Moisés Sáenz

Many of the philosophies and programs that Sáenz introduced during his tenure as Sub-Secretary for the Secretariat of Public Education in the 1920s came from the influences of his mentor, John Dewey.

Moisés had a brother, Aaron, who also rose to prominence in post-Revolutionary Mexico, first as a politician (he served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Public Education and Governor of Nuevo León) and later as a sugar baron known to some as the “king of Mexican sugar.” As a member of a Protestant family, Sáenz was strongly influenced by the strong education tradition set by Protestant missionaries, starting in the late 1820s.

A major feature of this effort was the founding of schools, in both urban and rural areas, which allowed local children to gain access to a quality education that often would otherwise have been inaccessible.

[4] He also advocated for more creative and flexible types of educational instruction rather than more traditional, rigid forms, placing a premium upon activity within the learning environment.

Once installed in this influential position, Sáenz began to implement a series of reforms, many of which bore unmistakable signs of Dewey's influence.

[6] This was a vast expansion of what might be characterized as basic education in Mexico; it allowed many more Mexicans to have the ability to attend school past the fourth grade than had ever been possible before.

For most of its history to this point, especially under Porfirio Diaz and his positivist-oriented government, Mexican education had been strongly centered around urban areas; the cities had the best schools and teachers and the most resources in far higher concentrations than did their rural counterparts.

[8] This was at the time and remains today perhaps Sáenz's most significant and lasting contribution to the shaping of post-Revolutionary Mexico; the increased basic level of education it granted to the average Mexican helped to allow the country to modernize and adapt to the changing world around it.

[6] The access and quality of education allowed by the system Sáenz helped create, in fact, may be the single biggest difference between pre- and post-Revolutionary Mexico.

[citation needed] A great deal of Sáenz's education policy ideology, and his political beliefs in general, was concerned with the relationship of society to its indigenous peoples.

[11] Therefore, Sáenz's expansion of and emphasis on rural schooling, particularly in areas with high numbers of indigenous residents, served a dual purpose; as promised after the Revolution, it served to expand access to and quality of education outside of the main urban areas, but it also allowed this program of assimilation to actually reach the people it was targeted towards.