Learning to read, write and count: free teaching of first letters in Palencia (18th-19th Centuries)

Abstract

The Age of Enlightenment is traditionally identified as the starting point for free primary education. As a consequence of the new postulates, the authorities began to become aware that, in order to generate productive wealth for the nation, it was necessary to have a mass of minimally literate inhabitants who knew at least how to read and write. In this way, free primary schools began to emerge throughout Spain, financed through the funds of their own. Starting from this context, in this article, we propose to analyze the history of the "Municipal School" of Palencia from its inception, in 1767, to the year 1825, through the memorials and petitions that have been collected in the books of the chapter minutes of the city council. A perfectly preserved documentary series that allows us to know, beyond the internal regulations of the educational center, the identity of those who held the master's degree, the evolution of the agreed stipends, the attempts at educational reform undertaken, the popularity of its classrooms, the complaints and dissatisfactions arising from the bad behavior of children and even the abuses committed by teachers.