L'Educació a Mallorca a l'època de la Guerra Civil: els canvis a la cultura escolar = Education in Mallorca during the Spanish Civil War: Changes in the Conception of School Education

Abstract

In Mallorca, the coup d'état to overthrow the 2nd Republic that sparked off the Civil War triumphed right from the very outset. During the Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, Mallorca did not see any major fighting. Thanks to this relative tranquillity, the authorities that had backed the coup were able to introduce the necessary reforms to bring about the proposed change of regime: reforms that were gradually applied to Spain's occupied territories as the war advanced. In this paper, an analysis is made of these changes, paying special attention to the desire to modify school education so as to eliminate Republican civic values and replace them with the most reactionary of totalitarian, militaristic and Catholic values. Right from the very beginning, teachers were particularly subject to strong repression and they were forced to undergo controls by a cleansing committee created a few months after the Civil War broke out. This committee proposed that disciplinary measures should be taken against many teachers. At the same time, steps were swiftly taken to radically redirect all teaching to comply with the ideological principles of the new governing authorities. Any sign of the educational reforms of the previous period was pursued and suppressed and a traditional educational model was imposed, based on the principles of authority, obedience and discipline. The educational measures taken by the new authorities were intended to bring about a total change in school life. The curriculum was amended to introduce Catholicism as a compulsory subject and teachers were forced to organize religious acts in schools. The syllabuses of subjects were altered to introduce the ideals on which Catholic-nationalist discourse and the totalitarian ideology were based. Spectacular religious demonstrations were organized which all schools were forced to attend. The education centres were forced to display religious and patriotic symbols. School activities were controlled to avoid any kind of free or spontaneous activity by girls or boys, and games and free time were regulated. School life was closely shielded from the outside environment to eliminate anything that might bring the children into contact with critical elements. The use of any language other than Castilian was outlawed and physical education and sporting activities were militarized. New school festivities and celebrations were created to fit in with the new ideology. All these measures were aimed at introducing a change to educational models that went far beyond mere legal reforms to education.