, no. 3 (1999).

³⁹ Moret, S. Propaganda liberal. Discursos. Madrid: Biblioteca “Ateneo”, 1909.

⁴⁰ Paulí Dávila has described this issue in his paper “The educational system and national identities: the case of Spain in the twentieth century.” History of Education 34, no. 1 (2005): 23–40.

⁴¹ It would perhaps be opportune to point out the persistence in pedagogic reflections, even nowadays, of this important and decisive question. See, for example, the debate a few years ago conducted in the Journal of Moral Education by Larry Nucci: Nucci, L. “Morality, religion and public education in pluralist democracies: a reply to Kunzman.” Journal of Moral Education 32, no. 3 (2003): 263–70; and Robert Kunzman: Kunzman, R. “Religion, ethics and the implications for moral education: a critique of Nucci’s morality and religious rules.” Journal of Moral Education 32, no. 3 (2003): 251–61.