During the Modern Age, grammar schools were usually established in the most populated and important towns in Spain. These studies constituted the intermediate education between the first letters and the university. In the province of Extremadura, these schools were mainly established in the municipalities which were the heads of the district, as well as in some villages with more than 300 inhabitants, as established by law: Villa del Campo (370 inhabitants), Santa Marta (400) or Villanueva del Fresno (450). The resource shown here is a fragment of the research carried out by Carmen Solano Macías and Agustín Vivas Moreno (see “source”). The authors rescue a writing by the learned Juan José Alfranca y Castellote, visitor of the Llerena district and oidor of the Royal Court, on the social inconvenience of establishing grammar schools in rural environments. The main reason he argues against the social reproduction strategy that families had to ensure the future of their offspring and their lineage: the introduction of some sons into the clergy. To be ordained as a priest, one first had to study grammar and, later, under the title and patrimony of a chaplaincy or pious work, they reached the state of priesthood. According to Alfranca’s enlightened conception, this phenomenon was harmful to the host people in that it nourished them with unproductive and ignorant individuals.
Collection: Texts
Chronology: XVIII
Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University
Link: https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/Studia_Historica/article/view/shhmo2018402345382/19918
Resource type: Historical source
Format: Extract from research on grammar schools in the province of Extremadura at the end of the 18th century.
Source: Solano Macías, C. y Vivas Moreno, A. (2018). "La enseñanza de gramática en España a finales del siglo XVIII: el caso de la provincia de Extremadura", en Studia Historica, vol. 40, nº 2, p. 376.
Language: Spanish
Date: 2018
Owner: Pablo Ballesta Fernández (Modernalia)
Copyright: ©Studia Historica ©Carmen Solano Macías ©Agustín Vivas Moreno
Abstract: Fragment reflecting the Enlightenment idea of educating the people, where, to this end, the creation of grammar schools in the rural world, which would serve as a source of training for poor and ignorant clerics, unproductive for society, should be prohibited
Image
Tags
CleroeclesiásticosEducaciónEnseñanzaEscuelas de GramáticaEstudiosFuentes primariasFuentes secundariasIlustraciónInstitutosMundo RuralPensamiento ilustradoProvincia de ExtremaduraReproducción socialSiglo XVIII
