In this unpretentious book Armando Rojas develops for us a not unknown, but on the whole neglected, aspect of Bolívar’s thought and policy—education. The reader will be interested in the documentation showing how Bolívar was besieged by European educators offering their talents and advice. These ranged from the founder of the Lancastrian method and Jeremey Bentham, the latter urging moral and physical education, to a group of French professors, who wanted to emigrate as a group.
Although Bolívar sponsored the introduction of the Lancastrian system, his major interest lay in moral education, combined with physical education. In a final chapter, “Bolívar y el poder moral,’’ the author points out that one of the two agencies proposed by Bolívar to implement this power was devoted to education. His concept of the moral education to be carried out shows its derivation from Rousseau’s Emile, but also bears a striking resemblance to the currently popular concept of education as “conscienticizing.” Essentially descriptive, the work lacks the analysis of the sources of Bolívar’s thought to be found in the work of Luis B. Prieto Figueras, nor does it give us a serious criticism of the Liberator’s philosophy of education. Yet it is a readable and eminently useful addition to our knowledge of the subject.
