Some phases of educational progress in Latin AmericaMontgomery, Walter A. (Walter Alexander)
History
Some phases of educational progress in Latin America
Montgomery, Walter A. (Walter Alexander)
Education -- Latin America
On the side of administration the peculiar question for Argentina,
the land of great distances and many climates and productions, was
whether the best organization for secondary instruction was the
concentration of power in the hands of a council or of the minister of
public instruction, or more or less complete autonomy to be granted
to the individual institution. In either case the fixed principle was
to be accepted that the universities were directly concerned in the
discipline and studies of the students they were to receive, and that
they should therefore have the right of intervening in matters of
organization and studies of the colegios.
A just decentralization of the colegios could be easily realized and
would bring such beneficial results as: (1) More direct and immediate
action of the authorities; (2) closer articulation of the colegios
with the universities in the matter of studies for preparation for the
latter; (3) formation of intellectual groups that would be encouraged
to take root permanently in the Provinces, thus avoiding the wholesale
migration of the directing classes to the capital; (4) ease of reform,
as contrasted with the present system, wherein every change in the
program of studies was a disturbance whose utility was not always
certain; (5) the best selection, so far as possible, of the personal
directive staff of the colegios, as the men in higher education would
be familiar with the problems of secondary instruction; (6) economy of
administrative expense; (7) the possibility of transforming certain
of the colegios into schools of arts, trades, and industries in which
general instruction, continuing the primary, might be combined with
the special and technical preparation so much needed for the material
well-being of the several regions of the Republic.
In the projected law of public instruction, introduced in August, 1918,
it is provided that all matters relating to secondary education shall
be under the authority of the national universities, with full power to
regulate content of courses, curricula, etc. This is manifestly a step
suggested by the traditional system of Spain, in which the standard
secondary schools (_institutos_) are arranged according to university
districts and are governed by university rector and council. Its wisdom
and advisability for a country of the Western Hemisphere have been
variously considered.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
By the projected law of August, 1918, a National Board of Technical
Education is to be established to ascertain the progress of this branch
of education in other countries, to adapt whatever may be possible to
the conditions and needs of Argentina, to foster technical instruction
in the national schools, and to keep in touch with its progress
throughout the world.
NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING.
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