The century of ColumbusWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
The century of Columbus
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Renaissance
Perhaps the most interesting feature of Spanish-American development
of education is the fact that its first landmark is a school for the
education of Indians. Not a few of the Spaniards who came to Mexico in
the first half of the sixteenth century had enjoyed the advantage of a
university education. As their children grew up they felt like sending
them back to Spain for university education, and many were {279} so
sent. The need for the education of the Indians was recognized early,
however, and in 1535 the College of Santa Cruz in Tlaltelolco, the
quarter of the City of Mexico reserved for the Indians, was founded
under the patronage of Bishop Zumarata. Among the faculty were, as
might be expected, graduates not only of Salamanca, the great Spanish
university of the time, but also of the University of Paris, which was
at this period the leading university of the world. It is interesting
to realize that these professors did not consider that they were
fulfilling their whole duty by teaching alone, but also devoted
themselves faithfully to what many have come to look upon apparently
as a modern development of university life, the duty of investigating
and writing. This is the real index of the vitality of a university
and the sincerity of its professors. Among the teachers of Santa Cruz
were such eminent scholars as Bernardino de Sahagun, the founder of
American anthropology, and Juan de Torquemada, himself a graduate of a
Mexican college, whose _"Monarquia Indiana"_ is a great storehouse of
facts concerning Mexico before the coming of the whites, containing
many precious details with regard to Mexican antiquity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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