Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History -- Juvenile literature
Every big city has a great bullring, a round building with many steps of
seats and no roof, called the "Plaza de Toros." "Toro" is the bull. The
bulls are especially bred for the ring, because no ordinary cow or bull
would be able to take part in this colorful pageant. Almost every Sunday
afternoon throughout the year, and at holiday times, there is a
"corrida" or bullfight, and everybody goes to see the toreros fight the
bulls.
Bullfighters in Spain are the same heroes to Spanish boys and girls that
baseball players are to American youngsters. This is the reason why
you'll see all the little Spanish boys playing Torero. One pretends he
is the toro and wears a basket over his head as he charges at the one
pretending he is the torero with a red cape and wooden sword.
Although Spanish children like to play, they are also very serious about
schoolwork, because they know that if Spain is to be a wise member of
the family of nations, she needs educated citizens. During the Civil War
it was very hard for young people to get an education, and some of the
schools and universities were destroyed by bombs or fires. Now the
universities have been rebuilt, and more schools are being built every
year.
[Illustration]
Some boys and girls go to schools run by their church, and they are
taught by priests and nuns. According to law, everyone must go to school
until the age of fourteen. Then, if the family can afford it, they can
go on to higher schools and the university. If the family is poor but a
boy is very bright, he may win a scholarship by getting high marks.
Because boys are more likely than girls to go to a university, they
study more science and mathematics in school than their sisters do. Of
course they all study reading, writing, history, arithmetic and good
manners.
When a Spanish boy grows up and has a university education, he may
become a doctor, lawyer, banker, newspaperman or government worker, just
as any of you may. If he is going to be a farmer, a fisherman, or
fashion things with his hands as a carpenter or wrought-iron maker does,
he probably won't go to school after he is fourteen. If he's going to do
the same thing his father does, his father will teach him. Otherwise, he
may become an apprentice, which means that he will work right along with
grownups who already do what he wants to learn. He learns by doing it
with them.
Little Spanish girls, who wear pinafores to school and do their hair in
pigtails, are more interested in learning how to be good mothers,
because every little Spanish girl dreams of marrying and having lots of
children. They learn how to read and write, and the history of their
country, but they also learn how to cook and sew and bring up children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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