Ferrer movement
He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation, as opposed to the ecclesiastical and dogmatic standard Spanish curriculum of the period.
Ferrer's teachings followed in a tradition of rationalist and romantic education philosophy, and 19th century extragovernment, secular Spanish schools.
Ferrer tried a less dogmatic approach to education that would try to draw out the child's natural powers, though children still received moral indoctrination on social responsibility and the importance of freedom.
Francisco Ferrer, through his Escuela Moderna, sought to afford children educational liberties uncommon for the time period.
Upon his return to Barcelona in 1901, following 16 years of exile in Paris, Ferrer became a prominent proponent of education focused on reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation.
By removing the influence of the church and state from mass education, they argued, the enlightened public would upend the status quo.
Ferrer had been a longtime radical for Spanish republicanism but moved towards anarchist circles during his time in Paris, where he read ravenously about education.
[6] He was captivated by Paul Robin's Prévost orphanage school in Cempuis, which tried to integrate the children's physical and intellectual capacities without coercion.
Evening and Sunday afternoon lectures were open to the public and featured scholars of physiology, geography, and natural science.
Their topics included grammar, math, natural and social science, geography, anthropology, sociology, religious mythology, and the injustices of patriotism and conquest.
Other titles included:[11] The press's monthly journal, Boletín de la Escuela Moderna, hosted the school's news and articles from prominent libertarian writers.
[13] Atop the school's purpose of fostering self-development, Ferrer believed it had an additional function: prefigurative social regeneration.
Propaganda and agitation were central to the Escola Moderna's aims, as Ferrer dreamt of a society in which people constantly renewed themselves and their environment through experimentation.
Their textbooks took positions against capitalism, the state, and the military:[13] Ferrer was the center of Barceloinan libertarian education for the decade between his return and his death.
The Escola Moderna's program, from Ferrer's anticlericalism to the quality of guest intellectual lecturers, had impressed even middle-class liberal reformers.
[4] The resulting Ferrer movement's philosophy of pedagogy had two distinct tendencies: towards non-didactic freedom from dogma, and the more didactic fostering of counter-hegemonic beliefs.
