This volume is part of an on-going series called the interuniversity project Hacia una historia de la práctica pedagógica en Colombia, from which two previous works have emerged: Pedagógica e historia, by Olga Lucía Zuluaga, and Pedagógica católica y escuela activa en Colombia (1900-1935), by Humberto Quiceno. In the present study, Echeverry S. draws upon ideas derived from Zuluaga for part of his theoretical analysis. Among other things, he attempts to distinguish between education in theory (laws and decrees which formally enunciate policy) and education in practice (how people try to implement, modify, or counteract those laws and decrees). After documenting many variations in both theory and practice during the 1820s-30s, the author concludes that there were no predictable distinctions between competing factions in the substance of their educational proposals, but that there were irreconcilable differences in their moral principles.
Immediately after the war for independence, there was general agreement that education held the key to Colombia’s progress and prosperity. Instructional programs attributed to Francisco de Paula Santander and his supporters were aimed at a democratic restructuring of society. These policies are criticized, however, for their secularism, bureaucratic centralization, state-prescribed curriculum, and anti-Catholic philosophy. This work is most often interesting for its discussion of different sources of opposition to the official plans, especially those originating outside the environs of the capital city. It stresses the philosophical weaknesses of the Santander programs. At the same time, considerable attention is given to the fact that the plans were never fully implemented.
The study makes use of a variety of public documents, newspapers, and memoirs, but the tone in which it is written makes it hard to resist describing it as a caricature of a struggle between good and evil. In broad strokes, it portrays the villains as those who supported the Plan of Studies of 1826 and the proposed reforms known as the Code of 1834. They included Santander, his followers, disciples of Jeremy Bentham, and Masons. Their ill-conceived efforts to reform society were resisted by local authorities, the church, and heads of families. These heroes and Colombia were saved by Mariano Ospina and his Plan of Studies adopted in 1842. Morality triumphed over immorality! Unfortunately, this work stops short of analyzing the 1842 plan in the same way that it does those which preceded it, and readers must draw their own conclusions about the accuracy of the portrait painted.
