The methods of instruction were modeled after earlier attempts in
France, and were based on the general idea that physical and
intellectual education must continually supplement each other. That no
one is really educated, so long as his knowledge is merely the
recollection of what he has read or seen in a book. Accordingly a lesson
often consisted of a visit to a factory, a workshop, a studio, or a
laboratory, where things were explained and illustrated; or in a class
journey to the hills, or the sea, or the open country, where the
geological or topographical conditions were studied, or botanical
specimens collected and individual observation encouraged.
Very often even book classes were held out of doors, and the children
insensibly put in touch with the great pervading influences of nature, a
touch too often lost, or never felt at all, in our city environments.
How different was all this from the incomprehensible theology of the
Catholic schools to be learned and believed but not understood, the
impractical rehearsing of strings of words characteristic of mediaeval
survivals! No wonder the Modern Schools grew and grew, and the hatred of
the priests waxed hotter and hotter.
Their opportunity came; indeed, they did not wait long.
In the year 1906, on the 31st day of May, not so very long after that
Good Friday banquet, occurred the event which they seized upon to crush
the Modern School and its founder.
I am not here to speak either for or against Mateo Morral. He was a
wealthy young man, of much energy and considerable learning. He had
helped to enrich the library of the Modern School and being an excellent
linguist, he had offered to make translations of text-books. Ferrer had
accepted the offer. That is all Morral had to do with the Modern School.
But on the day of royal festivities, Morral had it in his head to throw
a bomb where it would do some royal hurt. He missed his calculations,
and the hurt intended did not take place; but after a short interval,
finding himself about to be captured, he killed himself.
Think of him as you please: think that he was a madman who did a
madman's act; think that he was a generous enthusiast who in an outburst
of long chafing indignation at his country's condition wanted to strike
a blow at a tyrannical monarchy, and was willing to give his own life
in exchange for the tyrant's; or better than this, reserve your
judgment, and say that you know not the man nor his personal condition,
nor the special external conditions that prompted him; and that without
such knowledge he cannot be judged. But whatever you think of Morral,
pray why was Ferrer arrested and the Modern School of Barcelona closed?
Why was he thrown in prison and kept there for more than a year? Why was
it sought to railroad him before a Court Martial, and that attempt
failing, the civil trial postponed for all that time?
=Why? Why?=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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