Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Juana Manso (1819-75)


We,educators, are not utopian. We know that social levelling is impossible, since money will always divide men into classes’
Juana Manso (1819-75)was born in Agentina and as an educator she had two main concerns: that education in all its dimensions should reach women (and vice versa) and that it should not to be dogmatic Catholic education.
She was the initiator of a movement for coeducation as a method based on the recognition of equality between men and women. Also, she was one of the first women concerned about children’s rights.
Schools with progressive methodologies
. Manso complained that in Argentina the teaching profession was exercised in a humiliating fashion. Because of that, she sent to the Legislature of the Province of Buenos Aires a bill for an Organic Law for Common Education in which she asked for professionalism, appropriate salaries with periodic increases, and so on.
She proposed educating children in keeping with their nature. To do so, she proposed dividing childhood into four periods: the first, attention and observation; the second, attention and comparison; the third period for exercising memory; and the last one for applying the imagination.
Maria Montessori once said ’teaching through the paths of joy and love makes learning enjoyable.’ Juana did believe in that saying and she also, as Montessori did, encouraged teaching through play.
She was buried in the English cemetery. Friar Junior proposed the following epitaph: ‘Here lies an Argentine woman who, in the midst of the night of indifference that enveloped the country, preferred to be buried among foreigners rather than defile the sanctuary of her conscience
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1 comment:

Pat Maceda said...

Juana is considered to be among the first feminist women of our country. As you very well state here, she worked for the professionalization of our carreer, something we are still working for today. And not only in our country, as you can see in the poem suggested by Lorena within Rosario Vera Peñaloza's entry. Thanks a lot for your contribution.

Greetings,
Pat